Mrs. T promises to stick to her guns

Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher returned to Finchley on Monday night to promise constituents she was sticking to her guns.

All traces of Budget night preoccupation disappeared when she stood to address Finchley Conservatives at the annual meeting in St. Mary's Church Hall, Church End, in her political home-from-home.

She told them she would be betraying no Budget secrets, although that would be “a very good way of getting a lot of cheap, easy publicity.”

However, the state of the nation's economy was a major item of her report of the Government's record-breaking achievements midway through its term of office.

Top of the list of Conservative policy credits were trade union reform Bills on secondary picketing, postal ballots and increased trade union liability, Finchley Conservatives heard.

Under the Conservatives, Britain's balance of trade and the nation's productivity had broken “all-time records.”

The basis of this economic recovery remained the payment of “reasonable wages allied to output,” Mrs. Thatcher stressed.

She outlined the changing face of industry when she turned to the problem of national unemployment.

The age of the micro-chip would create far more jobs, Mrs Thatcher predicted. More work would be generated for small businesses and new industries too.

Without overmanning, the country would be “in a better position to face the expansion of world trade,” she added.

But her proud claim that her Government had managed to turn debts, inherited from the Labour Government's “borrow, borrow, borrow” policies, into reserves failed to win expected applause.

Rousing her audience, Mrs. Thatcher's cry of “Come on,” brought a slow off the mark round of clapping.

On the plus side the Government was keeping its own house in order too, she reported. It was working with the smallest civil service establishment in 15 years—down by 55,000.

Law and order remained a major plank of the Government's political platform, Mrs Thatcher reminded her constituents. About 8,000 extra policemen had been enrolled in England and Wales since the Tories took office.

And police recruitment would continue. In London the force remained 1,500 below establishment.

She stressed that the Government could not maintain law and order single handed. Parents and teachers must play their part by teaching the nation's children discipline.

National support for the police, the courts and judges would continue to rely on criminals receiving “proper prison sentences.”

Countering recent reports, she said a prison building programme allowing for two new prisons a year would provide adequate accommodation for offenders.

Another social scourge—vandalism—was being countered by Conservative “homes for all” plans.

The continued sale of council homes to tenants would give more people greater independence from the Government, Mrs. Thatcher predicted.

Higher owner occupation would instil respect for property throughout the country she forecast.

In many ways, Conservative Party policy had taken up where the old Labour Party had left off.

Under the Tories the National Health Service was operating with more nurses and doctors and shorter waiting lists, she said.