  We describe here a minimal theory of tight binding electrons moving on the
square planar Cu lattice of the hole-doped cuprates and mixed quantum
mechanically with pairs of them (Cooper pairs). Superconductivity occurring at
the transition temperature T_c is the long-range, d-wave symmetry phase
coherence of these Cooper pairs. Fluctuations necessarily associated with
incipient long-range superconducting order have a generic large distance
behaviour near T_c. We calculate the spectral density of electrons coupled to
such Cooper pair fluctuations and show that features observed in Angle Resolved
Photo Emission Spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments on different cuprates above T_c
as a function of doping and temperature emerge naturally in this description.
These include `Fermi arcs' with temperature-dependent length and an antinodal
pseudogap which fills up linearly as the temperature increases towards the
pseudogap temperature. Our results agree quantitatively with experiment. Below
T_c, the effects of nonzero superfluid density and thermal fluctuations are
calculated and compared successfully with some recent ARPES experiments,
especially the observed `bending' or deviation of the superconducting gap from
the canonical d-wave form.

Strongly Correlated Electrons