Chapter 1635: Internal Struggle

This is a landmark event that deserves to be written about, this is a good start, if Mrs. Thatcher can facilitate the summit meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union, to sign the INF treaty.

If Mrs. Thatcher could bring about a summit between the United States and the Soviet Union and get the INF treaty signed, then from a European perspective, Mrs. Thatcher would really be a credit to herself, and it might just be the turning point of a new era.

It seems that everyone is happy, Alan Wilson is not, he and Mrs. Thatcher on the British Westland company belongs to the disagreement, in fact, the disagreement does not lie in the two men’s tendency, the Cabinet in the original there are different voices, the two people only support the voice of different.

Westland is also the production of helicopters, but by Pamela Mountbatten squeeze is very bad, the company’s vast majority of products are used for domestic demand.

However, due to a serious shortage of openings, this company’s annual loss last year was already as high as 100 million pounds, since Keynesianism is a thing of the past, the Conservative government naturally can not be rescued by way of capital injection.

The United States Sickles Helicopter Company. The United Technologies Corporation of America, a subsidiary of the company, has joined forces with the Italian Fiat Company and offered to buy it out by offering to raise £7,200 and provide an order for one million man-hours over three years.

Britton, the trade minister, and Sir John Cackney, chairman of Westland, also favored this American proposal, but it was also an opportunity to unify the domestic market, and Pamela Mountbatten, of course, wanted to merge with this long-standing challenger, although with Pamela Mountbatten’s wife stepping in to merge, the purpose was a little too obvious.

In fact, the richest woman began to look for friends on a common front, with Alan Wilson contacting British Aerospace and General Electric in the UK, and Pamela Mountbatten seeking out Aerospatiale de France, Agista in Italy, and Messerschmitt in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Together with the Mountbatten Group itself, they raised seventy-three million pounds sterling to secure orders for three million three hundred thousand man-hours. The “European Consortium” also has the full support of the French, Italian and German Ministries of Defense. The present program has the support of the Minister of Defense, Heseltine.

“I’m really puzzled about this matter, to the current conditions, is not supposed to argue from this, obviously got the endorsement of the three ministries of defense plus the country’s defense minister within the support of the fools know how to choose, but also in the cabinet to argue?”

Alan Wilson came to the Ministry of Defense, normally he should not come, after all, one of the European Group, there is his wife, but there is a saying that the promotion of wisdom does not avoid relatives.

The sense of mission made it necessary for him to come over, he couldn’t let Britton . . and Westland’s board of directors to ignore Britain’s defense interests.

“Good, normally this is not supposed to be a stalemate, Britton has supporters behind him, and who do you think is supporting him, honorable Sir?” Heseltine asked directly back at Alan Wilson, “Sir, you say?”

“Are you trying to say the Prime Minister?” Heseltine hinted with such obviousness that Alan Wilson would look too foolish if he still couldn’t guess it, “The so-called Atlanticists, right?”

Heseltine nodded, from a political point of view, the differences between the two cabinet members of Britton and Heseltine essentially reflect the differences between the so-called Atlantic tendency and the so-called European tendency.

This is an old problem within the Conservative Party, especially since the establishment of relations between Britain and the European Community after World War II.

The focus of the differences between the two factions is that the “Atlanticists” emphasize the special relationship between Britain and the United States and use it to guide their words and deeds, of course, in theory, on the premise of not harming the interests of the United Kingdom.

The “Europeans” emphasized the close relationship between Britain and the Western European countries, and argued for the primacy of the Anglo-European relationship over the Anglo-American special relationship.

“If the Prime Minister really thinks that American interests are more important, then I can’t stay in this cabinet.” Heseltine made his attitude clear that he could not stay in the midst of such a cabinet.

“I’ll ask the Prime Minister.” Alan Wilson changed his attitude, first stabilizing Heseltine and then asking Margaret Thatcher about her attitude.

Privatization had been going on for more than five years, and the benefits to our friends were real, but the beneficiaries of this privatization were to include even the United States? That was a point of discussion.

Alan Wilson remembers that Heseltine was a sort of challenger to Margaret Thatcher in the Conservative Party, and that in the end Margaret Thatcher’s downfall had a huge amount to do with Heseltine. Although it only resulted in a lose-lose situation and Heseltine did not end up becoming the British Prime Minister, the politician was just as bad as the Iron Lady.

Before meeting Mrs. Thatcher, however, Alan Wilson sent a telegram to his wife, unable to determine if Pamela Mountbatten was resting because of the time difference.

Soon the phone was called back to the UK to ask what was going on, and hearing Alan Wilson put things together, the richest woman was surprised, “This matter is surprisingly worthy of discussion, it is obvious that we are asking for a much higher price.”

“Contact the European countries to pressure Britain, the rest of the matter I asked Mrs. Thatcher what she thought.” Alan Wilson replied painfully.

