LD: Yes, Thatcher said in her memoirs that she was one of the Cabinet members, along with Peter Walker and Peter Thorneycroft, who were clamouring for a snap election in January 1974 based on breaking the unions in the manner that Thatcher herself did a decade later. She said that Heath at the time was somewhat detached from political realities (understatement of the decade), focused on income and price controls for some reason. But yes, Heath made Gordon Brown look charismatic in comparison, which was partly why he lost the backbenches: they thought he was an uptight, rude arsehole. Particularly when you have Wilson as your opponent, who was just as subtly manipulative of his image as Thatcher and Blair were later.