BRITAIN: A Tough Lady for the Tories

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Thin Smile. The critical scrutiny that Mrs. Thatcher can expect to receive from her own party will hardly compare to the dressing-down Labor will try to inflict upon her as leader of the opposition. Perhaps exhausted by the tension of the past two weeks, she seemed unprepared to deal with Prime Minister Harold Wilson's irrepressible gamesmanship in their first parliamentary encounter. Admitting a "deep gulf between her and me in political philosophy," Wilson said that he nevertheless "looked forward to the informality and, if I may say so, the intimacy of our meetings behind [the House Speaker's] chair." As male members roared at this chauvinist double-entendre, Mrs. Thatcher's polite fixed smile seemed to wear a little thin. But she is unlikely to be caught off balance often. Even senior Labor M.P.s concede that with her rapier-sharp forensic skills, she is likely to prove a very formidable opponent at the dispatch box.

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