Page 4-Tuesday, May 22, 1979-The Michigan Daily
1MChigan Dail
Eighty-nine Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48109
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 15-S News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Thatcher 's cabinetfaces
an ununited kingdom
LONDON-The coming to
power of Margaret Thatcher has
produced a whole new political
ball game in Britain-and not
just because she is the first
woman in the Western world to
become Prime Minister.
Of anta cirifirae fn tha
ygreaer sigmncance ror he
d hcountry is the fact that the elec-
toral voting pattern revealed
S tate national divisions more pronoun-
ced than ever before.
o o e-gd es YEARS AGO, after the 13-year
period of Tory rule ended in 1964
MERICANS OFTEN peer down from their vative Party's main strength lay
pedestals to smugly deride the "uncivilized" ingSouthern and Eastern
world. We recoil in shock when the Ayatollah Its most solid support had for
Khomeini issues an open death warrant for the long been in the counties strung
Shah Reza Pahlevi. We deem Idi Amin Dada a along the south coast, in the great
subhuman creature in view of the torture and belt of commuter suburbs around
genocide he ordered. We support the idea of London. Rural counties like
human rights and denounce the Soviets andpopulated with a preponderance of
Chinese as unmitigated murderers of convicted comfortably off, middle class
traitors. families, have returned few, if
The hypocrisy of the "civilized" world surfaces any Labour members to
on such occasions as Wednesday, when two But there was once also a solid
Florida men are slated to be put to death in the spresd of Tory support in the
electric chair. Proponents of capital punishment North and in Scotland. Today that
claim it is alright to kill if a judge and jury, or is not the case, and the most
several courts, approve. They further assure us marked feature of the latest elec-
that killing is still wrong, but then add the tion was the small swing to the
tht niless oen a aenaohrlf. conservatives in these parts of
qualifier, unless someone has taken another life- the country compared with that
The government has no right to invoke the death in the South. In the South the
penalty. It is morally reprehensible and beyond Tories gained by 7 or 8 per cent;
the jurisdiction of any body invested with public in the North it was only 3 or 4per
trus to rotet it peolecent and in Scotland there was a
trust to protect its people. small swing to
Residents of 35 states apparently support Labour-although, of course,
government's right to kill. Of these, Florida has there were exceptions.
the largest death row population, 134 individuals, Overall, however, the Thatcher
John Spenkelink and Willie Darden among them. government has little support in
Proponents of the death penalty claim it works tle indeed in Scotland. It
as a deterrent to murder, because if criminals will therefore depends for its existen-
not commit the crime if they know their own lives ce on the solid support of the
will be forfeited for the one they take. No reliable South.
evidence has confirmed that capital punishment The Tory Party has turned into
hasan eteren efectwhatever, In fact, the st-a party of the suburbs, commuter
has any deterrent effect areas, white collar workers and
ates with the highest murder rates also invoke the the middle class. This has hap-
death penalty most frequently. Furthermore, pened for several reasons, but
capital punishment has been found to incite
homicide rather than prevent it. -
Capital punishment reflects a culture of L etters
violence, which can resolve its ills only through
more violence. That atmosphere is accentuated
each time lethal vengence is employed. MSA
Psychologists maintain that punishment is only
effective if it is imposed swiftly and with a great To the Daily:
degree of certainty. But even when executions I have already written one
peaked in American history (a few hundred per letter of concern to the Univesity
year) only a minority of convicted murderers Board of Regents concerning my
dissatisfaction with the cer-
were put to death. Due to the many procedural cb- tification of the Michigan Student
stacles to execution, prompt enactment of the Assembly (MSA). In my previous
penalty is impossible. letter, I have stated why I feel
Recidivism, which the death penalty that MSA cannot legitimately
eliminates, is low anyway for murder-mur- represent the students this year.
