Battling Margaret's recipe for success

Britain must act now to beat the rising tide of economic regression—that was the message spelled out in Luton by Conservative front-bencher Mrs Margaret Thatcher.

Mrs Thatcher—Tory spokesman on finance—was speaking to the Luton 100 lecture club just hours before she emerged as favourite to lead the Conservative Party.

Mrs Thatcher singled out three major economic problems facing the country—our present inability to halt the rising inflation rate, the extent at which we are borrowing just to keep up our standards of living and the excess of public expenditure over revenue from taxation.

“I begin to doubt whether we can go on like this,” she said. “We are borrowing, not to build up new assets, but to keep up consumption and living standards. We must gradually make our way to a balanced budget.”

Her principal message was that Britain is coming to a fundamental period in her economic history when decisions as to whether we take a long- or short-term economic perspective have to be made.

“There is no economic formula for success,” she said. “Economics are a problem of human relationships—of persuading the people to let us carry out the measures we think should be carried out.”

She went on to criticise the level of taxation on industry.

“I want to see Britain as a country with a long-term future—a country where successful people will want to stay, a nation which produces the best goods. I don't believe our problems can be tackled by concealing them.”

But Mrs Thatcher evaded questions on the leadership of the Conservative Party.

When pressed, her only comment was: “I believe a good measure of common sense is better than a lot of jargon.”

At the end, Mrs Thatcher was thanked by Mrs Angela Gibbs, wife of Mr William Gibbs, chairman and managing director of Home Counties Newspapers, for “a delightful and stimulating talk.”