State help-but individual responsible

Mrs. M. Thatcher

The Welfare State in relation to the family, and the individual was the subject of a Talk by Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, MP, to members of the Finchley District Group of the League of Jewish Women at the Kinloss Gardens Synagogue Hall on Monday afternoon.

It was necessary to emphasise, especially to young people, said Mrs. Thatcher that the State exists to help us discharge our responsibilies, not to discharge them for us.

There was perhaps a tendency for youth in some quarters, to think that they would be continued to be looked after when the necessity no longer arose. There was no substitute for discharging one's own responsibilities and commitments.

Personal responsibility

The Government made laws, but it could not compel people to be kind; it could punish cruelty to children, but it could not stop people being cruel. That was a personal responsibility—to be humane and tolerant one towards the other.

We had reached a stage when we could say that we had finished, largely, with poverty; we could not yet say that we had solved the problem of hardship. How to do it without the State taking over too much and while still helping individuals to help themselves was the next step.

“Nothing is ever the answer to anything” , said Mrs. Thatcher, referring to the value of compromise and to being tolerant, but never tolerant to wickedness.