The Evils in our Midst

Jobs and Violence are our biggest problems

By Margaret Thatcher Talking to Star Political Editor Anthony Smith

Mrs. Thatcher named violence and unemployment as the twin evils which faced the Government with its biggest task.

She linked the two issues together for the first time as her greatest challenges in her wide-ranging interview with The Star.

The Prime Minister defended her record and stressed her concern on unemployment as she explained that a million extra jobs have been created in the past three years.

But the baby boom in the Sixties meant that more youngsters had been flooding on to the job market than there had been older people retiring.

“I have hoped so much that unemployment would start to come down,” she told me.

“I shall be the first to be immensely relieved when all of the things we are trying to do to help people to start up on their own really begin to make inroads into unemployment.”

She said that no one would have believed her in 1983 if she had promised a million new jobs.

“Still less would people have believed that those new jobs would only lead to a standstill in unemployment,” she added.

The Prime Minister blamed the shake-out of old industries and the introduction of new technology which required fewer jobs.

Worry

She then revealed the depth of her concern as she went on to speak out against her other great worry—violence in society.

She called on people to work closely together to combat crime and then explained: “What has been happening is that violence has often been added to other crimes.

“Just as unemployment is the economic problem, so I think that perhaps violence is the behavioural problem.”

Mrs. Thatcher repeated her view that there was no quick remedy for unemployment.

I put it to her that there was a growing mood of frustration in the country that the dole queues had still not come down after her seven years in power.

Boosting

But Mrs. Thatcher poured scorn on Labour and Alliance claims that they could quickly slash the dole queues.

She also gave a clear signal that the Cabinet battle will end up favouring major tax cuts as the way of boosting the economy.

She said: “The United States has had quite a lot of tax cuts and has shown that it is a very good way of generating jobs.

“It is not the Government that generates jobs, it is the people who get down to building new businesses—small businesses.

“Government has created the tax background and cut the red tape. People have created the jobs.”

But the Prime Minister insisted that she has optimism for the future.

“As a country, we lost some of that enterprising spirit which made us the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution,” she said. “But now we are getting it back.”

‘Who will tell the old girl she had better go?’

These are most decisive days in the Premiership of Margaret Thatcher.

Just one false step at home or abroad could sow the seeds of her defeat at the next election.

In South Africa, a wrong move on sanctions could split the Tory Party asunder or send that strifetorn country up in flames.

In Britain, she is faced with a full-scale Cabinet battle over whether tax cuts or public spending should get priority in the next Budget.

Meanwhile, the nation watches and waits to see whether Mrs. Thatcher can ride out the storm to win an amazing election hat-trick.

It was at this most critical hour in her fortunes that the Prime Minister spoke exclusively to me.

Vision

I joined Mrs. Thatcher in her private pastel-coloured study in Downing Street's inner sanctum, and in the garden of No. 10, where she spoke exclusively for an hour on the great issues of the day.

On her vision for Britain. On her pride in her record. On her personal plans for the future.

The Prime Minister confirmed that she has no plans for early retirement, and clearly looks forward to the next election with confidence.

“I think people know that Britain is once again a proud country which can hold up her head to the rest of the world.”

It is two years since I last interviewed the Premier in the same room where she sees her inner circle.

Though now 60 years old, her eyes still glint fiercely in the heat of battle. She is still the ultimate conviction politician. She is still at her best with her back to the wall.

As she relaxed in her favourite armchair with a glass of Malvern water the Prime Minister revealed a wry sense of humour at her own expense.

Dynamic

She told me: “Obviously, at some time or other you have to hand over to someone new, fresh, young, dynamic.

“You do not want to cling on so they have to say: ‘who is going to tell the old girl she had better go?’”

The legacy I am proud to leave behind

The Thatcher years will leave a legacy of permanent change in Britain.

And Mrs. Thatcher firmly believes her policies will be the springboard to a hat-trick of election victories and lay the foundations for her successor as Tory leader to go on to rule Britain towards the next century.

Her vision for the country is one in which millions more people own their own homes, with their savings secure and with more freedom to decide their own destiny.

The Prime Minister delivered a fiery defence of the values and political philosophy which are at the heart of her style of government.

She drew the battle lines for the epic election battle to come when I asked her if she was confident of winning again. She replied firmly: “We can do it. I am absolutely convinced of that.

Gains

“As we come up to an election, people look at the really big things, the real big gains that could be lost.”

She said that if necessary, she would not hesitate to delay calling an election until the last moment, which would be June, 1988.

“We are not in politics just to be in power personally,” she insisted. “We are in politics to achieve things we believe in.

“I believe we offer far more—both dignity and prosperity to people—and that gives them that fundamental sense of independence and responsibility which I think is absolutely the basis of being British.”

Then Mrs. Thatcher revealed that she hoped she would make a lasting impression on Britain.

“I think we have brought about a tremendous change in attitudes,” the Prime Minister said.

She pointed out that people no longer automatically expected the Government to solve most of their problems.

Steady

And she stressed that a major achievement had been keeping the pound steady and getting inflation down.

“We really ought to have a country where, if a grandparent gives a christening gift to a new grandchild, that child, when it comes to spend it, still has the same sort of purchasing power that existed in the days when the gift was given.”

She went on: “You have got to provide both a ladder of opportunity—which means good education—and a safety net so that people can be certain that they will always have the health care and attention they need.

“And you still have to try to keep incentives, without taking too much of people's earnings away from them.”

The Prime Minister went on to spell out the keystones of her policies.

She said: “Everyone knows there is vastly more spent on the NHS, with more doctors, more nurses, more operations and more patients looked after.

Satisfied

“In our schools, more is being spent per pupil than ever before. But we are not altogether satisfied that we are getting the most effective use of resources.

“Everyone knows that when it came to defending liberties in the Falklands this nation did not hesitate to do it.

“Everyone knows that when there have been major strikes—and we have seen things on the picket lines which were intimidating and which we should never see in this country—we were not ourselves intimidated and we were able to get the moderates on our side.

“Everyone knows that when we were faced with a sudden drop in the price of oil, our finances were so well managed that we managed to get through.

“Everyone knows that there has been an enormous change in attitudes on the part of those who work in industry. We are trying to build what I would call popular capitalism.

“This means that whoever you are, whatever your background, you have the chance to own your own home, to build up a little independence and a little capital to hand on to your children.

Power

“That is a vastly different society from the one in which we came into power.”

I asked her what she thought of her record and she replied instantly: “Immensely proud, immensely proud.

And she confided that it is her long-term aim to slay what she believes is the dragon of socialism and create an Opposition vastly different from the Left-wing Labour Party.

She explained: “We do not want more control over people's lives.

“We want them to have more of their own earnings so they have more control over their own lives, their own future, their own destiny.

“Our idea of a responsible society is a society of responsible people.

“Socialism takes more and more control over people's lives. They like nationalised industries so that they can control them.

“If they cannot control through nationalisation, they have lots of red tape so they can control things that way or take away a lot in tax from ordinary people.”

She said her Government had to battle to sell council houses, and she accused Labour of working too closely with the unions.

Mrs. Thatcher said Britain had swung away from Labour at the last two elections. “It was all collective. It was not individual any more—I am convinced that is not right for the British character,” she added.