The two [Russell Fairgrieve and Russell Sanderson] Russells and one Teddy TaylorTeddy.)
Onwards To Victory
Onwards to Victory. That's the theme of this year's Conference. And you could not have chosen a better one.
In the last few days we have achieved some major victories in the ballot box in Scotland and in the Division Lobby in the House of Commons.
In last week's regional elections we gained more seats than any other party.
In fact the number of seats we gained are more than the SNP now hold. [end p1]
Congratulations to Tayside and Grampian for increasing their majorities, a sure sign that the electors there appreciate good Conservative government.
Congratulations to the candidates and workers responsible for our 28 gains.
Congratulations to all Scottish Conservatives on a fine result.
We have also been winning in the House of Commons, repairing some of the damage of the last four years.
Yet all the James CallaghanPrime Minister and Denis HealeyChancellor can do is accuse us of being “irresponsible.” [end p2] — Irresponsible for cutting the basic rate of income tax for 25 million people. Even now it is still 3p above where it was when we left it.
— Irresponsible for giving an incentive to younger managers, some of whom were actually worse off as a result of the Chancellor's so-called “incentive package” .
— Irresponsible for letting the people keep more of their own money, rather than having Labour spend it for them.
— Irresponsible for objecting to a budget which increases the number of taxpayers by 900,000. [end p3]
Listening to these bitter Socialist attacks an observer could be forgiven for thinking that we were the government. Labour is already talking as they do in Opposition, and it's music in my ears!
But of course this could never be made into a Tory Budget. It needs a Tory Government to do that. It remains a Socialist Budget but we have tried to lessen the damage by giving back to the people some £500 million of their own money. We have taken the first small steps back to prosperity, to breathing new life into a moribund economy.
We have offered the first taste of what the next Conservative Government will do, and Labour is desperately worried that the electorate might enjoy this taste of freedom. They are using every excuse to block it. They hide behind the pretext that they cannot now make their sums add up.
Mind you, I don't think that arithmetic was ever Mr. Healey's strong point. [end p4]
Let me remind you that, as the official Opposition, we can't put through spending cuts or alternative tax changes to pay for the £500 million tax reductions. The rules won't let us. If we could we would. The Government can and must find the economies to balance its own books.
The truth is that this year, the Government is adding a further £3,500 million to its spending bill. It would need to lop £500 million off that to pay for tax cuts. We'd still be left with a spending increase of £3,000 million more than last year. £3,000 million of our money. Don't forget that out of every pound the Government spends, our tax cuts will add up to less than lp. If they can't find that, let them make way for a Government which can. [end p5]
Yet clearly the national interest will take second place to the Labour Party's obsession with clinging to office. They scarcely seem to be aware of the fact that theirs is the first Government in modern times to be denied Supply by the Commons.
They care little for the constitutional conventions built up over so many years of Parliamentary democracy.
Mr. Healey boasts that our inflation rate is about to fall to 7 per cent per year. That's three times the German inflation rate. Enough to halve the value of our pound notes—again—in ten years.
Mr. Healey also says we shall have 7 per cent inflation for the next six months.
I wonder how much he'd be willing to bet on that. [end p6]
If anybody had been able to get him to lay a bet on his own inflation forecasts these past four years they'd have made a fortune by now.
This one's no exception.
For day by day the raw materials we have to buy from abroad are costing us more, as the value of the pound is shrinking.
And there's no way that this can fail to be reflected in rising prices before the year is out.
That's not all. We now know that when he told us in his Budget speech that he'd managed to hit at least the outside edge of the targets set for him by the International Monetary Fund last year, he was whistling in the dark. [end p7]
Industry stagnates. Unemployment drags on at levels which today's Ministers would have called unthinkable five years ago. Only the printing presses, churning out the ever-shrinking pound notes, work overtime.
Denis Healey sells his inflation forecasts like a fly-by-night car salesman who hopes to cash his customer's cheque before the paint flakes off and the rust shows up. Only the car stops. But the inflation doesn't.
Its not just our money they are debasing. They are also debasing our standards of citizenship. They are creating a society where the struggle to pay the bills leaves us with no time to think of our responsibilities to our neighbours.
— A society where duties are at a discount, and entitlements at a premium. [end p8]
Have our rulers learnt nothing from the lessons of the past?
