TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/121090/1210002.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6.9 KB | 152 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 51

BRITAIN

A Victory of Major Proportions


Thatcherism is alive and well as the Tories pick Maggie's
favorite to succeed her, but the new Prime Minister is likely
to go his own way on Europe

By GUY GARCIA -- Reported by William Mader/London


    It must have been a bittersweet moment for Margaret
Thatcher. Minutes after Britain's Conservative Party announced
that it had chosen her next-door neighbor, Chancellor of the
Exchequer John Major, to succeed her, the ousted Prime Minister
dashed through the connecting door between No. 10 and No. 11
Downing Street to congratulate him. At 47, Major had just
become the youngest man to assume the venerable office since
1894. As a smiling Thatcher watched from a second-floor window
of the Chancellor's official residence, Major emerged to face
the press and pay tribute to his political mentor, calling her
"one of the most remarkable leaders the Conservative Party has
ever had."

    Thatcher said she was "delighted and thrilled" by Major's
succession, adding, "He will be a superb leader of this
country." She had good reason for ebullience. Forced out of
office by her own party the week before, Thatcher saw her
protege chosen as Prime Minister, ensuring that the basic
tenets of Thatcherism would continue to set the national agenda
even after she stepped down.

    Major's victory was also a decisive setback for the
political fortunes of Michael Heseltine, the former Defense
Minister who led the charge against Thatcher and was considered
the top contender for her job after he won 152 votes in the
first round of a party-leadership contest two weeks ago. Warned
that she would lose the second ballot against Heseltine,
Thatcher resigned to allow Major and Foreign Secretary Douglas
Hurd to enter the race.

    The logic of putting both men on the ballot was based on the
assumption that Hurd, a Tory moderate, and Major, a loyal
Thatcherite, could together siphon off more votes from
Heseltine than either man alone. By early last week the
momentum began to swing to Major, who appealed to younger
M.P.s, hard-core Thatcherites, many moderates and right-wingers
who considered Heseltine a traitor for precipitating the worst
party crisis in 15 years. Also working against Heseltine was
the fact that some M.P.s considered the millionaire publisher
too flamboyant to be Prime Minister.

    At the same time, Major, who never attended a university,
benefited from his image as a man of the people who had
overcome his humble origins by dint of hard work and talent.
Soft-spoken and calm, Major offered Tories a perfect compromise
-- a continuation of Thatcher's basic policies without the
drawbacks of her grating style.

    When Tuesday's vote closed at 6 p.m., the M.P.s gathered in
the House of Commons' lobby and awaited the result: Major got
185 votes, Heseltine 131, Hurd 56. As it became clear that
Major had missed a majority by only two votes, a large groan
of frustration rose up. The prospect of a third ballot was too
much to bear after the tension-filled days of the previous
three weeks.

    Shortly after the results were tallied, however, Heseltine
announced that he was conceding victory to Major. Minutes
later, Hurd appeared on the steps of the Foreign Office and
vowed to support Major. With no one left to challenge the front
runner, the party's chieftains concluded that a third round was
unnecessary, and Major was declared the winner.

    Standing in front of 10 Downing Street, Major said he wanted
to "build a society of opportunity," adding, "By that I mean
an open society, a society in which what people fulfill will
depend upon their talent, their application and their good
fortune." Issuing his own call for Tory unity, Major insisted
that "there is no ill feeling at the end of this contest for
the leadership of the Conservative Party."

    Major backed his words with action by including both Hurd
and Heseltine in his Cabinet. Hurd kept his job as Foreign
Secretary, while Heseltine was appointed Environment Secretary.
Ironically, Heseltine's biggest task in his new job will be to
reform the unpopular poll tax that contributed to Thatcher's
downfall. In his campaign to unseat the Prime Minister,
Heseltine said he would tie the tax to individual incomes
rather than assessing a flat rate.

    But it remains to be seen if Major is equally skillful when
it comes to guiding Britain's economic integration with the
European Community. He opposes the imposition of a single
European currency and a series of deadlines that the other
Community members favor. He also rejects a European federation
under one supranational government. Major's talents as a
statesman and negotiator will be put to the test next month at
the 12-member E.C. summit in Rome, where his plan for a
permanent 13th currency that would parallel, but not abolish,
the national currencies will be debated.

    On the domestic front, Major, who has described himself as
an economic conservative and a social liberal, indicated he
will adhere to a tight economic policy. Polls taken in the wake
of the vote showed that if a general election were held now,
the Tories would comfortably beat Labour 49% to 38%. But once
the novelty of change subsides, Major will be under increasing
pressure to ease Britain's 14% interest rate. He must also find
a way to reform the unpopular poll tax and slay the twin
monsters of rising unemployment and inflation in time for the
next general election, which must be called by June 1992.

    Major's victory presents the opposition with considerable
electoral problems, if only because he is not the convenient
target that Thatcher had become. "Labour is significantly and
adversely affected," said Liberal Party leader Paddy Ashdown.
"Now that Mrs. Thatcher is gone, their fox is shot."

    Rattled by their party's bleak prospects, some Labourites
have begun muttering that perhaps leader Neil Kinnock should
be dumped before the next election. His likely replacement
would be shadow chancellor of the exchequer John Smith, a canny
Scot whom the Tories regard as a formidable opponent.
Predictably, the Labour leadership has sought to downplay the
damage. Calling Major "little more than Mrs. Thatcher in a
suit," Kinnock said his victory meant "that the policies that
brought poll tax, recession, heavy mortgages and rising
unemployment will go on."

    The charge was echoed by deputy Labour leader Roy
Hattersley, who claimed that Heseltine, being a Thatcher
outsider, would have been a more formidable opponent than
Major. "He would have got rid of the poll tax, and he was not
responsible for what has happened in the past four years," he
said. "Major is in it up to his neck. What we are getting is
Thatcherism without Thatcher." For the moment at least, that
appears to be exactly what the British people want.