Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

New Year Message

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Source: Finchley Press, 2 January 1970
Editorial comments: Item listed by date of publication.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 257
Themes: Monetary policy, Family, Foreign policy (Asia), Foreign policy (Central & Eastern Europe), Foreign policy (development, aid, etc), Foreign policy (Middle East), Religion & morality, Society

What lies ahead in the seventies?

A reversal of permissive society?

Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, M.P. for Finchley and Friern Barnet, Shadow spokesman for education:

‘There are many differences between the changes I should like to see and those I expect to see in the 70's.

I should like to see a reversal of the permissive society. It is commonplace to say that behaviour is freer now than it used to be.

I question whether a person who gives in to his every instinct and whim is free. It seems more likely that he is a slave to his own appetites. Surely an educated society should consist of people capable of self-disciplines; capable also of appreciating the necessity for law and order.

And I should like to see the divorce rate fall, greater understanding between the generations, and more emphasis on the family as a unit.

On the material side I should like to see inflation curbed. It seems so unfair that those who have saved for their retirement years should have been cheated of the value of their savings by the high demands of others on the economy.

Now for those changes I expect to see in the next decade:—

Prices will continue to rise; the Vietnam war will drag on for another one or two years; the problem of over-population in some countries growing worse for several years yet.

The Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall will still be there, but peace will continue in Europe.

In the Middle East and Far East, who can tell?’