Dole queues not cars—Premier
The Prime Minister said yesterday said she was appalled by the Handsworth riot and called on local community leaders not just to wring their hands but to make sure it never happened again.
Her condemnation of the violence, which came partly during a visit to Yorkshire, spearheaded a welter of political reaction to both the rioting and the attack on the new Home Secretary, Mr. Douglas Hurd.
Labour's leader, Mr. Neil Kinnock, claimed unemployment and poverty were contributory factors to the hysteria and horror that sparked the clashes.
But Mrs. Thatcher fiercely rejected such allegations.
After a lunch with Conservative Party workers in Leeds, she declared: “I don't see why you should accuse people who are unemployed of turning violent in that way and I think it was grossly insulting to them to do so.
“One loses words to express the depth of the tragedy that it was. First one was appalled that, according to the Press, bodies have been found, absolutely appalled.
“One heard of the fires and the looting and the extent of the damage which appears to have been enormous and which I am sure will be a great shock to local people when they have seen it.
“But the loss of life on top of the injury that was sustained was indeed grievous. It piles shock on top of shock, obviously.”
Mrs. Thatcher, who undertook visits to the North of Scotland and Yorkshire, was kept fully informed of developments by Mr. Hurd.
At a Press conference in Aberdeen before travelling south, she said: “The damage was very considerable indeed. In order to put it right, it will need not only all the resources and dedication of police—we shall need all the leaders of the local community to utterly condemn it and make sure it doesn't happen again.”
She called for co-operation between local government and ethnic minority leaders “to help those whose interests have been enormously damaged and the families of those who lost their lives.”
The Prime Minister was clearly struck by the way the riots erupted in an area where previously successful community policing had been in operation and where a successful carnival was held recently.
She rejected suggestions the police had been slow to respond and said: “I hate hearing that kind of criticism.”
Officers had suddenly been confronted with a huge task of mobilising to deal with the task, said Mrs. Thatcher.
“Bearing that in mind, they probably acted as quickly as they possibly could in the circumstances and we should thank and congratulate them and not complain.”
At a lunch with party supporters at the Ladbroke Mercury Hotel, Garforth, Leeds, she said: “We must uphold law and order and be seen to uphold it and demand the support of everyone in the country in doing it.” [end p1] (2)Yorkshire Evening Post, 11 September 1985
Watch out, Warns Maggie
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has appealed for community leaders in Leeds to be on the alert following the Birmingham riots.
In an interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post during a visit to Leeds, Mrs. Thatcher admitted that she was worried that similar disturbances could take place in areas like Chapeltown, Leeds, and Liverpool's Toxteth.
And she appealed for community leaders to be on the alert for any signs of tension.
Mrs. Thatcher said the Birmingham riots were a double tragedy because community policing seemed to be successful there and a recent multi-racial carnival had been extremely successful.
She dismissed claims that unemployment could be a key to the violence, saying: “You should not accuse people who are unemployed of violence in this way.”
Mrs. Thatcher was in Leeds to attend a lunch given in her honour by the Yorkshire Area Conservative Party.
She urged the Tory faithful to rally round the party's policies and promote the successes of the Government, such as privatisation, council-house sales, the health service and aid to pensioners.
Mrs. Thatcher told the gathering of 150 party workers: “We have broken new records in the Health Service through the number of nurses and the high levels of their pay.
“Waiting lists are coming down
“As a Government, we have always kept faith with our retired people, who were the backbone of this country, and in November this year they will be in their best ever position.”
Later in the day, Mrs. Thatcher unveiled a plaque at the Allied Colloids chemical plant in Low Moor, Bradford, to mark the firm's golden jubilee.