Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech accepting the Conservative leadership

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Europa Hotel, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair
Source: Thatcher Archive: CCOPR 143/75
Editorial comments: 1200. The press release was marked "immediate". MT recalls being unaware when she made the speech that a report would be given to the press.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 972
Themes: Conservatism, Conservative Party (organization), General Elections, Labour Party & socialism, Leadership, Trade union law reform

We have had a succession of great leaders of our Party and it has been my privilege to serve with three of them—Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home and Edward Heath. I am, therefore, very deeply aware and properly fearful of the great responsibility which you have placed upon me. And I know it will need all the courage, the thoughtfulness and decisiveness that I can bring to that task. It will need too all the loyalty, support and determination of which you, the Party, have so generously given. I have been very grateful in the past few days—and it seems so much longer than ten days—for the kindness and support of my Shadow Cabinet colleagues, and Willie Whitelaw in particular, and the Parliamentary Party through the 1922 Committee.

You, Lord Hailsham, have always pointed the way of a Conservative Party. Somehow I feel there have been times when we have lost our vision for the future, and we know that where there is no vision the people will surely perish. To live merely from day to day, or from hour to hour is not enough for a great society. Had that been sufficient for Britain we should never have built a great Commonwealth of nations; we should never have set out on those great adventures in Elizabethan times to discover unknown lands; we should never had annunciated or practised some of the great legal principles which recognised the fundamental rights of man and their equality before the law. [end p1]

We should never have founded a Parliamentary democracy, and we should never have fought to keep those ideals a reality for all, or to see that freedom and liberty did not perish.

In all of these things, we'have had a vision. And in all of them that vision has been outward looking towards the world. Now we have turned inwards and we seem to be fragmenting our society and concentrating on differences between us as factions pursue their separate aims relentlessly.

But I believe our people are aware of these squabbles. They are aware that all is not well. They do not like living beyond their means as a nation. They don't like, when they travel abroad, being treated as a poor nation whose only greatness lies in her past. They don't like the bureaucratic society that socialism is fast creating. They are aware that equity is a better principle on which to found decisions than might. They are aware that it is not the size of a nation that counts but its spirit.

The many letters that I have received in the last ten days have shown two particular requirements. They demand a forthright style of leadership, and that I believe we have always had in the Conservative Party. We have certainly had it with the leaders under whom I have been privileged to serve. Secondly, they have demanded more emphasis on principle. These letters have come from people in all walks of life, from all over the British Isles, feeling, sensing, needing, requiring, asking for the same thing. The vision is still there. They desire to clothe it in reality and we must be the instrument to enable them to achieve that.

In elections in which I have taken part we have thought it was the most important election of all times. But I think the next one really will be a crucial one because if by any chance the Socialists were to win again we would be set irretrievably on the path to the Socialist State. And we would have gone too far towards that State ever to turn it back in our lifetime. But that is not the kind of Britain that gave us a great past and it's not the kind of Britain which will give us a great future. [end p2]

I believe that every time the people are faced with the choice—the choice between a free society or a socialist/communist state—when they are faced with it and they recognise it, they totally reject it.

But I believe that perhaps too few of them are aware that while our opponents retain their objectives, they pursue them by more obscure means.

Now if we can show the people what is happening I believe that once and for all they will reject socialism.

I have spoken of the need for vision or purpose. I believe that is paramount, but alone it is not enough. One must translate that vision into policies.

We know full well that there are complex issues that we face now, some of them new, some of them being experienced to a degree, like inflation, as we have never experienced before, some of them making great demands upon world resources, some of them requiring changes in world institutions.

We must consider all of these things, and find policies to deal with the complex nature of society before us, both its complex nature nationally and internationally. It must, therefore, be part of our duty to set up the policy groups so that we have the policies for the future—the policies we shall need when we take over. We must be properly equipped for the task.

We must know how we are going to tackle militancy. Maybe it is not right to face a great objective in your path by trying to go through it. It might be better to try to find a way round it.

But if we need purpose and vision and if we need policies, we also need the third thing and that is presentation. It is no good having a first class product unless people know about it. And they won't know about it unless we tell them about it. [end p3]

As the old politicians learnt to use oratory—and some of our present politicians, I turn to Lord HailshamQuintin, still know how to use oratory—so we must use the instruments now at our disposal. Perhaps a different style, a different technique, but once mastered it is one which enables us to bring the message into every home in a more intimate way then ever before. We must become adept at all of these techniques of communication.

The price of failure is heavy. The heritage which our forefathers bequeathed us must be renewed and passed on to future generations. To the fulfilment of that task and in honour of all our previous leaders I pledge my strength, loyalty and determination.