Controversy surrounds Thatcher's son
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from October 1994.
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Her aides made no comment on Monday and they said that Lady Thatcher - still revered by many of the party faithful - would go ahead with plans. to appear at the four-day conference on Tuesday, its opening day.
The controversy surrounding Mark Thatcher, 40, appeared likely to grow - underlining the tarnished image of the Britain's governing party after 15 unbroken years in office.
In the past year, Prime Minister John Major has fallen below the unpopularity ratings that prompted a party revolt in November 1990 that forced Margaret Thatcher out of office.
Major's personal ratings have improved in recent months but the party continues to trail badly behind Labour under a new, youthful and reforming leader, Tony Blair.
A Gallup poll published Monday indicated that most voters regard the Conservatives as sleazy, tired and no more likely to cut taxes than the resurgent opposition Labour Party.
"That is most unfair," party chairman Jeremy Hanley said of the poll in which 61 percent of the 1,115 voters questioned agreed that the Conservatives are "sleazy and disreputable." Only 18 percent said the same about Labour.
"If people looked at the vast majority of the government's record they would see absolute propriety," Hanley added.
The charges of sleaze against the Conservatives, the party of big business, include windfall share options for heads of utility companies that have been sold off under Conservative privatization programs.
A recent Trade Department inquiry into insider trading cleared one of the brightest stars at Conservative conferences, bestselling novelist Jeffrey Archer, who is a former deputy chairman of the party. But the inquiry report was never published and the jibes continue.
Labour on Monday stepped up demands for a public inquiry into allegations in The Sunday Times that Mark Thatcher made 12 million pounds (then US$15 million) in commission on a huge British arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Britain won the 20-billion pound ($25 billion) two-stage deal to provide fighter aircraft and other armaments in 1985, beating off fierce French competition.
The Sunday Times quoted from transcripts of tapes in which members of the Saudi royal family talk about Mark Thatcher's "excellent connections" with the British gov't. Mark Thatcher, a former racing driver, moved to Dallas, Texas, 10 years ago. British critics have long accused him of trading on his mother's fame and of being linked to other arms deals.
A London newspaper, Today, on Monday quoted Thatcher as saying he had done nothing wrong, but that he would be reluctant to face an inquiry because "it would be a no-win situation."
"The idea that I run around peddling Kalashnikovs or second-hand MiG jets is ridiculous. I haven't even sold a penknife," the newspaper quoted Thatcher as saying from Dallas.
