Healey under fire

Mrs Thatcher and Sir Geoffrey on the attack

Labour Chancellor Denis Healey should have been looking for a way of cutting down his own expenditure, instead of pushing for higher taxes.

This was one of the points made by the Shadow Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Howe, when he spoke at the annual lunch held by the women's advisory committee of Finchley and Friern Barnet Conservatives last Thursday.

Mrs Margaret Thatcher, MP for Finchley and Friern Barnet and leader of the Conservative Party, was at Firs Hall, Winchmore Hill, to hear Sir Geoffrey say the budget had to be tough, but a large part of it was caused by Government overspending.

Although Mr Healey deserved some marks for courage, the “collective punishment” of his budget was wrongly directed and was not going to produce the right answer. Not everyone bad shared in the explosion of wages.

Sir Geoffrey said Socialist Chancellors always decided what they wanted to spend, wrote out the cheque, and then decided how they would raise the money from the British people. This was the wrong way of going about it.

Conservatives in the present situation would not be embarking on nationalising further sections of industry such as aviation, shipping, and the docks and ports.

PRIORITIES

Sir Geoffrey said that local government expenditure also could be reduced.

It was not easy, but authorities had to make priorities and sacrifice certain projects or even defer a new county hall, as his own authority had had to do. Sir Geoffrey is MP for Reigate.

He criticised the 25 per cent VAT increase on certain goods, and pointed out that the idea of having one rate was one of the justifications for having VAT instead of purchase tax.

Mr Healey took 2½ hours to deliver his budget speech and Mrs Thatcher told the women Conservatives that one of her ambitions always had been to be Chancellor and to deliver a budget speech in three-quarters of an hour. She said no man could do it.

The formula of the Government's budget could be given in the word BITE—something very different from the Socialist bark the country heard at election times.

B was for borrowing—this Government were the biggest borrowers of all time, and were planning to borrow £9,000m. this year.

I stood for a record inflation under the Socialists. T was taxation, and E for expenditure.

“The Socialists are absolutely outstanding at spending other people's money, then running out and having to borrow,” said Mrs Thatcher.

She reminded her audience that future generations would have to repay this borrowing.

Both Mrs Thatcher and Sir Geoffrey mentioned the forthcoming GLC by-election in Finchley.

The Conservative candidate, Mr Roland Freeman, was present at the lunch, and Sir Geoffrey described him as a “distinguished expert in the field of local government.”

He said Mr Freeman would be a most impressive representative for the constituency and congratulated the association on his selection to fight “the very important by-election.”

Mrs Thatcher added that she hoped the by-election would show the Chancellor “what we think of his budget.”

The chairman, Mrs Margaret Tiplady, mentioned the “horror story at County Hall,” and said Mr Freeman was “an absolute winner.”

Mr Freeman told the audience that the by-election was important because it was the first to be fought on the basis of the Parliamentary constituency boundaries, and the first since the general election.

He said: “It is obvious the Press will take a special interest and will look hard at the figures, so I want a handsome majority. This is our chance to bite back.”