Mrs T. backs traders
The way in which local traders face their problems with “ingenuity and a capacity for survival” was highlighted by the Opposition leader, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, at Finchley and Whetstone Chamber of Commerce ladies' night last Thursday.
And she expressed sympathy with them and their difficulties of higher rates, higher taxes, lower turnover and lower profit.
Mrs Thatcher, MP for Finchley and Friern Barnet, was proposing a toast to the Chamber—she is the president—after she and her husband, Denis, had joined 160 members and their guests for a dinner at Alexandra Palace.
She raised laughter by suggesting that, with the current high price of petrol, the car park might have been full of broomsticks, but then turned to the more serious side of local trading.
“I know the great difficulties you have to encounter,” she said.
Speech
Referring to the Chancellor's 2¼-hour Budget speech, she said a look back into history revealed that Lloyd George had taken five hours to deliver his with an interval in the middle. Gladstone also had taken five hours, and it seemed that the fewer taxes there were, the longer it took to talk about them.
There was more laughter when Mrs Thatcher mentioned the Gettysburg speech, world-famous yet only 267 words long, which took less than three minutes to deliver. She had often wondered, when preparing a speech if she should do something similar.
“I know you face many, many problems as members of the Chamber,” she went on. “We were told earlier this week that industry wanted a period of stability. Those in the retail trade would also like a period of stability.
“Many of you have had very grave doubts about the number of changes in VAT, and the cost on your own and staffs' time of having to compile accounts and collect revenue for Customs and Excise and the Treasury.”
Mrs Thatcher congratulated the members on their ingenuity and capacity for survival, and warned that setting up in business on their own meant perpetual worry. If times were good the trader would worry that they would turn bad, and if they were bad he was worried anyway.
She then turned to the other aspect of freedom, as highlighted by the recent TV appearances of Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
“He has alerted a large number of people to what was happening and you here tonight represent a collection of people full of independent spirit and initiative who will appreciate the force and impact of what he is saying,” Mrs Thatcher commented.
She congratulated members on a splendid year and wished them success for the future. But she warned that it would take time to turn the economy round.
Unable
The Chamber's new chairman, Mr Ray Jefferies, expressed the disappointment of Mr Albert Read, past chairman, who was unable to be present.
Members would find some uplift of spirit in what Mrs Thatcher had said, even in these difficult times.
A new member, Mr John Adley, thanked Mrs Thatcher for giving up her time to boost morale, and hoped that in the very near future she would be in a position to boost it even more. Mrs Frances Seaton replying, asked the Chamber to carry on the good work.
A presentation of £100 from the benevolent fund was made to Finchley Memorial Hospital to provide comforts for the patients in the new geriatric ward, which should open in June.