For these reasons, I hope the
derers spend more time in jail than any other students will respond to the ac-
criminals. And research shows that murder is tions ILam taking. The first step is
rarely a premeditated act. for students to refuse to pay the
If the death penalty served a purpose as a $2.92 that students pay for MSA
.n.o. .- during a full term. MSA needs
deterrent to homicide or even if it were justly i- this money to operate. By
posed, it might be more understandable. Blacks refusing to pay this cost, students
are no longer disproportionately represented on can express their dissatisfaction
death row. But killers of whites still are more of- with the MSA election. Further,
ten convicted than those of blacks. by not paying this fee, the student
Spenkelink's and Darden's deaths will do is expressing the fact that he or
p she does not view the present
nothing to protect society. Executing them, in MSA as legitimate. So, I ask you
fact, only serves to make society less safe and less when the time comes to pay your
civilized, regardless of Court sanctions. tuition, leave outthe amount that
By Derek Ingram
particularly because former
Tory Prirle Minister Edward
Heath and now Margaret That-
cher are both products of this
particular environment.
PREVIOUS TORY
leaders-Churchill, Macmillan
and Douglas-Home-came from
aristocratic backgrounds and
commanded much broader sup-
port from all over the country.
Margaret Thatcher
Mrs. Thatcher has almost no
point of contact with the people of
the North of England and
Scotland.
The peoples of the great in-
dustrial north of Britain are a
more rugged breed than those of
the rather softer south, which is
warmer in climate than it is in
heart.
Since Mrs. Thatcher became
Party leader four years ago she
has had little success in winning
over the people of the North. She
plainly finds it difficult to strikea
rapport with them en masse and
they with her.
All this has great significance
for her Premiership. The North is
where much of the industrial
wealth of Britain lies. The Labour
Government provided, in a
nerind of high unemnlvment.
substantial aid for major firms
and subsidies for jobs in the Nor-
th. The Tories are pledged to
remove many of these in their
drive to cut expenditures. The
pledges have cost them many
votes in these areas.
THE - GREAT political
challenge for Mrs. Thatcher will
come on the industrial front. She
promises a tougher stand against
the unions, yet she and her party
find themselves weakest in the
areas of grest union strength,
But it is not only in her policies
that she will face great difficulty
in the North; she must somehow
get herself over to the people of
those areas. At the moment she is
to them a rather remote southern
suburbanitewhose experience
and background does not relate to
their lives in any way.
Just as difficult will be the
problem of getting into some
relationship with Scotland. The
Tories have moved away from
the idea of a Scottish Assembly
while Labour, in the wake of the
indecisive referendum held last
March, has kept its options open.
As a result, many of Scotland's 72
seats showed little or no swing
against Labour.
The Tories have almost no base
in Scotland-Teddy Taylor, the
man who was to have become
Scottish Secretary, actually lost
his seat.
In effect, then, this election has
split Britain three ways. It por-
tends a possible quickening
towards regionalism-even to a
federal Britain with assemblies
in the north of England as well as
in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Mrs. Thatcher's biggest task
will be to unite the people after an
election that has only too clearly
further divided the nation.
Derek Ingram is Managing
Editor of the London-based
Gemini News Service. He
wrote this piece for Pacific
News Service.
F..aavu va 14151a uaaa aaaraav aaacaab,
is listed as going to MSA.
The second step I ask students
to do is to participate in a recall
campaign against every single
MSA representative that was
elected in the April election. By
participating in this recall cam-
paign, the students of this univer-
sity can state that MSA does not
represent the student body
because of the electing
irregularities. A recall campaign
will be a difficult one that can
only occur with the support of
many students. The recall
provisions as stated in the All-
Campus Constitution of the
Student Body of the University of
Michigan in Article VII, Section
D, p. 13, outlines the recall
procedure. Basically, a recall
petition requires the signatures
of 1,000 students or one-tenth of
the school's or college's enrolled
students (the lesser of the two).
So, you can see.a recall of every
single MSA member is no easy
task. I urge all University un-
dergraduate students to support
this recall campaign to bring
legitimacy and credibility to-.
student government and MSA.
Please remember, refuse to
pay your MSA dues and to get ac-
tive in the recall campaign.
Student government is your voice
in University policies, actions,
and decisions. Your voice deser-
ves credibility.
-Steve Ruskin
Sexist headline
To the Daily:
To refer to athletes Sheila
Mayberry and Blaise Supler as
"Women tracksters" in a
headline (May 18, 1979) is no less
sexist than the Athletic Depar-
tment's discriminatory prac-
tices. Your reference implies that
tracksters ought to be men and
that Mayberry and Supler are
anomalies. It's just like the terms
"woman lawyer" and "male nur-
se." I hope the Daily will refrain
from further use of such sexist
language.
-Barbara Zahs