“I’m just surprised, are the Atlanticists that powerful?” Pamela Mountbatten, of course trusting her husband, still said, “What do they think?”

“Blood is thicker than water and heretics are more hateful than infidels, very Schrödinger in themselves, people think differently, and there are pro-Europeans in the Tories, and Atlanticists in the Labor Party, but it’s a matter of proportion. Minister Heseltine, though, has such an obvious pro-European streak that I’m surprised.”

Alan Wilson said this and added, “My dear, she’s done us a great deal of good these last few years, but who is going to be able to meet our requirements in any way?”

There is certainly a high likelihood of a pro-European Prime Minister emerging from the Labour Party, but the Labour Party is not going to push for privatization, the Conservative Party pushes for privatization, but then the Conservative Party could emerge as a pro-US Prime Minister, and it’s all a no-brainer.

Even in the Conservative Party, there were not many people who dared to promote privatization in this way. Margaret Thatcher’s privatization policy was more and more deeply related to the political philosophy of developing capitalism and opposing all forms of “socialism”.

The post-war Conservative governments more or less inherited some of the Social Democratic policy measures and borrowed some of the Kainish methods. In contrast to the approach of her predecessor as Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher went radically down the path of liberal capitalism.

Examples of the gains made by Pamela Mountbatten and her friends are too numerous to mention. The growth in the wealth of the richest woman in the last five years has been inextricably linked to Mrs. Thatcher’s administration; for example, in 1981 and 1983, the government twice sold its shares in the International Cable Company for a total of £4.5 billion.

Another example is that in 1981, the Government sold more than half of its shares in the British Aerospace Corporation, which had belonged to the State 100 per cent of the time, leaving only 49 per cent of the shares, and received 43 million pounds sterling; and two years later, the Government sold its shares in British Airways’ subsidiary company, International Airways, and received 60 million pounds sterling.

Another example is the government’s second sale of British Petroleum, in which it originally held fifty-one percent of the shares, and after selling twenty percent of the shares, it recovered six hundred million pounds.

Meanwhile BP, which the government built two years ago with profits from North Sea oil and gas, received £400 million when it was sold in its entirety.

The examples are many, many, many, and together with tax cuts and the introduction of capital into what were public services, the richest woman and her friends have made a fortune.

Publicly owned businesses were handed over to private tenants or owned and operated. This is the concessionary system practiced mainly in the tertiary sector, whereby schools, canteens, park maintenance, garbage collection, road repair, street food retailing and street cleaning and sanitation are given to private tenants.

Many of these policies, for which the richest woman deserves thanks, are in sectors in which she is involved and in which private capital is being allowed to enter in the UK itself. The benefits brought about by private entry are simply not worth mentioning in a few words.

With such a pro-privatization prime minister in place, Alan Wilson certainly hoped that the differences would not constitute a conflict, and when he came to 10 Downing Street for persuasion, he informed the prime minister’s private secretary that others should not be let in.

Alan Wilson lashed out at the Atlantic faction represented by Britton, saying nonchalantly, “A lot of people think the investigation into him is about to start, and I even think there are people in Whitehall who are cooperating with him. The pro-American faction cannot be allowed to make its voice heard in Whitehall, and I want an investigation into this.”

“You are far more wary of the United States than even the Soviet Union.” Margaret Thatcher listened to Alan Wilson’s words with an expressionless face, “Your wife’s circle has gotten so far that you won’t even let a helicopter company go? What do you take me for?”

“An important asset of the country should of course be handed over to reliable people. As for being wary of the United States, it’s because there are no pro-Soviets by nature, either in political parties or in Whitehall, whereas the guys who are nominally Atlantic and don’t actually know whether their nationality is British or American, well, that’s not always the case.”

Alan Wilson walked over to Mrs. Thatcher and bent down to inquire, “Dear Prime Minister, what is the logic of Britton’s claim, you just have to convince me and we can all be at peace with each other. Otherwise, I’m going to conduct an inquiry into him, the results of which are likely to be similar to Parkinson’s, and will inevitably have to make a trip to the Supreme Court.”

“You?” Mrs. Thatcher looked up at Alan Wilson in displeasure, but was immediately met with a verbal barrage that was so hard to break away from, “This is Ten Downing Street, how dare you?”

“I didn’t want to.” Alan Wilson reached up and wiped the lipstick off the corner of his mouth, still with that austere, not half-apologetic look, “Whether it’s from the Parliament or from the civil perception, the Eurogroup’s proposal is more appropriate.”

“Unless you can prove that the latter program is really supported by the European countries.” Mrs. Thatcher took a step back panting, “Then there will be something to talk about.”

“It’s very simple. Make both programs public and you’ll see where the European countries stand on the matter.” Alan Wilson was confident and seemed to have plenty of faith in this.