Under Fire

Harsh words among the Tories

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAGGIE! read the 80-ft. banner towed across the gray skies by a small biplane piloted by a fervent Tory supporter. Inside the rococo Winter Gardens ballroom at the seaside resort of Blackpool, the 4,000 delegates to the annual Conservative Party conference last week joined in song and cheers as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a self-assured 56, uncorked a bottle of champagne and cut the birthday cake. Exuding confidence, Thatcher picked up on the theme she had stated briskly on her arrival earlier in the day: "All is well. All is very well."

Very little, in fact, was well. As her government reaches the midterm mark, Maggie Thatcher is under fire from virtually every direction. Her bold experiment to turn Britain's sluggish economy around by applying relentlessly monetarist policies has produced staggering 12% unemployment and a host of other alarming statistics. Her approval rating has dropped to 28%, a near-record low for any British Prime Minister. Worried over the prospect of running for re-election on the government's dismal record, a number of Tory backbenchers and some senior party members are openly revolting against her policies and questioning her leadership. In a broadside from the Establishment, the Times of London noted that inflation, unemployment, industrial production, interest rates and public spending were all worse now than when the Tories came to power in 1979. Concluded the Times: "Whatever the merits of this government, it has lost popular support."

The debate over Thatcher's economic policies and the cold, uncaring image she presents have thoroughly unsettled her own party. The division and rancor that broke into the open at Blackpool were a harsh departure from traditional Tory civility. When Thatcher's Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, put forth a relatively mild motion on law-and-order, it was hooted down. Observed Political Commentator Peter Jenkins in the Guardian: "Beneath the incantations of the simple Thatcherite faith is a nasty tone of class grievance and sullen nationalism."

The attack on Thatcher's economics was led by former Prime Minister Edward Heath, who has never forgiven her for the humiliation she inflicted on him when she defeated him as party leader in 1975. Heath insisted that there was an alternative to monetarism: selective reflation and membership in the European Monetary System. Calling the unemployment rate "morally unjustified," he warned that similar disregard for working people in the 1930s had led to dictatorship and war in Europe. "We have now reached the most critical point in the

Conservative Party in the past 60 or 70 years," he said.

Heath's blast was echoed by 13 fresh men Tory M.P.s who are known as the "Blue Chips" because of their predominantly aristocratic backgrounds. They distributed a pamphlet titled Changing Gear: What the Government Should Do Next, in which they called for a watering down of Thatcher's monetarism. Far more ominous for the Prime Minister was the lineup of Establishment Tories who are now decrying her economic policies and lack of compassion. Calling monetarism "the uncontrollable in pursuit of the indefinable," Sir Ian Gilmour, who was Deputy Foreign Secretary until Thatcher purged her Cabinet of dissidents last month, bleakly forecast that if Thatcher's policies are not changed "we can say goodbye to the British economy."

Still, Thatcher rode out the storm, firmly in control of the rank-and-file delegates, many of whom would like to see her act even tougher than she has. "I will not change just to court popularity," she declared in a stirring speech at the end of the conference, throwing down the gauntlet. "There are those who say our nation no longer has the stomach for the fight. I think I know our people. They do!" Her exhortation brought the delegates to their feet, cheering, clapping, roaring their approval.

She had carried the conference, but the battle was far from over. Continued misgivings could be read on the faces of several senior ministers, who saw Black pool as further polarizing British politics, thus benefiting the budding centrist alli ance of Liberals and Social Democrats.

Privately the ministers intimated that if there is no discernible economic improve ment by spring, Thatcher will have to change her tack or face several senior Cabinet resignations. That could well spell the end of her prime ministership.

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