Britain: After the Week That Was

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As Thatcher tidies her Cabinet, the opposition regroups

Following a monthlong campaign whirl that ended with the thumping re-election of Margaret Thatcher, Britons could be forgiven last week for dearly wishing a respite from political news. It was not to be. Not only did the Prime Minister continue to tidy up her Cabinet, but a pair of opposition leaders, Laborite Michael Foot, 69, and the Social Democrat Roy Jenkins, 62, decided to call it quits. As members of the Liberal Party began grumbling about their alliance with the Social Democratic Party (S.D.P.), their popular chief, David Steel, hinted he might also bow out before the next election.

After leading Labor to its worst defeat since 1918, Foot was expected to announce at the party's convention this October that he would step down. But the hapless chieftain did not even have the privilege of announcing his own departure; instead, an overeager union official named Clive Jenkins made the news public after a chat with the party boss.

The statement sparked a race between moderates and leftists for control of the badly divided party. Deputy Leader Denis Healey, 65, by far the best known of the centrists and one of Britain's liveliest political figures, was deemed out of the race because of his age. Also benched was Tony Benn, 58, longtime archangel of Labor's radical left, who lost his seat in Parliament in the election. Last week's front runner was Neil Kinnock, 41, a staunch leftist whose Welsh charm has won him friends throughout the party and substantial support from the trade unions. On the moderate side, the leading contender was Roy Hattersley, 50, Home Secretary in Labor's outgoing shadow cabinet. Hattersley, unlike Kinnock, was at odds with Labor's controversial campaign manifesto, which called for unilateral disarmament and British withdrawal from the European Community. During the campaign, however, he kept his criticisms to himself and dutifully stumped for Foot.

Jenkins' decision surprised the Social Democrats. Formed by disaffected Laborites in 1981, the S.D.P. won only six seats in the election but in an alliance with the Liberals attracted 26% of the vote. Jenkins received poor reviews as a campaigner, while Deputy Leader David Owen, 44, who served as Foreign Secretary during the government of Labor Prime Minister James Callaghan, emerged as articulate and energetic. Jenkins could have stayed on, but he graciously stepped aside and allowed Owen to take charge.

That did not please Steel, who called Jenkins' swift decision "quite, quite daft." From the outset, Steel, 45, said that he would happily defer to Jenkins as the Alliance's elder statesman. Suddenly, he found himself threatened by a young politician as ambitious and well spoken as himself. Since the Liberals won more seats (17) than the S.D.P., Steel's M.P.s are already pressing for a larger say in Alliance affairs.