P140 BEEBFAX 122 Thu 31 Dec --:--/--                             a national swing of almost 4% towards  the Conservatives and their larger  parliamentary majority of 144,  even though the Conservatives' total  vote fell by almost 700,000.  This is the most recent election where  a party in government increased its  majority.  Thatcher's first four years as prime  minister had not been an easy time.  Unemployment had rocketed in the first  three years of her term as she battled  to control inflation that had ravaged  Britain for most of the 1970s.   Next       Prev       Home        End