Word: thatcherism
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...bucolic electoral district of Brecon and Radnor (48,000 registered voters), situated on the eastern boundary of Wales, would appear an unlikely place for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government to take a tumble. In the 1983 general election, the Tories carried the district, which comprises mainly small beef and sheep farmers, by almost 9,000 votes. But in a by-election reversal last week, Brecon and Radnor voters handed the government a stunning defeat. Conservative Christopher Butler finished last among the three major candidates with a dismal 27.6% of the vote. Butler's total of 10,631 votes...
...Conservative failure is quite out of proportion with what one would expect from just midterm blues." Also, because the Brecon and Radnor vote was only the eighth by-election since the 1983 Conservative landslide, it provided a rare opportunity for voters to express their opinion of the Thatcher government. Liberal Party canvassers found that the overriding issue was Thatcher's aggressive style and personality. "We kept hearing, 'It's that woman. We don't like that woman,' " Dumsday said...
...defeat will increase pressure on Thatcher from moderate Tories, known as the "wets," to respond to Britain's 13.4% unemployment rate with stepped- up spending for public-sector jobs. The dissident Conservatives, including ex-Foreign Secretary Francis Pym, fear that unless the Prime Minister shows more compassion about unemployment, the centrist alliance between the Liberal and Social Democratic parties will continue to erode Tory support...
...members of his shadow cabinet and 150 Labor M.P.s, called his party's "magnificent" second-place finish "another step on the road to becoming the next government." For the time being, at least, that remains wishful thinking on Kinnock's part. Despite the loss in Brecon and Radnor, Thatcher retains a 140-vote majority in Britain's 650-member House of Commons, and does not have to call a general election until June...
...overwhelming majority of delegates also demonstrated the resentment many miners feel toward Prime Minister Thatcher's Conservative government and the National Coal Board. They approved a motion to congratulate the leadership for its handling of the disastrous strike and made a rule change enabling Scargill to remain president of the N.U.M. for life. British Energy Secretary Peter Walker has condemned the union's actions, warning that "every miner who values the freedom this country offers and has no desire to turn Britain into a Communist state should recognize what the mineworkers' conference is all about...