Clarion Calls

Thatcher on the attack

With Britain's May 3 elections fast approaching, Conservative Party Leader Margaret Thatcher's slashing attacks against the Labor government dominated the campaign. Speaking in Wales last week, she declared: "Change is coming. The slither and slide to the socialist state is going to be stopped, halted and turned back." All that Labor offered, she said, was "a clarion call for inertia and indolence." Ten points behind in the polls, Prime Minister James Callaghan was meanwhile giving low-key performances portraying himself as the leader who "will unite, not divide, the country."

While Thatcher and Callaghan got their campaigns into high gear, they followed a tacit agreement long honored by their parties to avoid partisan dispute over the painful issue of Northern Ireland. But last week, the issue was suddenly thrust forward because of remarks that U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill made at a private dinner in Dublin attended by Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch. O'Neill said that the Ulster problem had been given "low priority" by Britain, that "it had been treated as a political football in London," and that the U.S. would "insist" that the next government make a "major initiative" to solve it.

O'Neill's comments stirred a storm. Protested Tory Candidate Robert Adley: "There are few more nauseating sounds than biased, ignorant Irish-American politicians visiting Dublin and grubbing around for votes in the U.S. by venting their spleens on Ireland." Labor Cabinet Minister Shirley Williams scoffed: "The Irish-American community has very little idea of the truth of the position in the Republic of Ireland or in Northern Ireland."

While the rhetoric soared, no member of Callaghan's Cabinet was running harder than David Owen, the young (40) Foreign Secretary who was a practicing physician before entering politics. His southern Africa policy, though closely attuned to the U.S.'s, has won him enemies in Britain. Owen does not hold a safe seat. He will lose his Plymouth constituency if only 3.2% of the vote swings to the Conservatives. Last week TIME Correspondent Art White got a close look at the Foreign Secretary's ups and downs as he tried to win the home front. Reports White:

Armed with campaign leaflets and a smile, Owen calls at one house and is greeted by Arthur Bannister, 70, a retired laborer. "Three cheers!" cries Bannister, a lifelong Labor Party man. "You're in. I back Labor and I'll never budge." Encouraged, Owen crosses the street and this time runs into a fervent working-class Tory. Robert Mason, 78, a retired stained-glass cutter, is ill with bronchitis, and Owen goes to his bedside. "You'd do better to go back to doctoring," Mason says. "I don't think Callaghan is any good for the country."

In the dockside area, Owen is surrounded by fishermen who protest the expansion of a public toilet on the quay because it will rob the loading area of space. Owen promises to look into it, knowing full well that he is not gaining much ground with the men, most of whom normally vote Conservative. Still, he professes confidence. "As the campaign goes on," he insists, "more people will distrust the Tory line. We are closing the gap."

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