Attack on ‘Thatcher power’

Press, 22 May 1987, Page 8

Attack on ‘Thatcher power’

By

CLAUDIA RADER

of Reuters NZPA Bristol The British Liberal Party leader, David Steel, launched a passionate attack on the “greed and authoritarianism” of the Conservative Government as support for the LiberalSocial Democrat Alliance dwindled with elections only three weeks away. Campaigning in the town of Cheltenham, Mr Steel said that returning the Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, for a record third consecutive term in the JuneTl Election would be a disaster of “historic magnitude”. “The harsh reality which lies just below the

surface of the smooth words and advertising slogans ... (is the) rock of greed, authoritarianism and intolerance,” he said in his first major speech of the campaign.

“What is Thatcher power? The power to exploit and manipulate, the power to rise by trampling on the hopes and aspirations of those less privileged.”

Mr Steel’s attack came as a new opinion poll showed Alliance support dwindling to just 23 per cent, a seven-point drop from a week ago when it had edged into second place ahead of the opposition Labour Party.

The Gallup poll conducted earlier this week and published in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper showed the Conservatives retaining a comfortable nine-point lead over Labour, with 42 per cent support against 33 per cent. If repeated on polling

day, this would give the Government a 56-seat majority in the 650-mem-ber House of Commons, down from its current 140-seat margin. The results — in line with other recent polls — were a marked drop from the surge in Alliance support after it won two by-elec-tions earlier this year.

But Alliance performance in the 1983 general elections, when it gained seven points over the three-week campaign to nearly 26 per cent, suggests that it could still

recover as the campaign progresses. The Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, campaigning in the northern industrial city of Manchester, attacked the Government’s poor record on unemployment and accused Mrs Thatcher of a “complete betrayal” of the country’s three million jobless. Unemployment, which has trebled since Mrs Thatcher took power in 1979, was sapping confidence and costing Britain £2l billion (SNZ6O billion) a year in welfare benefits, Mr Kinnock said. Labour has promised to create one million jobs in two years with money gained by reversing a two per cent tax cut introduced by the Government in March. The Alliance has also promised to cut unemployment queues by as much in three years through employer incentives, job creation in the health and construction sectors and better training for the long-term jobless.