Word: thatchers
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Still, beneath the well-orchestrated harmony and smooth avoidance of controversial votes, pressures were mounting on Thatcher to soften her rigid monetarism as Britain slips deeper into recession. After 17 months in office, the Thatcher government's economic policies were being sharply attacked, not just by trade-union leaders but by industrial managers as well...
Opposition to Thatcher's policies had been growing steadily-until the Labor Party conference. Before, every major poll showed Labor leading the Tories by ten to eleven points. Afterward, a Gallup poll indicated Labor's lead had dropped to three points in reaction to the bitter fracas. Tory analysts take this to be only a temporary reprieve. Says M.P. Peter Tapsell, a respected Tory backbencher: "We will make a bad mistake if we assume that Labor's shambles at Blackpool guarantee us victory at the next general election [in 1984]. Electorates turn out governments, not oppositions...
...barnlike Brighton Center on the famous old seafront, Thatcher was cheered ecstatically by the 5,000 delegates, as Tory left and right put aside their differences. The right, if it held sway, would have her cut public spending much more severely. The government has already cut nearly $20 billion from public spending and is planning to bite deeply again next year. Sir Raymond Pennock, spokesman for the Confederation of British Industry, argued in a long meeting with Thatcher that "industry has got itself efficient. It has shouldered massive reduction in jobs. Government must do the same...
...Tory left has never been comfortable with Thatcher's zest for monetarism, meaning the strict regulation of a nation's money supply as the key to economic revival. It is beginning to press for more flexibility and compassion. Employment Secretary James Prior warned the conference against endorsing the harsh anti-union stance favored by some rightist Tories. "It makes no sense," he said, "to act as though we are taking part in the Charge of the Light Brigade...
...closing session, Thatcher was defiant: "We shall not be diverted from our course. To those waiting for a U-turn, I have only this to say. You turn if you want to-the lady's not for turning!" Despite the cheers on both sides of the party, there is anxiety that Thatcher may not be able to turn around the economic woes by election time. Ahead this winter is an unavoidable showdown between the government and public service workers over pay increases that will severely test her policies. If that confrontation goes badly-and some militant union leaders have...