Tough winter for U.K.

Press, 22 November 1980, Page 8

Tough winter for U.K.

NZPA-Reuter London Britain's Conservative Government, facing a bleak winter of recession and disputes over its economic policy, yesterday outlined an austere legislative programme at the State opening of Parliament. The Queen delivered the traditional Speech from the Throne. The most glittering of State occasions, it contrasted with the gloom of a recession which has closed steel, textile, chemical and other plants throughout Britain, caused many small shops and businesses to put up their shutters, and resulted in a record two million unemployed, or 8.4 per cent of the work force. , The Queen’s speech raised no hopes that Mrs Thatcher would soon soften her mone-i

tary policy of curbs on spending and borrowing and it presaged more severe cuts in public spending. ■ The Conservative Party has dropped sharply in public esteem, falling behind the (Labour Party in popularity. I A major opinion poll has • put the Opposition a clear jlO points ahead of the iTories. But the Gallup poll, one of the regular series commissioned by the “Daily Telegraph” newspaper, re-, ported that the public was still uncertain about Michael Foot, Labour’s new leader. Asked their voting intentions “if an election was held tomorrow,” 47 per cent of the representative national survey said they would back Labour, 30.5 per cent Conservative, and 15 per cent Liberal.

The gap between the two

main parties is thought to be the biggest since the May, 1979, General Election which, brought the Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret I Thatcher) and her party to ■ power. | Last month the Labour Head was only 3 per cent. | The poll found that Mr Foot’s election to the Labour leadership in place of the former Prime Minister, James Callaghan had been seen by the public as a discernible shift to the Left by Labour. Mr Foot got the support of less than 40 per cent as a likely “good leader,” the same proportion who thought he would prove a bad Opposition leader. Mrs ' Thatcher was attacked in the House of Commons yesterday by Mr Foot after the Speech from the Throne.