A Choice, Not an Echo

The rival messages: Jobs and Trust vs. Tax Cuts and Freedom

Many of Britain's 35 million voters agree that the May 3 general election could be the country's most significant since World War II. If nothing else, the electorate will be presented with a clear choice, not an echo. Labor's standard-bearer is avuncular James Callaghan, 67, a soothingly familiar leader of his party with a simple message: jobs and trust. His Tory opponent is Margaret Thatcher, 53, determined to become not only Britain's first woman Prime Minister but a rigorously conservative one as well. Her message to the voters was equally plain and concise: tax cuts and freedom.

With his party trailing the Tories by margins of 6% to 21% in the early polls, Callaghan fired the first salvo of the campaign in Glasgow, a traditional Labor fiefdom in Scotland's troubled industrial heartland. Claiming that his Labor government had "directly created and protected" 1.2 million jobs, he declared: "There is not a single part of the United Kingdom that would not suffer from the Conservative policy of cutting the jobs program. They would turn Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and many regions of England into deserts of unemployment."

In barnstorming the country with his folksy "Sunny Jim" image, Callaghan conveyed a sense of confidence that could not have been more than smile-deep. A disastrous winter of crippling strikes robbed Callaghan of what could have been his strongest campaign weapon: Labor's ability to work smoothly with Britain's powerful trade unions. Beyond that, many voters were well aware that Callaghan was saddled with a compromise manifesto, or platform, that had been hammered out between the party's moderates and its disproportionately influential left wing. Callaghan had held out for a program that would not frighten away crucial swing-voters that both Labor and the Tories need in order to win office. A tough and shrewd infighter, he made it plain at one point that the choice was between him and the left's proposals. Callaghan won, but not before Eric Heffer, a leading member of the left-wing Tribune Group, grumbled, "Jim, you're not God, you know. I'm not even sure you're a socialist."

The approved draft of the manifesto proposes a cut in income tax but a new "wealth tax" on the affluent, increased spending on health and social services, a proportional reduction in defense outlays, and an end to the power of the House of Lords, which is overwhelmingly Tory, to delay legislation.

Carefully guarding their lead in the polls, Thatcher's Tories did not begin their official campaigning until this week. The decision to hold back was part of a Conservative strategy to put Labor out front, thereby denying Callaghan the opportunity to attack Thatcher policies by forcing him to defend his own record as Prime Minister for the past three years. There was also fear among Tory tacticians that Thatcher might fall back into her earlier habit of making provocative statements, thus committing a campaign gaffe that could cost the Tories their lead.

As a personality, Thatcher poses a problem for Labor. Drawing on his own reassuring image, Callaghan makes the most of Thatcher's radical brand of conservatism, her inexperience in foreign affairs and her hard line on the unions. So far, he does not mention her by name, and he has warned his aides against any personal attacks for fear of a backlash. Women make up more than half of the electorate, and polls show that more women vote Conservative than vote Labor. Somewhat surprisingly, working-class women tend to favor Thatcher more than middle-class women do, and the Tory leader can discuss supermarket prices with a housewife's familiarity. Nevertheless, Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey last week could not resist a quip about former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath's all-out efforts in the campaign. Said he: "It is the first time that the Ancient Mariner has ever gone to the aid of the albatross."

Unruffled as ever, Thatcher introduced the Conservative manifesto at her first open press conference for both the British and foreign press. She presented and defended a document that promised income tax cuts at all levels, a curb on secondary picketing, secret ballots in union elections, cuts in government spending except for defense and the police, a stop to further nationalization, and an end to government interference in wage negotiations in private industry. The Tories also called for a change in British policy toward Rhodesia, which would bring a Thatcher government into confrontation with the Carter Administration. Although the U.S. and Britain refused to send official observers to this month's elections in Rhodesia, the Tories sent their own. If, in their view, the elections are "reasonably fair and free," the Conservatives may recognize an independent Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, and propose an end to current United Nations sanctions -- against the breakaway British colony.

To Thatcher, the campaign is a crusade for a free economy and greater individual responsibility; Callaghan sees it as a choice between a caring society and a callous one. The Liberals and the minor parties are, for the moment, on the sidelines. The British will be spared a television onslaught, since both major parties will be allowed a total of 50 minutes each throughout the campaign for party broadcasts. Still, Labor delights in poking fun at the glossy publicity campaign mounted by the Tories and their trendy London advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi Garland-Compton Ltd. Says Callaghan: "I don't intend to end this campaign packaged like cornflakes. I shall continue to be myself." Margaret Thatcher, apparently, would rather be Prime Minister.

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