The Michigan Daily-Thursday, May 3, 1979--Page 7 Laborites o LONDON (AP) - The United Kingdom's 41 million voters decide today whether the country will continue along a moderate socialist path under the Laborites of Prime Minister James Callaghan or take a sharp turn to the right under the Conservatives of Margaret Thatcher. Late opinion polls indicated a fairly even split among the country's voters, raising the prospect of a ""hung parliament," with neither the Laborites nor the Conservatives winning an overall majority to govern the country for the next five years. FOUR LATE polls in today's morning newspapers predicted Thatcher will topple Callaghan. Three polls backed a Conservative forecast of a 25-to 30-seat majority in the 635-member House of Commons, while the established Gallup Poll predicted the Tories will win only a slight margin, and probably not enough for an overall majority. Before the polls were published, both Callaghan and Thatcher 'cautiously claimed their parties would triumph. "WE HAVE considerable grounds for cautious optimism" said Thatcher at her final pre-election news conference yesterday. Callaghan closed the campaign after a visit to his own parliamentary district in Cardiff, Wales. "If you vote Conser- vative you'll vote for change with chaos," he said in a speech last night. "Tomorrow's vote is going to deter- mine the shape of our society in the 1980s." Both leaders must run for re-election to the House of Parliament in their own election districts. Thatcher's district is in suburban London. CALLAGHAN HAS been fighting an uphill battle since a no-confidence vote forced dissolution of Parliament in March. Thatcher at first seemed con- fident in her quest to become Europe's first woman prime minister. But the polls showed that the early 22 per cent commanding lead of the Con- servatives, or Tories as they are called, was steadily whittled down during the month of campaigning. The National Opinion Poll published today put the latest Tory lead over Labor at seven percentage points, Marplan Poll at six points and Market Opinion and Research International Poll at 5.6 per cent. The NOP figure was an unexplained switch after its estimate 24 hours- earlier that Labor had nosed ahead to a lead of 0.7 of a percentage point. r Conservatives; U.K. votes today THE PARTIES need at least 318 seats Callaghan was heading a minority cent of the work force, with higher per- to win a majority. Recent polls have government that depended on small centages in Northern Ireland, Scotland shown the Liberals, who hold 14 seats in parties like the middle-road Liberals and northeast England. the last Parliament, gaining ground, and the Scottish Nationalists to stay in Taxation also igs been a key issue, apparently at the expense of the Con- power. Britons are taxed at a minimum of 33 servatives, who hold 282. The election campaign has been per cent, rising to 83 per cent for any in- The 67-year-old Callaghan, who has dominated by bread-and-butter issues come over $48,000. The Conservative hinted that this may be his last elec- of prices and jobs. Most prices have formula for repairing the economy in- toral battle, has said he does not want to doubled in the last five years, and cludes restrictions on labor unions and find himself in the situation he inherited unemployment statistics show 1.3 reform of the Labor-inspired social from Sir Harold Wilson in 1976 of having million persons are out of work, 5.6 per welfare system. '" _ r - -- s - -- - s - tI Mad What wouf yOlUp \1"'EWMN VI ;NtAli IN* ij It i.A Ak. ''I -n if /A, i-; ~ lit Il I ON ELECTION DAY, British newspapers devote th Margaret Thatcher. Some newspapers support and s AP Photo eir attention to Britain's first female candidate for prime minister, ome oppose Thatcher, a member of the Conservative party. nn nur niI ntoP mmn I noveai aomiy i n cm ms Labor won in October 1976, with a five-seat majority over the Tories. That bare majority was steadily eroded by deaths and party defection until TONIGHT AT EMPLOYEE PRICE NIGHT- 504 off mixed drink . . . $1.00 off pitchors .. . 254 of-mus ocor,&pp, Daily Phone Numbers: Billing-764-0550 Circulation-764-0558 Classifieds-'764-0557 Display-764-0554 News and Happenings-764-0552 Sports-764-0562 ROCK-N-ROLL . . . Appearing Thurs-Sat: THE LOOK Sun: SQUEEZE JAZZ... Appearing L Mon-Tues: VANTAGE POINT ':7 r';'f wliti.:.;sf.._ for more info call 994-5350