Britain: Embattled but Unbowed

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will have already come and gone by then, maintaining the new darker shade of blond she has adopted on the recommendation of an image consultant. Lunch, if not official, is likely to be a salad brought in by her secretary. Dinner is regularly taken at the House of Commons with backbenchers, a habit that builds political capital. It also saves cooking: the Thatchers have no regular cook. After dinner she may have guests for drinks in the family quarters or settle down to several hours of paperwork. Says an aide: "Hers is a nononsense, no-fuss life."

The Thatcher style of leadership "has mellowed a bit," says one Cabinet minister with whom she often disagrees sharply. However, she still tends to dominate discussions among her inner circle, and Cabinet ministers, particularly those who do not share her views, grouse about her overlong lectures and lack of humor. She does display a thoughtfulness about personal situations and an unaffected directness in talking with "little people." On the same day that she has purposely discomfited a minister, she will stop and have a cup of tea with the Downing Street switchboard operators. At a recent Tory conference, a 15-year-old lad made a speech that was a great success. When he was brought to meet the Prime Minister, she first asked if he had called his mother to tell her how the speech went. When he said no, she fished out a tenpence coin from her purse and sent him to a telephone.

At the same time, Thatcher is accused of having no real compassion for the public at large. Critics claim the 2.4 million unemployed seem to be statistics to her, rather than individuals. When an interviewer recently pressed her about a seeming lack of sympathy, Thatcher replied sharply, "It's like a nurse looking after an ill patient. Which is the better nurse —the one who smothers the patient with sympathy and says, 'Never mind, dear. Just lie back. I'll look after you.' Or the one who says, 'Now, come on. Shake out of it. I know you had an operation yesterday. It's time you put your feet to the ground and took a few steps.' Which do you think is the better nurse?"

That sort of unbending self-reliance, when applied to monetarism at the expense of political considerations, has caused deep anxiety among many Tory M.P.s, who have to suffer the brunt of their constituents' discontent over unemployment, bankruptcies and shuttered businesses. Indeed, there is already speculation about Thatcher's political survival if economic conditions show no signs of improvement by next year. Labor M.P. Phillip Whitehead cites a British political rule of thumb: "The Labor Party always talks about getting rid of its leaders, but never does. The Tory Party never talks about getting rid of theirs—but does it." How could a coup against a leader with a 43-seat majority be brought off? One senior minister sketches a simple scenario: "If, after another year to 15 months, there are no signs of an upturn in the economy and a reduction in unemployment, I would expect a Cabinet consensus to force a change of policy. If Thatcher agreed, there need not be any change, except in policy. If she disagreed, it would go to a vote in the Cabinet, and if she were defeated, she would have to go." In such an event, adds the minister, the Tories "would have no alternative but to