Thatcherism Isn't Working

...Recently she scolded reporters for asking questions about matters of state, as if their presuming to do so was unpatriotic...

...Most Britons, as they used to say, never had it so good...

...An article in the London Times, commenting on an unusually poor performance by the Prime Minister in theHouseof Commons, declared that she seemed "two coupons short of a pop-up toaster," an expression native to the English Midlands used to describe a person who hasn't got all of his or her marbles...

...One politician wryly suggested that their achievement is probably attributable to their shortage of funds...

...Although the Greens came away with an impressive 15 per cent of the vote, their success is likely to prove a flash-inthe-pan...

...It was, however, by far the strongest Opposition performance at the polls in 15 years, and it corroborated recent polls showing Labor more than 10 percentage points ahead of the Tories...

...Alan Watkins, the respected columnist of the Observer, was exaggerating only a little when he told his readers that Thatcher is "going a bit funny," and that her eyes "have assumed a newly manic quality...

...It may take her that long to recover the ground she has lost in publicesteem, assuming she is willing to take the steps to do so...

...Of course, Tory spokesmen assert that it is decidedly premature to forecast Thatcher's political demise...

...On the contrary, it has triggered a bitter row with doctors, and the public is worried that the "reforms" would lead to a decline in the quality and accessibility of health care...

...It is also true that Kinnock has had moments of glory in the past, only to find himself being mangled by renewed fratricidal outbursts in Labor's ranks...

...Its senior figure, Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock, appeared distinctly lightweight, unable to control Labor's voter-unfriendly hard Left and—as public opinion polls testified—unable to persuade the electorate that he was a credible alternative to Thatcher...

...He has acquired an aura of gravitas and purpose...

...The success of the Labor Party in the June elections for the European Parliament confirmed Kinnock's emergence as a contender for the prime ministership...

...Having won a third term in 1987, the Prime Minister teasingly hinted that she might stay around for a fourth...

...As criticism mounts, it is hard to avoid the impression that for the first time since she took office a decade ago, the Prime Minister feels beleaguered and harassed...

...Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher may not have been universally liked here last summer, yet she was without question the most respected political figure in the land...

...The concern that this view of her is shared by such respected heads of state as President François Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl has not helped the Prime Minister either...

...Many Green voters are expected to switch to the Labor camp in the general elections...

...Her attitude toward the European Community has certainly not improved her standing...

...Labor won 40 per cent of that vote, compared with 34 per cent for the Conservatives...

...This confirmed the feeling of most Britons that the close rapport between Thatcher and Ronald Reagan is ancient history, and that West Germany has replaced Britain as America's most important European ally...

...Norman Gelb writes regularly for The New Leader on British affairs...

...Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson once cautioned that a week is a long time in politics...

...Notorious for leaving her ministers none of the leeway on policy matters that is traditional, and incapable of accepting blame herself when things go wrong, Thatcher simply continues to insist there is no cause for worry—when just about every Tory around her knows there bloody well is...

...instead, they seem passé and eccentric...

...The European contest was also marked by a collapse in the strength of the Center parties—the Social and Liberal Democrats and the Social Democratic Party...

...This was not proof positive that the Tories are about to be levered out of power...

...This time, the protest ballots went to the British Green Party...

...A very low turnout, despite a final Conservative campaigning spurt that was capped by an appeal from the Prime Minister herself, further underscored Thatcher's slipping hold on the electorate...

...The Party's hard Left continues to grumble about his alleged betrayal.of Socialist principles, but he has managed to quarantine its prominent personalities from the mainstream of his party...

...That aside, if the Tory government can force down inflation again, it is quite possible that Thatcher will once more appear electable...

...The failure to concede as much made Thatcher appear crotchety and narrow-minded, and probably contributed to the Tory rout in the European elections...

...Not any more, though...

...Fairly or unfairly, these perceptions, too, have tarnished the Prime Minister's image...

...In fact, her sole response to the critics inside and outside the Conservative Party has been a reshuffling of the Cabinet in a manner that has made clear her determination to stay her course...

...And for the first time in her reign, several eminent Tories have dared to publicly criticize her...

...The next general elections are not likely to take place for another two years, and the Prime Minister could delay them until mid-1992...

...With more money to publicize their no-industrial-growth program, he observed, they would have alienated most of those who opted for them...

...That is, of course, not the case at all...

...Kinnock, meanwhile, has abandoned the formerly sacrosanct Labor policy of unilateral disarmament and conceded that, under a Labor government, some of Thatcher's antiunion laws might have to stay on the books...

...No one doubted that she could if she wanted to...

...The Prime Minister has made no apologies...

...But in the meantime the once quite accurate Tory slogan, ttna (There Is No Alternative), no longer applies...

...The Opposition, moreover, was then divided and impotent...

...Apparently unwilling or unable to abide by her image consultants' advice to always sound reasonable and unruffled, she has generally been tense and fractious in public...

...And from the looks of things here now, a year is a veritable eternity...

...Indeed, of late the Iron Lady has often seemed badly in need of a rest...

...The rate of inflation, which Thatcher has long held to be the most important indicator of a robust economy, is higher than in any other major industrial nation—and prices may soar still higher before the summer is out...

...In past elections the Center drew the bulk of its support from voters protesting Thatcher's policies...

...They occasionally admit the European election results were a setback, but hasten to point out that it is customary for midterm contests to go strongly against the party in power, usually even more decisively than these did...

...Reverend John Vincent, head of the British Methodist Church, has more solemnly asserted that Thatcher's policies are a perversion of Christianity...

...Tony Benn, Ken Livingston, Eric Heffer, and their much diminished band of followers are no longer disruptive...

...Other difficulties may prove even more damaging politically for the government...

...Kinnock, dismissed so recently even by many Laborites as "the Welsh Windbag," has become a presence to be taken very seriously...

...Refusing even grudging acknowledgment that British participation is necessary if simply to prevent Eurocrats in Brussels from excessively imposing their will on people here, she gave the impression of believing that the whole concept is a conspiracy against Britain...

...Whatever the Community's shortcomings, Britain is an important member and stands to gain a great deal from belonging...

...Nevertheless, the Prime Minister appears locked in an ideological frenzy to privatize publicly owned utilities, amove that is widely feared because the projected added costs for electricity and water are virtually certain to further fuel the inflationary spiral...

...A proposed far-reaching cost-effective restructuring of the free National Health Service has not been greeted with any greater enthusiasm...

...She got along well with President Bush during his recent visit to London, but it was widely noted that he declined to reaffirm the British-American special relationship...

...She had led the economy out of a long, punishing sojourn in the doldrums, sharply reduced unemployment, and introduced great numbers of people to the concept of owning shares in industry...

...The Tories, with a much weaker stand on the environment than Labor, have largely failed to cope with worsening pollution problems, including the horrific poisoning of some rivers...