Word: backbencher
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...ethical bounds. It touched off a furious row in Britain's Parliament, where a formal inquiry was launched into how the government could have let itself be used by an American highflyer at such cost to its treasury. Protested Sir William Clark, chairman of the Conservative Party's backbench finance committee: "This is absolutely monstrous; it shows that to pump public money into businesses merely to create jobs can be disastrous...
Last year's budget was rated the most unpopular in 30 years, so Howe had only to be fairly moderate and evenhanded to come out ahead. In fact, his modest proposal for a $2.35 billion expansion of the economy managed to win approval from business leaders and even backbench conservatives who have been critical of Thatcher's harsh economic policies. "This will be a budget for industry, and so a budget for jobs," Howe declared in his address to the Commons. "But it will be a budget for people as well...