Won’t Spend Money to Create Jobs--Thatcher

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a day after being warned by one of her ministers that complacency over joblessness would be “political suicide” for her Conservative Party, today rejected demands for an injection of government cash into the economy as a means of easing record unemployment.

In the closing speech of the annual party conference here, Thatcher said: “We are sometimes told by politicians and pollsters that people would prefer more inflation and less unemployment.

“You cannot choose to have either inflation or unemployment. They are not alternatives.”

Thatcher said that in its six years in power her government has boosted opportunities for new businesses and increased the training of young people. “But there is one thing we will not do. We will not reflate,” she said.

Thatcher, addressing her 10th consecutive party conference as leader, was responding to calls both inside and outside the ruling party for an increase in state investment to alleviate the jobless rate, currently 13.8%.

Energy Minister Peter Walker warned here in a speech Thursday night that Thatcher could sacrifice a third term in 1987 or 1988 if she fails to tackle the unemployment problem.

Walker said even traditionally Conservative voters now perceive the government as uncaring.

Thatcher said today: “I am only too painfully aware of the problem of unemployment. . . . There is no problem which occupies more of my thinking and that of my colleagues.”

Referring to recent inner-city riots, involving mainly unemployed black youths, she said:

“Whoever these people are who riot, burn and murder, whoever they are organized by, there is no excuse, no justification whatsoever, for such crime and vandalism.”

She said the government will provide the police with extra men and new types of equipment if these are needed to cope with civil unrest.