Major Ignores Gloom But Loses Cool
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 21, 1992
LONDON, Friday: Confirmation that the British recession has claimed more than one million jobs failed to deter the Prime Minister's defence of his Government's economic record yesterday.
At his first rally appearance of the election campaign, Mr John Major did not refer to the bulletin that revealed 22 consecutive months of rising unemployment.
Britain now has the third- highest jobless rate in the European Community -2.6 million or 9.4 per cent of the workforce.
The worst hit areas in February were in the Tory heartland - the south-east and the south-west.
And an independent survey of business released yesterday indicated that 18 per cent of companies expected to lay off more workers before the end of June. It was also announced this morning that more than 15,000 jobs would be lost to automation in the postal service.
In London, there are 43 unemployed for each job vacancy.
The Government's hopes of a further fall in inflation crumbled today when it remained unchanged at 4.1 per cent for February.
However, for the first time since 1967, the year-on-year inflation rate was less than that in Germany, which in February rose to 4.3 per cent.
Mr Major appeared unruffled by the jobless report or by being forced to abandon a walk-about in Lancashire in the mid-west, because of a demonstration, or even by a confrontation with a female protester wearing little more than a thin coat of body paint.
The Conservative Party has urged its team not to lose its nerve. However, yesterday, it launched a covert attack on opinion pollsters, accusing them of rigging the results by telephoning homes when Tory voters were likely to be at work.
When the polls are averaged, Labour is about two points ahead, well short of the eight-point margin it needs to secure government.
Senior Tory campaigners insisted there would be no more bad economic news before the April 9 election and that the tide would turn in the last 10 days of the campaign.
At a rally in Manchester, Mr Major attacked Labour with a ferocity very much at odds with his usual platform calm.
Parodying a 1983 speech by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Neil Kinnock, -"Don't be old, don't be needy, don't be sick" under Mrs Thatcher - the Prime Minister said:
"I warn you not to be ambitious. I warn you not to be qualified. I warn you not to be successful. I warn you not to buy shares. I warn you not to be self-employed. I warn you not to accept promotion. I warn you not to save. I warn you not to buy a pension. I warn you not to own a home (under Labour)."
His attack was relayed to Mr Kinnock, appearing before a Labour rally in Birmingham, who struck back with a litany of economic woes before repeating the words of the 1983 speech and adding: "I was right, wasn't I?"
Mr Major also stepped up the Tory campaign to exploit Mr Kinnock's poor personal ratings and his party's past radicalism.
"Is this the time for an unsure hand at the helm?" he asked his Manchester audience.
"Would you want Britain led by men who, not that long ago, were all for giving up our nuclear defence and caving in to the old dictators of the Soviet Union?"
In a further tempering of its economic policies, the Labour Party yesterday said it would not necessarily go ahead with the promise of a minimum wage during its first year in office, a plan that has been roundly condemned as a job killer.
The party's spokesman on employment, Mr Tony Blair, said there was no commitment to time on the proposed $A7.70 an hour minimum rate and that there would be extensive consultation with industry and unions first.
© 1992 Sydney Morning Herald