Word: laboration
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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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...
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...
...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...
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...
...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...