Chapter 49 Happy first episode

The Liberal-Labor coalition has done nothing, not at all, to achieve what their spokesmen later claimed.It has not been able to stop the advance of socialism, let alone thwart it.In fact it just brought a Labor government to power and allowed it to nationalize aviation and shipbuilding.The economy is recovering, fragile but solid, not to the credit of the Labor Party.The recovery of the economy strengthened the political position of the Labor Party in 1977-1978.The recovery of the economy was due to measures imposed by the IMF in the months leading up to this.That failed to help Callahan narrow the left's influence and defeat it.In fact, the left grew stronger, dominating the Labor Party within a few years.

The actual benefits went elsewhere, and were totally unexpected.First, the Liberals have shown a similarity of thought to Labour, which is a salutary warning to would-be Conservatives who, for whatever reason, love the Liberals as a more civilized alternative to Labour, and vote for them. It's upvoted.So the coalition strengthens people's support for us.Secondly, I can now see clearly that in March 1997 we were not able to form a government sufficient to lift Britain out of the policies that had left it in long-term decline.Neither the cabinet nor the party's parliamentary groups or constituencies are likely to be willing to take this necessary but bitter medicine.Because they haven't seen how widespread the disease has spread.Only the strikes in the winter of 1978-1979 could change perceptions.In the end, it was indeed a hidden blessing to me that the government survived.The two years since then have been exhausting and I have benefited immensely from those two years as Leader of the Opposition.I learned how to get my way, even though I always felt in the minority in the shadow cabinet.With good times and bad times, I have become more eloquent, and my ability to speak to the public and campaign has improved.This will be of great benefit to the post of prime minister in the future.Perhaps especially important, I have shown to myself and to others that I have an indescribable "instinct" in grasping the feelings of ordinary people.This quality, I think, whether born or not, grows sharper and shines brighter in adversity.

Wednesday 23 March 1977 I was disappointed by the ineffectiveness of my speech in the no-confidence vote debate.But a string of good news wiped out my disappointment.When asked about poll results, politicians always seem wise, he said, and they don't pay attention to polls.But when the polls turn out very favorably for a politician, his political life is much easier.It was clear that the public did not like the coalition that Labor and the Liberals had put together.Opinion polls show the Conservatives leading Labor by 15 to 20 percentage points, with the Liberals dropping sharply.A week after the no-confidence vote debate, I made a speech attacking Dennis Healy's budget.This speech convinced the parliamentary group that when I spoke I had only a quick outline, and in the smoke of numbers I could pick out the contradictions hidden behind it.The next day we won the Birmingham Statsford constituency, Roy Jenkins' old seat, with a majority of 17.4 per cent."We're now the people's party," I said in a statement after seeing reports on TV on Fulard Street.

After returning home from a visit to the Far East in April, I ran for two by-elections, one in Ashfield in the Norham mining area and the other in Grims Bay in the fishing port area of ​​Humbleside.Labor is usually a surefire winner in both constituencies.People tell me it's very likely we won't win Ashfield, but Grims Bay is picking something out of it.In Ashfield I talk to people about fried fish and chips and in Grims Bay I talk to people about smoked fish fillet and boiled eggs, and I get very different impressions.Although we have two good candidates, in Grims Bay we have a poor fortune in the fisheries, the seat he is going to inherit is the late Tony Crossland.It is clear that even Conservative voters are keen to be represented by a big-name socialist, and this time they want a similar figure.In fact I was right, we won in Ashfield, over the original majority of nearly 23,000 votes held by the ruling party.We narrowly won in Grims Bay, where voters picked the closest thing to a Great Socialist - TV personality Oscar Mitchell.A week later we had a big win in the capital and county council elections, taking back Greater London, which was an important gain and gave us an opportunity to showcase some of our policies at a local level, such as the sale of public housing that we are planning to roll out across the country policy.This opportunity is very important for any opposition party.

This time is a great time for me personally and for the party.I feel that at this time I can change some of the policies I have inherited, and I can express my own views on some policies more clearly.I took advantage of the Scottish party conference in May to shake off the promise of decentralization, which passed the decision in a rather calm atmosphere. In July, I took the opportunity of giving a speech in memory of Ian Macleod to try to show how closely my personal philosophy fits with the tradition of the Conservative Party, indeed with the essential character of the religious creed of conservatives around the world.I always go the extra mile in preparing such speeches, because I think it should show that Conservatives should feel no less short-sighted on moral issues than on practical ones when taking on their opponents.This point is crucial.

Later that same month, I gave a very good speech in the economic debate before Parliament's summer recess.It was a full-on day, and every hostile interjection was met with a head-on blow as I spoke, as if my opponents were uttering outrageous words just to take a beating.I was stunned myself, knocking one opponent to the ground like a duck target in a shooting gallery.A friendly reporter put it this way: "Margaret Thatcher is one woman, sweeping government MPs and Liberal MPs at the perfect time." The news media, at least for the moment, is full of flattering comments about my qualities and my prospects.But the reaction of Labor MPs on my next major appearance was an even bigger flattery: a general silence meant to embarrass me.

When the Liberal-Labour coalition was formed, the political reality looked grim.And now the problems we face are actually bigger than critics realize.people.The support for us is largely a broad reflection of the government's glaring missteps.Public finances are now being restored, which will lower inflation and interest rates, increasing the pressure on us to set policy ourselves.We need more than a qualified doctor's mandate in a general election.We need to come up with our own clear and convincing analysis, proposing a package of policies.Personally, I would love to do these things.But I am well aware that there are still differences of opinion within the shadow cabinet on some key issues, such as the power of unions, income policy, public spending and so on.We are a minority that fundamentally rejects the policy ideas of 1970-1974, while the majority, to a certain extent, advocates the continuation of the policies of that time.All of these destructive divisions, despite our desperate efforts to narrow and unify our understanding on the "way ahead," have cost us in these years because the divisions stem from fundamental issues.Ultimately, this is not a question of tinkering with political skill, but a much more difficult and never-ending matter of clarifying minds and shifting perceptions.