Can they not see even now that if they go on the way they are going, purchasing votes by mortgaging the future, it will not be long before we have 1976 all over again?
It is time that we stopped having to look to our creditors to save us from the consequences of Socialism.
It is time that we took our destinies in our own hands, and proved to the world, as we can, that the days of living on tick are behind us. [end p9]
“Give us a good majority” , Denis Healey said the other day to some remaining pocket of the faithful, “and we will give you Socialism” . Beginning of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 1800 13 May 1978
Give us a good majority, and we'll give you good Government. (Applause.) Our confidence, our economy, our currency can no longer afford another winter of uncertainty.
So, Prime Minister, it's a time for decision, the people's decision. You can't avoid it for very much longer.
So make it soon, sometime before October.
We'll be ready and rearing to go. (Applause.) End of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 1800 13 May 1978 [end p10]
Scottish Nationalism
In Scotland, Mr Chairman, our prospects are brighter now than at any time since 1974. The Garscadden by-Election and the regional elections showed that we are now gaining ground at the expense of both our opponents. But we need to gain more. There is no room for complacency.
We have shown up the SNP for what they are. They want to tear our country apart for their own narrow ends. They thought they would build indefinitely on the politics of frustration. They thought they could lure the Scottish people on to the rocks of separatism.
They were wrong. Now they are as worried as the Liberals about losing their seats. We will not disappoint them. [end p11]
Labour: The Record
When the General Election comes, one thing will be certain—the Labour Government won't want to fight on the worst record of any government since the War: record unemployment, record inflation, record taxation, record bankruptcies, a record decline in living standards, a record failure of socialism.
But if they don't want to fight on their record, they certainly won't want to fight on their policies as approved by the Labour Party's last Scottish Conference.
— Confiscation without automatic compensation of the 220 largest manufacturing companies.
— Nationalisation of the banks—and of course, your savings in them.
— A ban on the sale of Council houses.
— A ban on overtime. [end p12]
Yes, the Marxists really had a field day.
The James CallaghanPrime Minister really doesn't want people to read all about the Labour Party's policies passed at their conferences. He knows they would take fright.
It's not surprising that the record of Socialism is so abysmal in this country and the world over, because Socialist politicians deal in myths and not in truths.
The Socialist myth is that we can make Britain strong by nationalisation and government interference.
The truth is that government interference and nationalisation are sapping Britain's strength. [end p13]
The Socialist myth is that government spending creates jobs.
The truth is that the only permanent job creation scheme is a healthy economy.
The Socialist myth is that wealth is there to be redistributed.
The truth is that wealth has to be created. [end p14]
The Socialist myth is that we can preserve our freedoms without defending them.
The truth is that in a dangerous world our ability to defend ourselves is essential to preserve peace.
Our first duty to freedom is to defend our own. To do that we must see that freedom's greatest enemies do not increase their grip. But there is only one enemy of liberty which has built up the power to threaten the very existence of political civilisation on this planet. It's not China that's behind every anti-Western move everywhere, whether in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa—it is Russia. Sir Neil Cameron was right. [end p15]
The Socialist myth is that governments can promise more and more, and take more and more, but that we can still keep our freedom.
The truth is that if government does everything for you, it will take everything from you—first your money, then your dignity, and finally your freedom. [end p16]
The Socialist myth is that it can't happen here.
The truth is that it can, and will unless we ensure that it doesn't.
And now there's a new myth—one that will be repeated again and again in the months ahead.
It is the myth that there are two kinds of Socialist in the Labour Party—the left wing extremists in the wilderness, and the social democrat moderates in Whitehall. Is that true? [end p17]
Well, during this government the left-wing extremists have voted for more nationalisation, for crippling income tax, for the closed shop, and for massive defence cuts.
And the Social Democrat moderates?
They have voted for—yes, you've got it—more nationalisation, for crippling income tax, for the closed shop, and for massive defence cuts.
Throughout this Government the Socialist moderates have voted in exactly the same way as the Socialist extremists. The only difference is that they get an occasional twinge of conscience about it. [end p18]
The casualties of Socialism
Britain today abounds with those who have become the casualties of Socialism.
There are the casualties amongst the school leavers who want to work and learn a skill but who have found it impossible to get a job; there are 13 times as many unemployed Scots youngsters as there were four years ago.
