Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Loughborough Conservatives

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Loughborough
Source: Leicester Mercury, 2 December 1975
Editorial comments: Afternoon. MT took questions after the speech.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 333
Themes: Education, Secondary education, Industry, Law & order

Tory leader gives pledge on direct grant schools

The direct grant education system which the Government threatens to abolish next year will definitely be reintroduced if Conservatives win the next election, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Opposition, said in Loughborough.

Obviously referring to Loughborough endowed schools, she told 220 party workers at the town hall: “Here we have very good direct grant schools. You will all know of their excellent record.”

She continued: “They have given many children chances they would never have had. We have undertaken that if we are returned to government, we shall bring the direct grant schools back. I hope we shall be back in time to save some of the grammar schools also.”

The most important thing was to keep up high standards of education and to retain freedom of choice for parents.

Mrs. Thatcher was replying to a local party member who asked particularly about education and requested that the next election should be fought on definite policies, not backward issues.

Another questioner asked if Mrs. Thatcher would press for a national referendum on the subject of capital punishment for terrorists. The Conservative leader reiterated her opinion on the issue saying she was in favour of the death penalty for terrorists, but made no reference to a possible referendum.

Earlier Mrs. Thatcher had delivered a rousing speech to the meeting. Like her address to a Leicester audience a few hours previously, it dealt mainly with the economic situation and the need for private industry to be given incentive to produce the capital necessary to bring about an improved standard of living.

But she also said that the nation as a whole was very much in need of reassurance and confidence. “We must remember that we are the same nation that was once the workshop of the world,” she said.

Her parting message to Loughborough Conservatives was: “We are the same nation as we were. We can do it again we must do it again and we will do it again.”