Notes
Mr Gerald Kaufman as usual spoiled his case by exaggeration when he described Mrs Thatcher's tour of the Far East as 'one of the most disgraceful trips abroad ever made by a British Prime Minister'. This is a pity, because Mrs Thatcher's behaviour has been extraordin- ary. She has commented on the miners' strike with a freedom which she has not risked at home. This is precisely the wrong way round. She won a great domestic political victory and would be perfectly Justified in pointing this out to a domestic audience. When visiting foreign countries, she may fairly say that this Government has succeeded in making British business a more reliable supplier by curtailing union Power, but she should never score political Points off opponents at home. This is Partly a question of manners — one should not attack one's fellow countrymen in order to please a foreign audience; it is also a question of prudence. There is a useful convention that one does not play home Politics abroad, a convention which Mr Scargill, of course, has already broken. Mrs Thatcher should have stuck to it. By breaking it, she has added to the impres- sion created by her recent American visit that she prefers the company of `enterpris- ing foreigners to that of cussed English- men — a bad impression to give for someone who is running a country rather than an international software firm. The defence that her remarks are all in the interest of British business is particularly damaging: it suggests that business comes before nation and so manages to irritate almost everybody.
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