Maggie's Mixed Team

Monetarist visionaries and moderate brakes

With her visceral "conviction politics," Margaret Thatcher sometimes comes across as a right-wing ideologue, but she is far too savvy to build a government in her own image. For one thing, Britain's new Prime Minister is enough of a realist to recognize that a Cabinet stacked with right-wingers would be as divisive for the country as it would be for her own broad-based party. For another, she needs and wants experienced lieutenants, which means re-enlisting a number of proven moderates from Edward Heath's 1970-74 administration.

Accordingly, the new Tory government she named on Saturday emerged as a diverse team ranging across a wide political spectrum. To be sure, a number of relatively unknown conservatives who make up Thatcher's "inner team" won places in the government. But many top jobs went to relatively liberal party veterans who have reservations about Thatcher's attitudes and judgment, and who will act as a brake on some of her more abrasive economic, social and foreign policy views.

The man that many regard as "Margaret's mentor," brilliant, brooding Sir Keith Joseph, 61, proved too controversial to be kept too close to her side. A cerebral, Oxford-educated Jewish businessman, Joseph more than anyone else has been responsible for the Tories' monetarist vision of an unfettered economy. Joseph has been accused of insensitivity toward the poor--he once claimed that what Britain needed was "more millionaires and more bankrupts"--and even some Tories characterize him as a "mad monk." Sir Keith readily admits the failings that have made him a bogeyman to the left. "I know I have a first-class mind," he once said, "but I have no political judgment whatsoever." Thus, despite his powerful influence on Thatcher, he was given the relatively minor Cabinet post of Minister for Industry.

In the vital area of economic policy, which she rightly judges will make or break her government, Thatcher will rely heavily on very trusted aides who share Joseph's fiscal views. Sir Geoffrey Howe, 52, a former left-wing Tory long since converted to tight money and tax cuts, became Chancellor of the Exchequer. John Nott, 47, a tough Cornishman once fired by Heath as too inflexible, became Secretary for Trade and Prices. John Biffen, 48, a deceptively shy but zealous right-wing purist and nationalistic opponent of the Common Market, was named Chief Secretary of the Treasury, in effect, director of the budget. Thatcher's one concession to the moderates on the economic front: confirming James Prior, 51, as Employment Secretary. A ruddy Suffolk farmer and most prominent of the so-called Tory social democrats, Prior has carefully tried to build "bridges toward the unions."

High visibility as Deputy Prime Minister and Home Secretary went to William Whitelaw, 60, a senior Tory moderate. The big (6 ft. 2 in.) and bighearted former Secretary for Northern Ireland is the Tories' genial, Scottish aristocratic answer to Jim Callaghan. Though intensely loyal to Thatcher, he has nonetheless been able to temper her views on such key issues as immigration, the death penalty and trade union reform. Unlike Thatcher, Whitelaw has an emotional attachment to the "special relationship" with the U.S., which dates back to World War II, when he fought alongside American forces as a decorated officer in the elite Scots Guards.

Thatcher gave the prized Foreign and Defense portfolios to two experienced and highly respected centrists. Both are blue-blooded Etonians and both, like Whitelaw, are strongly pro-European and pro-American. The Foreign Secretary is Lord Peter Carrington, 59, a witty, flexible former Defense Secretary and Energy Secretary under Heath, who is well acquainted with world leaders from Carter to Brezhnev and whose views on Rhodesia, for example, are probably closer to Callaghan's than Thatcher's. Defense went to the shadow Foreign Secretary, Francis Pym, 57, the popular presumptive heir to Thatcher as leader of the party. A direct descendant of the John Pym who aided Cromwell in the struggle against King Charles I, he is liberal on most domestic issues but closely attuned to Thatcher's hawkish foreign views. The even trickier job of Secretary for Northern Ireland, however, was given to a Thatcher partisan, Humphrey Atkins, 56, who was Conservative chief whip in opposition and one of her earliest party supporters.

The prestigious post of majority floor leader in the Commons went to Norman St. John-Stevas (pronounced Singe-an Steve-az), 49, a Roman Catholic bachelor, a stylishly provocative essayist and a noted Bloomsbury wit. He is the Tories' resident eccentric (on his bedroom wall hangs a black stocking once worn by Queen Victoria).

Other notable centrists were also included. The shadow Defense Secretary, Sir Ian Gilmour, 52, a tall, gaunt, middle-of-the-road advocate of "consensus" rather than "conviction" politics, moved to the Foreign Office as Deputy Secretary; he will speak on foreign affairs in the House of Commons while Carrington sits in the House of Lords. Peter Walker, 47, a former boy wonder in the Heath administration, became Minister for Agriculture. David Howell, 43, another youthful comer from the Heath era, was named Secretary for Energy.

The irony was that it was a largely "Heath" Cabinet--without Heath. Thatcher's defeated party rival had loyally campaigned hard for the Tory cause but without once mentioning her name. He had been considered for the possible post of Secretary for European Affairs, but wanted a top job such as Treasury or the Foreign Office, or nothing. In the end, nothing is what he got.

Her own precedent notwithstanding, Thatcher named only one woman to the government--Sally Oppenheim, 48, as Minister for Consumer Affairs--and was expected to add only one or two others to equally junior positions.

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