BRITAIN: A Choice, Not an Echo

The rival messages: Jobs and Trust vs. Tax Cuts and Freedom

Many of Britain's 35 million voters agree that the May 3 general election could be the country's most significant since World War II. If nothing else, the electorate will be presented with a clear choice, not an echo. Labor's standard-bearer is avuncular James Callaghan, 67, a soothingly familiar leader of his party with a simple message: jobs and trust. His Tory opponent is Margaret Thatcher, 53, determined to become not only Britain's first woman Prime Minister but a rigorously conservative one as well. Her message to the voters was equally plain and concise: tax cuts and freedom.

With his party trailing the Tories by margins of 6% to 21% in the early polls, Callaghan fired the first salvo of the campaign in Glasgow, a traditional Labor fiefdom in Scotland's troubled industrial heartland. Claiming that his Labor government had "directly created and protected" 1.2 million jobs, he declared: "There is not a single part of the United Kingdom that would not suffer from the Conservative policy of cutting the jobs program. They would turn Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and many regions of England into deserts of unemployment."

In barnstorming the country with his folksy "Sunny Jim" image, Callaghan conveyed a sense of confidence that could not have been more than smile-deep. A disastrous winter of crippling strikes robbed Callaghan of what could have been his strongest campaign weapon: Labor's ability to work smoothly with Britain's powerful trade unions. Beyond that, many voters were well aware that Callaghan was saddled with a compromise manifesto, or platform, that had been hammered out between the party's moderates and its disproportionately influential left wing. Callaghan had held out for a program that would not frighten away crucial swing-voters that both Labor and the Tories need in order to win office. A tough and shrewd infighter, he made it plain at one point that the choice was between him and the left's proposals. Callaghan won, but not before Eric Heffer, a leading member of the left-wing Tribune Group, grumbled, "Jim, you're not God, you know. I'm not even sure you're a socialist."

The approved draft of the manifesto proposes a cut in income tax but a new "wealth tax" on the affluent, increased spending on health and social services, a proportional reduction in defense outlays, and an end to the power of the House of Lords, which is overwhelmingly Tory, to delay legislation.

Carefully guarding their lead in the polls, Thatcher's Tories did not begin their official campaigning until this week. The decision to hold back was part of a Conservative strategy to put Labor out front, thereby denying Callaghan the opportunity to attack Thatcher policies by forcing him to defend his own record as Prime Minister for the past three years. There was also fear among Tory tacticians that Thatcher might fall back into her earlier habit of making provocative statements, thus committing a campaign gaffe that could cost the Tories their lead.