There are the casualties amongst the couples on the council estates who wanted to buy their homes, only to be stopped by Socialist Ministers and Socialist Councillors who are only too happy to be home-owners themselves. [end p19]
There are the casualties amongst the pensioners who have economised all their lives to put aside something for their old age, only to find a life-time's service and savings being destroyed by Socialist taxation heaped on Socialist inflation.
There are the casualties amongst the enterprising, the skilled and the small businessmen who want to build a better life for themselves and their families, but who have found themselves frustrated and harassed by a Labour Government. [end p20]
There are those in the Armed Forces who risk their lives to defend us and our children, only to be forced to obtain rent and rate rebates to be able to look after their own children. They, too, are casualties of Socialism.
Socialists the world over are peddling a false political prospectus. They promise freedom, but when in power they snuff it out. They promise more for everyone, but their policies cause impoverishment, except, of course, for the privileged political few at the top. They talk of detente while they finance terrorism, revolution, subversion and invasion by proxy. [end p21]
In Britain, we sometimes forget that, but for a brief 3½ year interlude, Labour Governments with their Socialist policies have been in power ever since 1964.
Time for people to have witnessed the decline under Labour's authority.
Time for them to have felt the bite of the increased taxation.
Time for them to have seen other nations overtake us in prosperity and influence.
And time for them to demand a change. [end p22]
Four Pillars of Greatness
Now, the mood of the times and the Conservative Party have come together again. Perhaps that is not surprising, because the Conservative faith believes in people rather than social planning, and will always reappear and prevail especially in periods of national danger or difficulty.
People feel a great need for something to live up to. They want a country to feel proud of. They would like to know what they are doing is not only useful, but right.
What makes a nation great? What qualities must be rekindled to return Britain to her full glory? [end p23]
I have chosen four:
First, Zeal for achievement.
I hardly need to enlarge on that in Scotland where for so many people, work and achievement were the way up and the way out into the wider world. The virtues of work were taught to all, the ambition to excel to many.
But these virtues could not have produced the vast expansion in industry and commerce that took place in Britain unless we had had a political system designed to encourage them. [end p24]
As one writer put it:
“Do you want to test whether a people is given to industry and commerce? Examine whether this people's laws give men the courage to seek prosperity, freedom to follow it up, the sense and habits to find it, and the assurance of reaping the benefit.”
Those who chose a professional career provided the services necessary for success—the doctors, lawyers, teachers, administrators. The craftsmen took great pride in their work; indeed all felt a sense of achievement and satisfaction from their endeavours. [end p25]
But two things were necessary to translate the zeal into practical achievement.
First, a government committed to free enterprise and initiative; a government which kept taxation down so that people could prosper from their own efforts; a government which realised that you can't stimulate the economy, you can only stimulate the people.
Perhaps if our present government learned that lesson, we should have more people with a zeal for achievement, creating more wealth for themselves and their fellows. [end p26] As it is:
If you take from the industrious to give to the indolent, people will cease to be industrious.
If you devalue the role and status of management, industry will not be properly managed.
If you denigrate profits, we shall lack investment.
If we have no investment, we shall lack jobs.
Without more jobs, the future's bleak. [end p27]
I mentioned the second thing necessary to harness the zeal for achievement: namely a society that doesn't envy the talent and success of others, but welcomes and applauds it. There has been too much of the feeling that if everyone can't have it, no-one shall have it. Socialists are nothing if not great levellers—down.
But higher standards depend on the new ideas, inventions and ability of the few. Gradually these spread to the many and we all benefit. The success of capitalism is that it benefits the masses, not just the few.
People make their contribution, great or small, not only to gain financial return. They are moved to a greater or lesser degree by the zeal for achievement, the ambition to succeed. Kill these and you kill the greatness and prosperity of our people. [end p28]
The second pillar of a great nation is Sound Finance.
