European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday june 20,1987 Colour wins George will Thatcher s win May mean death of socialism London the morning after Margaret Thatcher won another lease of up to five years of the Down ing Streel House she has inhabited for eight years a wit wondered after 13 years in no 10, does she get the right to buy thai is a resonant question about the lady who. Ashe Scourge of socialism has required local authorities to sell municipal housing to occupants. As the dust settles from her most recent dust up with the labor party the electoral result stands revealed As a Large event in he history of a Large development in the late 20th Century the death of social urn. In 1983, labor failed to unseat a conservative government that had presided Over an economic contraction Harper than that of 1929. In 1963, an now again labor has failed to translate three million unemployed into a winning Issue. Thatcher does Well with skilled workers the Alli Ance Liberal and social democrats does Well wit the intelligentsia known Here delightfully As the chattering classes. In London this year labor did even worse than in 1983 when Thatcher had the Falkland Factor and labor was saddled with he inexpressibly unconvincing leadership of Michael foot. This month labor lost three working Clas scan in London including the seat held Yean ago by Clement Alice Leader of the postwar labor govern ment. That is what happens when you raise property taxes 62 percent to hire an army of homosexual rights and race relations bureaucrats. When a party plunges into Steep decline even i victories injure in. About one Quarter of the seals labor won june 11 Are now held by freshman maps Many of them from the Bard left. Already their voices Are raised to blame the party s trouncing on insufficient commitment to real socialism the tories must be Temple to permit the televising of parliament the belter to give the hard left ample exposure. Some British socialists say socialism should not be judged by its works but by the purity of its ideals. But the Central Ideal is As implausible As he work shave been disappointing. Socialism is As the saying goes about Equality it carries the heavy baggage of having to believe that wealth and Opportunity should be allocated some what coercive by to minimize the influence of Alent. James Reston socialism s implausible theory is matched by . The collective Purchase of key goods such a housing and Public ownership of the commanding Heights of the Economy have lost whatever allure they once the 1950s and 1960s, British socialism tried to turn itself inside out by becoming More meritocratic than capitalism. In stressed planning which meant economic decision making should be concen rated in a govern ment composed of the Best and brightest so that reason could replace inefficient motives greed in animating the Economy. But the lesson of planning is that the risk avers bureaucracies Are unsatisfactory sources of economic dynamism. Elsewhere in Europe there has been an americanization of the left the identification of the left with Middle class often non economic is sues such As environmentalism racial and sexual discrimination and opposition to nuclear weapons and Power. But in Britain the left once an example of merely arrested development has been regressing. George Watson of St. John s College Cambridge notes that for the first Lime in this Century it is trendy to be tory. As for socialism it has come Down in the world and top people have deserted it. It now belongs if anywhere to a world of the set i Lermand the Semi educated o South american priests dedicated to newfangled liberation theology to Tri bal oligarchies in Black Africa and in Europe to the dropouts of higher education a sort of Lumpen to a Wiechnik of bed Sitter trotskyite to whom mid Vic Torian concepts of class and consciousness still look like the latest for the first time since Disraeli Watson says British conservatism is ideologically fervid confident not just that conservatism is Good for the Stock Market but that in is True. The embodiment of this Confidence is the woman who if her current government runs a full five years at the next election would be younger than Churchil was when he first became prime minister. The Day after her third Victory she was asked if she would be prime minister in the year 2000, when she if be 75. You never know she said. I might be Here i might be twanging a As Long As there Are socialists to defeat heaven can Wail. E Withington Penl writ bit a soup Reagan picks Odd time to quarrel with Congress president Reagan has chosen an Odd time to pick a fight with con Gress. At no time in Bis Long and no waning presidency has he been in a weaker position and everything he wants to achieve in his remaining months depends on the cooperation of the House and Senate. Vel he has come Back from his meet ing with the other leaders of he Industrial nations proclaiming what Many Mem Bers of Congress simply Don t believe. The truth is he said in his speech to the nation we came Home from the Summit with everything we had hoped to accomplish. I was particularly gratified for exam ple he added for the support our Al lies gave to our persian Gulf policy. So All of ibis is Good news or at least it has been he concluded. You see in the critical match up Between those who want to keep spending your Money and raising your taxes and those of us who resist a return to the old policies of tax and lax spend and spend we have reached break Thui he not Only overstated his Ca Sebut mixed up foreign and Domestic quarrels precisely when Congress is in a mood to question his judgment on Al most everything. What is particularly unfortunate about jus is hat it is happening precisely at a critical Point in the negotiations with the soviet Union for the reduction of nuclear weapons when everybody wants the president to negotiate from strength. Never since Washington and Moscow acquired nuclear weapons has there been such a Chance to get them under control and much credit must be Given to Rea Gan for this Opportunity. It was he and not the russians who proposed is years ago the Complete elimination of . And soviet Fand based intermediate Range missiles. A that Lime he said this week Many labelled it ridiculous and suggested the soviets would never accept it. Well we remained determined and this year the soviets adopted a similar Posi this was not an overs Alemeno the objections of Moscow and the doubts of the allies have been removed and the Way is now open a last for beginning in is no More than that on the intricate process of reducing Prin Ciple to a treaty for Senate ratification. Much remains 10 be done particularly on the terms for verifying the agreement and it is important that the president approach the Summit with All the con Gressional and Public support he can get. All the More surprising then that inthe same speech he appealed for bipartisan support on arms control and also vilified the democrats for threatening the economic Security of the nation. He was for consensus with the rus sians and consensus with the allies but not with Congress. He was going to peo ple with this Issue in the coming months he said. Because believe me if con Gress won t see the Light i know you can make them feel the heat,." this sort of Appeal worked for the president in the past bul Here is a differ ence now. He won t be on the ticket inthe next election and while Hii popularity remains High his judgment has come under question even within his own parly in the last sin months. The Iran Contra hearings will Start again at the end of the month Witholt. Col. Oliver North and rear adm. John Poindexter on the stand and the Iran Iraq War will proceed this time with american planes and ships taking sides in the War zone. So it is a risky time for the president differences Over the past Are unavoidable but what he does t need is a pro Vocative Public Row with Congress whose Voles he needs in the future on Funda mental foreign and Domestic issues. How to reduce these old fevers and let he president approach the Gorbachev Summit with a United country behind him is now the first order of business. For this he needs a preliminary Summit meeting with the leaders of Congress and the sooner the better. That however is apparently not his intention. The weaker he is the tougher he sounds. His wants a constitutional amendment 10 balance the budget but has l yet proposed a balanced budget of his own. He wants to Convoy foreign ships through the persian Gulf to be epic soviets out of there but they be been there for years. All this is weakening the president an this is precisely what the country docs l need Ai he approaches the most important negotiation of his presidency
