MT
I think you may take it that it will be what you call an ordinary re-shuffle.
Peter Allen, IRN
I'm not quite sure what you mean by an ordinary re-shuffle?
MT
We don't have to start afresh you see, we don't have to start afresh, the government is still in and therefore we just have to change a few people, uh, because … you have to keep people who've got junior office with some hope that one day they might get into cabinet, and the awful thing therefore is that it means that some people who really have done a very good job may have to make way for others to come on. That is inevitable I'm afraid in politics and it's the most difficult thing that I have to do, quite the most difficult and I dislike it intensely but I know it must be done.
Peter Allen, IRN
There are some fears amongst your opponents that you will sweep out the wets, that you will sweep away all the old soggy centre of the Conservative Party, that we're going to see a new and much harder Mrs Thatcher emerge after this election.
MT
I answered that many times during the election. I will give the same answer as I gave then. Any Prime Minister has all shades of the party reflected in cabinet.
Peter Allen, IRN
And just as a final question, do you feel really that in your first term of office you've carried out the reforms necessary so that you can move ahead, or do we actually need a lot of legislative changes in the next term?
MT
There are always legislative changes because always law, it has to be modernized and brought up to date, and we've put a lot in our manifesto and that now has steadily to be carried through, and as you know there are some bills left over from the last session which have to be reintroduced, including of course the Finance Bill.
Peter Allen, IRN
So over all the resolute approach?
MT
The firm … quiet … approach, which I think has been reaffirmed by the electorate in this election. [end p1]
tape cuts and resumeMT
I'm sorry you are wrong, we have a system of constituencies, we have a system well-known by people that the person who is first wins, it was a system which served some of them very well indeed when they themselves were put in as a Labour government. They did not wish to change when it put them in power giving clear, decisive government. The Liberals did not wish to change it when it put them in power. The only reason they wish to change the system which has given clear, decisive and strong government is because it has not given them victory and they are trying artificially to change a system which has served Britain well, to try to give them a victory.
Peter Allen, IRN
I wonder if I could speak just one moment about the Opposition, the main opposition, the Labour Party. Mr Foot will probably get thrown out of his position for he results of this election. Do you think he was the one really which led the party astray or was it other people who caused the trouble?
MT
They must sort that out. I think it's been going on for quite some time. When I first came in in 1959 there were comparatively few extreme left-wingers in the Labour Party then. Each parliament more and more have been elected and that means that each time they've let the constituencies be taken over by far more extreme left-wingers, and it turned out some of, what we always knew, some of the what I might call the typical solid idealist Labour voter, a Labour member.