Cheers and jeers as Maggie flies in

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher arrived in the Coventry area today to be greeted by about 300 cheering supporters.

She touched down in a helicopter at Stoneleigh Abbey and then drove to meet her fans on the back of a farm truck, wearing a garland presented by a Sikh official.

But there was a different greeting awaiting her at Coventry's Allesley Hotel where she was due to have lunch.

Word of the visit had got out and several car loads of CND and Labour party supporters were outside.

Mrs Thatcher's helicopter initially tried to land in the wrong place, scattering press and TV crews.

It flew off again and then landed in the right place.

The Prime Minister concentrated her speech on unemployment, the fight against crime, the welfare state, and defence.

She said the Tory defence policies were the ones most likely to bring the Russians to the negotiation table and to make concessions.

Music

To cheers from the crowd, Mrs Thatcher announced the fall in unemployment of 120,000.

With the strains of patriotic music, including Jerusalem, The Dambusters March and Rule Britannia ringing in her ears Mrs Thatcher mingled among supporters before leaving by coach for Allesley.

Geoffrey Robinson, defending Labour candidate for Coventry North-west, said her visit to the city was an insult. “She should be at the jobcentres where 60 people are chasing every one job available or at the schools where only one teenager in 10 will get a job when they leave rather than the Allesley hotel.”