Bending the Iron Lady

...A recent poll found that only 27 per cent of the British electorate are satisfied with the performance of the Iron Lady of Downing Street...

...Small volcanoes of dissent have begun erupting in the party with a frequency that must be upsetting to her...

...That is not to say there are fundamental differences between the Prime Minister and her Cabinet...

...ministers were left to get on with nuts and bolts of implementation and administration...

...Indeed, there are signs of growing public uneasiness at the continuing sell-off of industries nationalized by Labor governments after World War II...

...But if the Iron Lady is suffering signs of metal fatigue, she shows no sign of giving ground...

...Britain's extensive social welfare programs are under severe strain...

...Soon word spread that the Prime Minister saw the wisdom of his warning and was distancing herself from tough-talking Tebbit...

...To block momentum of a possible campaign within the Tory Party to evict her from Number 10 Downing Street, Thatcher served notice some months ago that she definitely intends to run for re-election when her current term is up in about two years—or sooner, if she chooses to dissolve Parliament at an earlier date...

...His urgings that the Tories tone down their rhetoric, however, drew support from other elements in the party...

...At the moment that rift is healed, or so it seems...

...Generally orderly despite their barbaric explosions of soccer violence, the British tend to be easier to govern than most other peoples...

...The New Leader's regular London correspondent, is the author most recently of Scramble: A N a r-rative History of the Battle of Britain...

...As for those findings of public opinion pollsters, the Tories make the valid point that opposition political movements are already haunting the campaign trail, whereas the Conservative Party has not yet really begun preparing for the next election...

...Margaret Thatcher's tribulations should not be surprising...

...Although such polls have in the past sometimes proved wide of the mark when matched against election results, Thatcher certainly has much to worry about...

...They probably will not do so until early next year...

...Many individuals have taken advantage of well publicized promotions and favorable terms to buy shares in denationalized British Telecom and Britoil, but it appears that the bulk of the stock in these and other newly privatized operations have been cornered by large commercial investment interests...

...Its balance of trade is going into serious deficit, putting the pound under sustained pressure despite the substantial "invisible" foreign earnings by the City of London's sophisticated financial operations...

...arouses much enthusiasm in the country that spawned Adam Smith...

...In public she exudes confidence...

...Yetshehas been taken down a notch or two in a way that appeared improbable only last year...

...THE TORIES SPEAK UP Bending the Iron Lady BY NORMAN GELB London If, in the words of Richard Nixon, the tough get going when the going gets tough, Margaret Thatcher is about to swing into action...

...Sagging North Sea oil prices mean that Tory plans for tax cuts to stimulate the economy are likely to be postponed, if not canceled altogether...

...This was an unmistakable reference to the abrasiveness of Tory Party chairman and Thatcher loyalist Norman Tebbit...

...As her problems have multiplied, Thatcher has been unable to seek comfort and reassurance in wholehearted support from her fellow Conservatives...

...No whisper of despair about the ability of the Tories to solve Britain's problems or expression of concern about her own political future ever crosses her lips...

...Evensome ofher ministers, men like Energy Secretary Peter Walker and Minister of Education and Science Kenneth Baker, take occasional exception in public to things she says...

...And party Chairman Tebbit's role is being redefined...

...But Biffen was discreetly informed that he was stepping out of line and, just as discreetly, he backed away from any further hassle...

...She is no longer the undisputed "lord" of the manor...

...That won't be easy...

...While she was insisting that sanctions against South Africa would be ineffective, LeonBrittan, herformer trade minister and once widely considered the Prime Minister's toady, was proclaiming that sanctions are essential...

...No one doubts that she is a formidable battler, and there is no question that she now faces an uphill political struggle...

...We can therefore expect her to try to put her house in order as the long summer recess ends and party politics resume in earnest with the arrival of the chill autumn rains...

...It will have to be if Thatcher hopes to win a third term in the much troubled Britain she presides over...

...In fact, the tiff between the Prime Minister and Chairman Tebbit is understood to have been partly about how the campaign should be run and, more specifically, what type of high-powered public relations outfit should beengaged to help—one that would be out for the opposition's blood, or one that would preach sweetness and light in these scep-tered isles...

...Thatcher, who is both a scientist (chemistry) and a lawyer by training, is known to abhor confusion...

...Interest rates in Britain remain discour-agingly high...

...In contrast to Britain's tradition of letting the ministers heading the various departments play key roles in formulating policy, she ran the whole show aided by a few loyalist subordinates— principally Tebbit and Brittan, her political guru Sir Keith Joseph, and the then party Chairman Cecil Parkinson...

...Britain's lowest income tax rate at present is the same as America's highest would be if the tax reform legislation under consideration in Congress is passed...

...Basic policy flowed from Downing Street...

...Former Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine appears to have failed in his attempt to stake out a credible claim to replace Thatcher when he tangled furiously with her before resigning early this year over whether a British helicopter producer should link up with an American or European company (see "HighTech Fallout in Britain," NL, January 27...

...Still, not a few Tories say Heseltine was right to call subsequently for "an altogether more dynamic" government approach than has so far been provided to revitalizing British industry...

...A remarkable transformation has taken place in the government of late...

...Junior Tory politicians also feel free to challenge Thatcher on subj ects ranging from education policy to the projected tunnel under the English Channel, and to clash on television among themselves about her positions...

...The country's unemployment level, one of the highest in the industrial world, seems set to rise rather than recede...

...Nonetheless, Thatcher has been prime minister for more than seven years, and under the best of circumstances that is a long time in Britain for any party or political philosophy to hold the imagination and keep the support of either the electorate or the political Establishment...

...Pundits looking for furrows in her brow have as little chance of seeing any as they have of catching a hair out of place in her coiffure...

...A little while back, Parkinson was eliminated from the Thatcher entourage because of a paternity scandal involving his secretary...

...Serious cracks have been detected in the structure of secondary and higher education, evoking Cassandra warnings about the nation's future, and funds are not available to seal those cracks adequately...

...With the Thatcher entourage decimated, the Cabinet, consisting now mostly of independent personalities, is again formulating policies...

...Brittan was a casualty of the Prime Minister's helicopter clash with mutineer Heseltine...

...Coming, as itdid, shortly after the renegade Heseltine had called for the introduction of "caring capitalism" in Britain, many wondered whether the Heseltine insurrection against Thatcherism had, in fact, taken root in the party's upper echelons...

...Sir Keith Joseph, who is getting on in years and is much too gentle a man to long endure the rough-and-tumble of today's politics, has retired...

...Whatever the decision, there can be no doubt the Tory election drive will be meticulously prepared, comprehensively organized and skillfully handled...

...The free enterprise ethic no longer Norman Gelb...

...It's getting confusing...

...Thatcher took office in 1979, she dominated her Cabinet like no previous prime minister...

...The Prime Minister's hopes of ensuring Tory rule by turning her compatriots into capitalists one and all are not being fulfilled either...

...When Mrs...

...Not long ago John Biffen, the low-profile leader of the House of Commons (in effect, the Tory parliamentary floor manager), criticized "the language of conflict" and the "raucous" style that currently characterizes political campaigning here...