Word: heaths
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Though he had more or less pooh-poohed Edward Heath's prophecies of economic doom during the election campaign, Prime Minister Harold Wilson managed to sound almost like an echo of his defeated Conservative opponent last week. Wilson told Britons that they "cannot look forward over the next two years or more to any general increase in living standards." He had derided Heath's call for a government of national unity to fight recession and inflation, but now after his fourth national victory, Wilson repeated Heath's appeal for national solidarity in Britain's "gravest crisis...
Twinge of Irritation. Politics being politics, no one was going to accuse Wilson of outright plagiarism. But Heath, whose own days as Conservative leader are clearly numbered, must have felt a small twinge of irritation when the Prime Minister, who had campaigned as an unabashed socialist, announced that his new Labor government would act quickly to ease the serious cash shortages of British industry. Wilson even issued a mild warning to his union supporters that they would be allowed no more than their fair share of Britain's ever shrinking economic...
...complete the reversal of roles, there was the spectacle of open warfare in the Conservative Party, which prides itself on its public unity compared with the near brawling of the Labor Party. While Wilson, 58, has won more elections than any Prime Minister since William Gladstone, Heath, 58, has now lost more than any Tory party leader since Arthur Balfour. Almost all Conservatives agreed that after four years as Prime Minister and three defeats, Heath must go-but no one was sure when or how. "The sad truth is that Ted is now a spent force in political terms," said...
Pack of Contenders. The Conservatives used to replace an unpopular leader behind the privacy of mahogany doors with a gentlemanly turn of the knife and a three-star brandy to stanch the wound. But Heath was the first leader chosen by a vote under the 1965 reform rules, and no one at the time bothered to determine how he could be ousted. "I'm afraid my system wasn't all that well thought out," said Humphrey Berkeley, who drew up the rules. "It allows someone like Ted Heath, if he's stubborn enough, to be a life...
According to his intimates, Heath was actually ready to step down in favor of his friend, Party Chairman William Whitelaw, 56, who won a measure of fame as a skillful negotiator between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Heath's delay in announcing his intention, however, allowed opposition to build and a whole pack of new contenders to emerge, including Sir Keith Joseph, shadow Home Secretary; Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, the shadow cabinet's spokeswoman on housing and environment; and Edward du Cann, a former party chairman. With the prospect of an internal power struggle erupting, Heath changed...