Barely in Business

A breast-feeding mother with her two-week-old infant in tow. A Britain-baiting bartender from Northern Ireland. A maverick former Tory who has been widely denounced as a racist. It was an odd trio, but their support proved essential to Britain's beleaguered Labor government last week as Parliament narrowly passed a series of hotly debated bills. Had the measures been defeated, Prime Minister James Callaghan could have been forced to dissolve the Commons and call for new elections. The closeness of the votes was further proof that Callaghan's hold on No. 10 Downing Street has become as tenuous as the value of a pound note.

Two Seats. The Prime Minister, however, will probably be able to hang on for about another year before asking the voters for a mandate, which he is constitutionally required to do before October 1979. Reason: the Labor Party and the minority parties supporting it in Parliament would almost certainly suffer a catastrophic defeat. In three key by-elections last month--all held in traditional Labor strongholds--roughly 16% of voters who had backed Labor candidates in the general election two years ago switched to the opposition Tories, who picked up two of the seats. The government now commands only 316 votes in the 635-seat House--312 Labor M.P.s and four consistent supporters--and has lost its working majority. Exulted Tory Leader Margaret Thatcher: "Dry rot has set into the government house, and you know just how quickly dry rot runs through a whole building."

Despite these gloomy omens, the government tried to ramrod through Parliament five controversial bills--among them a measure nationalizing the country's ship and aircraft building industries--that the country's powerful labor unions had demanded as a quid pro quo for voluntarily helping to keep wage increases down. All the bills had been passed once before by the Commons and sent on to the Tory-dominated House of Lords. Unable to throw out the bills, the Lords nonetheless tacked on more than 100 crippling amendments and sent them back to the Commons.

The government wanted the legislation passed before the current parliamentary session ends Nov. 23. And after the loss of the two seats in the by-elections, Labor whips had to muster every vote possible. Thus Labor M.P. Helene Hayman, 27, took part in voting after setting up her own private wet nursery in a room adjoining the Commons chamber. On the critical ship and aircraft bill, the barkeep, Independent Frank McGuire, 47, came into play; a supporter of the Irish Republican movement who normally backs the government on domestic issues, when he votes at all, was closely escorted through the voting lobbies by two Labor M.P.s. The crisis eased in part when former Tory Enoch Powell, who is best known for his savage attacks on Third World immigration to Britain, hinted he would not vote to bring down the government "for some time yet."

On one measure the government received a stinging setback. At issue was a bill that would allow longshoremen--who belong to the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union, led by Jack Jones, a key supporter of the government's wage-austerity program--the right to handle cargo up to five miles away from British coastal ports. The legislation gives union members a foothold in the unloading of container shipping, which has reduced the need for longshore labor at docksides. The Lords had narrowed the proposed law's application to a half-mile zone around ports. In voting to rescind two amendments, a pair of Labor backbenchers abstained, and the government was defeated, 310-308 and 311-308.

Those two losses were not serious enough to bring down the government, but Callaghan and his followers were clearly put on warning that their room to maneuver in Parliament had been drastically reduced. It was hardly a reassuring sign for the government, as it awaited the terms of a deal still being pieced together in London with representatives of the International Monetary Fund. The negotiations involve terms for a $3.9 billion loan that is to help tide over nearly bankrupt Britain until North Sea oil revenues relieve the current balance of payments crisis. Callaghan will probably have to promise further national belt tightening to gain the IMF credits--meaning, in all likelihood, an equally tight check on his government's freedom of action in the Commons.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.