Heath wins election in English upset
LONDON (UPI)—Conservative party leader Edward Heath unseated Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson in a general election upset blamed in part on a housewives revolt against the soaring cost of living under the Wilson government.
Wilson asked for an audience with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to hand in his Labor party government's resignation and with it his hopes of being the first prime minister in British history to win three consecutive five-year terms—as predicted by public opinion polls.
It was possible the polls predicting a big Wilson victory had
led to complacency—and nonvoting—by Laborites.
June 23
1970 KANSAN 7
By nightfall Heath would be in power in the biggest political upset in Britain since Labor Party leader Clement Attlee threw out the government of Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the close of World War II.
Heath's conservatives topped the figure of 316 in Parliament seats and thus won an absolute majority in the new 630 member House of Commons. It is party strength in the House which determines who is the prime minister.
Wilson had waited until this moment before conceding formally, although in television interviews earlier he left no doubt that he knew he was a beaten man.
Within minutes Wilson's No.10 Downing St. office announced,
"Following the announcement that the Conservatives have secured more than half the seats in the new House of Commons the prime minister has asked for an audience of her majesty to tender the resignation of his government."
At almost the same moment a furniture moving truck pulled up outside 10 Downing St.
Heath stepped out of the door of the fashionable Albany apartment house where he has a bachelor flat and made his first public appearance as prime minister elect.
Heath, noramly a shy retiring figure, stood on the doorstep in the sunshine waving and smiling with undisguised delight at crowds cheering and clapping him.
tral office where another large crowd cheered him.
He stepped into his car and was driven to the Conservative cen-
After thanking his supporters, Heath told them in more serious vein, "We must forward the right policies and we have convinced the country they are the right policies. We are going to provide them with the right government and that government is going to provide for a better country tomorrow."
In the belief of British politicians, commentators and of Wilson himself a house wives' revolt against rising prices was the only plausible explanation of Labor's defeat or at least a major factor in it.
More than 1.5 million British teenagers voted for the first time in this election but it still was not clear how they had cast their ballots or whether they tipped the scales in Heath's favor.
Polls taken of teenagers before the election appeared to indicate that in general they probably would vote more or less along the same lines as their parents.
Later it was announced Queen Elizabeth was hurrying back to London from Ascot race course and would receive Wilson to accept his resignation.
Heath was expected to be summoned soon afterwards to the palace to be named prime minister.
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SAN FRANCISCO (UPI)—A research project that took months or years before the University of California's Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute installed a computer can now be completed in between five minutes and one and one-half days.