Date: 1983-07-20
Speaker: PHILIP M. CRANE (republican)
Chamber: S

Mr. Speaker. in his column in the Washington Post on June 15. 1983. David S. Broder wrote of the relevance of the recent election in the United Kingdom to the election scheduled for the United States next year. He cited "two messages" to American Democrats from the British election. One concerned a domestic problem. unemployment. possibly the overriding domestic issue in 1984. the other related to the nuclear freeze question which may be the paramount foreign affairs issue in the United States next year unless the less fanatical advocates of the freeze pull back. Said Mr. Broder: Parallels are never perfect in politics. but there are two messages from the British election that have special importance for the Democrats. One is that in a modern welfare state." He went oneven doubledigit unemployment is not necessarily fatal to a conservative regime. The cushioning of jobless benefits defuses the anger and reduces the visibility of the unemployed. And the reduction of inflation. the other side of recessionary economics. brings big political benefits among the vast majority of voters who are either employed or retired. "The second message." Mr. Broder concluded. is that a party can go so far in campaigning against nuclear weapons. and no farther. When it strays beyond the limit. it goes over the edge of credibility cliff. The Heritage Foundation. on June 13. in its own analysis of the "Lessons of the Tory Triumph." made these observations: Most critical of all to the election success. Thatcher was able to defuse the issue of unemploymentnow running at nearly 13 percent. Preelection polls showed that about 50 percent of the population rated unemployment as the elections most serious issue. Yet the Conservatives picked up well over a quarter of the votes of the unemployedalmost half the number going to Labor. The Thatcher government did this by convincing the electorate that real. lasting jobs could only come with a healthy and growing economy. The government stood of Remarks July 20. 1983 steadfast against "Jobs" bills. and refused even to predict the unemployment rates would fall. By maintaining this firm stand. Conservatives could argue that they stood for policies aimed at permanent job creation. and denounce the other parties as favoring votebuying shortterm relief while endangering longterm growth. Regarding the second. or nuclear weapons message. of which Mr. Broder spoke. numerous statements made by Michael Foot of the Labour Party. during the campaign in Britain. advocating unilateral disarmament. disbanding NATO. and proposing in general an isolationist foreign policy. caused a highly unfavorable reaction among the voters and even within the leadership of his own party. One 18year member of the Labour Party dicided not to vote Labour saying. "Its like a leftwing * * * has taken over my party." Indeed it had. In an interview with the London correspondent of the Washington Post. Foot had said. "I believe that we in Britain should not proceed with thedeployment ofcruise or Pershing missiles. I am also opposed to proceeding with thepurchase ofTrident. We want to move towards a nonnuclear defense program." In a statement evocative of those by leaders of the left in our own country. Foot added. "I think that over the past 2 or 3 years. the American attitude has contributed more fiercely to the arms race than the Soviet Union." In another statement Foot proclaimed that Britains presently owned Polaris missiles should be destroyed. which brough the comment from Labour leader Denis Healey. "* * * we should not give them up unilaterally." Foot also made a repeated campaign pledge .that if Labour were elected. Britain would be a "nonnuclear nation" in 5 years. What were the results of Labours policy? A landslide defeat. Labour now holds only 209 seats. 144 under the majority. It received only 28 percent of the vote. Its leaders. such as Tony Benn. have either lost their seats in Parliament or. as Foot himself. stepped down. The party is in a shambles. These messages to Democrats. that Mr. Broder sees in the British election outcome. can be instructive to Republicans as well.e