World Notes Britain

It was the fight of her political life. "The Prime Minister is on trial," thundered Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock. Facing a packed and unusually hostile House of Commons, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher last week set out to convince Britons that she had told the truth about her role in the "Westland affair," a complicated brouhaha over the future of a British helicopter company that had already brought down two of her Cabinet ministers. Her voice sometimes quavering and cracking, she meticulously presented her case. "Doubtless," she admitted, "there were a number of matters which could have been handled better, and this I regret." At one point, she attributed her troubles to "a genuine difference in understanding between officials." "Resign!" shouted opposition M.P.s. "Get on with it!"

In the end, the cheers drowned out the jeers. Thatcher finished up with a triumphant attack on the divided Labor Party. It was a bravura performance, and she easily won the subsequent vote of confidence, 379-219, a victory that the government hoped would finish the affair. Not everyone was convinced. A Harris poll taken afterward showed that only 29% of British voters believed she had told the whole truth.