Downing Street Years - Margaret Thatcher [21]
But we were aware that there was a long road ahead. As my father used to say:
It’s easy to be a starter, but are you a sticker too?
It’s easy enough to begin a job, it’s harder to see it through.
At 7 p.m. that evening Denis and I returned to London to begin my second full week as Prime Minister. Work was already piling up, with boxes coming to and from Chequers. I recall once hearing Harold Macmillan tell an eager group of young MPs, none more eager than Margaret Thatcher, that prime ministers (not having a department of their own) have plenty of spare time for reading. He recommended Disraeli and Trollope. I have sometimes wondered if he was joking.
* The Privy Council is one of the oldest of Britain’s political institutions, with the most important of the Crown’s advisers among its members, including by convention all Cabinet ministers. Its meetings — usually of a few ministers in the presence of the Queen — are now purely formal, but the oath taken by new members reinforces the obligation of secrecy in conducting government business, and the issue of ‘Orders in Council’ is still an important procedure for enacting the legislation not requiring the approval of Parliament.
* The Policy Unit was first set up by Harold Wilson in 1974 and continued by James Callaghan. The value of the Unit, whose membership I subsequently increased, lies in its flexibility and involvement in day-to-day policy matters, on the basis of close collaboration with the Prime Minister.
* Quasi-autonomous nongovernmental organization.
* See Chapter 2, pp. 44–5.
* Queen’s Speeches and Future Legislation Committee.
* The 1922 Committee consists of all Conservative Members of Parliament (other than those in office). At its meetings, and those of its sub-committees, views and policies are discussed, and the results made known to ministers by the whips and PPSs. It is also the 1922 Committee which has the decisive say in choosing the Speaker when the Conservative Party is in office.
* For the details and course of negotiations about Britain’s contribution to the European Community budget, see Chapter 3.
* No. 32 Smith Square is, of course, the home of Conservative Central Office and Belgrave Square is the address of the German Ambassador’s residence.
CHAPTER II
Changing Signals
Domestic politics in the first six months — until the end of 1979
To turn from the euphoria of election victory to the problems of the British economy was to confront the morning after the night before. Inflation was speeding up; public sector pay was out of control; public spending projections were rising as revenue projections fell; and our domestic problems were aggravated by a rise in oil prices that was driving the world into recession.
The temptation in these circumstances was to retreat to a defensive redoubt, adopting a policy of false prudence: not to cut income tax when revenues were already threatening to fall; not to remove price controls when inflation was already accelerating; not to cut industrial subsidies in the teeth of a rising recession; and not to constrain the public sector when the private sector seemed too weak to create new jobs. And, indeed, these adverse economic conditions did slow down the rate at which we could hope to regenerate Britain. But I believed that was all the more reason to redouble our efforts. We were running up the ‘Down’ escalator, and we would have to run a great deal faster if we were ever to get to the top.
THE FIRST QUEEN’S SPEECH
Our first opportunity to demonstrate to both friends and opponents that we would not be deterred by the difficulties was the Queen’s Speech. The first Loyal Address (as it is also called) of a new government sets the tone for its whole term of office. If the opportunity to set a radical new course is not taken, it will almost certainly never recur. And the world realizes that underneath all the