Since the Conservatives' landslide victory of 1983 the story had been mixed

indeed: inflation had come down to 3 per cent (from a high of 22 per cent), and Britain had the highest GNP growth in Europe; however, unemployment was still at 13 per cent, and the nuclear-freeze movement (inherently anti-Reagan and anti-Thatcher) was very strong. Mr. Tebbit's delivery is restrained, but he is extremely knowledgeable and at the heart of current British politics. Samples: "We have decisively changed people's thinking over some of these old shibboleths of 19th-century socialism; the Labour Party ought to be grateful to us for helping to bring them into the early 20th century." "I must say the class structure in Britain has never worried me unduly, coming from my background [straight from high school into journalism, thence to the RAF and a stint as a

civilian pilot] to being Chairman of the Conservative Party.... I think we're a very

much less class-ridden society than France, for example--very much easier to move through the classes in Britain."