When we can't run our own financial affairs properly—we don't command much respect in the world. And we can't be much help to our neighbour if we can't afford to look after ourselves. In time past, we used to put our own house in order when things went wrong. These days we go to a summit and hope that will do it for us. Great public relations exercises are mounted as the government tries to persuade other nations to help us by running their affairs in the way that got us into our troubles. It's like a spendthrift rebuking his benefactor for his prudence. [end p29]
Inflation is not only a monetary phenomenon. It arises because some politicians lead the people to believe that they can consume more—much more—than they produce. Extra money is printed, but the goods aren't there and the price goes up. In the last few years politicians have created many new rights without corresponding obligations. [end p30]
We have had an inflation of rights, but a shortage of duties. It is this inflation which underlies money inflation. Along with it goes deficit financing; balance of payments problems; currency instability and uncertainty.
There is no particular magic about what ought to be done to cure this—just a great reluctance to do it. Politicians mustn't promise more than the people can produce and the people mustn't be taken in by those who do.
These are the first two pillars of greatness—zeal for achievement and sound honest money. [end p31]
And the third, Rule of Law.
Long before we had a universal franchise in this country, we called ourselves a free people. This is due to our reverence for the Rule of Law which really means three things:
1. That everyone whatever their background or religion, whether they are the governors or the governed, is subject to the ordinary law of the land.
2. That we can't be punished except when the Courts find the law has been broken. [end p32]
3. That if it is to be respected the law must be properly enforced and the guilty person found and convicted.
No nation ever retained its freedom for any length of time after losing its respect for the law, after losing the law-abiding spirit, the spirit that really makes for freedom without fear.
But where are we today?
A crime is committed every 12 seconds. In the time I have been speaking, 100 crimes have been committed, ten of them in Scotland. Today, only 4 out of 10 crimes are solved—only 3 out of 10 in Scotland. [end p33]
In Scotland alone in a single year killings and rape have risen by a third, malicious damage to property by three-quarters.
And perhaps the most tragic figure of all—the peak crime age in 1976 for Britain as a whole was 15 for men and 14 for women.
You will understand why we in the Conservative Party have put so much emphasis on this issue—for what is the use of greater affluence if we walk in fear for our families, our possessions or ourselves? [end p34]
You will understand why we stress the need to have enough police, to have them well paid, well equipped and well respected.
You will understand why our sympathy lies with the victim and not with the offender when our elderly people are subjected to hideous and senseless attacks, when many of our young people are victims of the savage violence of their contemporaries.
You will understand why we call for sentences on such offenders heavy enough to deter others from similar barbarous behaviour.
We have come through a strange period—a period when traditional and tested values were set aside in favour of sociological theories divorced from experience. [end p35]
Twenty years of social analysis and woolly political theory have been aimed at trying to ‘prove’ that crime and law-breaking are not the responsibility of the individual, but are the fault of social conditions and society. The older language of morality and legality, of right and wrong, is conveniently forgotten. While we must do everything we can to improve social conditions where they are bad, the truth is that crime grows where the pressure of established values and conventions is removed. [end p36]
Children must be taught what is right and wrong and the religious basis of those values. That is not ‘indoctrination,’ but only a practical recognition of the truth that while a mature person may reject the faith in which he has been brought up, a child will find it difficult to acquire any faith at all without some instruction in the discipline of belief and practice.
Once the law and its moral basis is humbled, all else that is valuable in a civilised society will vanish, usually with frightening speed. [end p37]
So I totally reject the view of a former deputy leader of the Labour Party, who said:
“It is not our job to go about telling everybody to obey the law” . (Ted Short)
It is our job to do just that, and that is precisely what the Conservative Party will do. [Note by MT] Zeal for achieve'nt, Sound Finances, Rule of Law.)
Patriotism is the fourth pillar of national greatness. Take it away, and greatness decays; national freedom, even national survival will be placed in jeopardy. [end p38]
Patriotism links the individual with the nation, not only with its present but with its past and with its future, with our forebears and those yet to be—as Burke put it. Patriotism means that we cherish a nation's history and feel concern for its future long after we ourselves have gone. It means that we will be prepared to make any sacrifices for the sake of our country and the things for which it stands. Such feelings have given us a national character which others recognised and respected.
When people said, “That's not British” , we all knew what they meant.
Patriotism underlies the spirit of service, civic courage and the other civic virtues, the extra effort and self-denying ordinances, the voluntary services, the things we don't have to do but choose to do. [end p39]
No less vital, pride in our nation's past is an essential ingredient in the inspiration to overcome present dificulties and dangers.
Without pride in our past, we should have no hope for the future. That is why the sustained effort by socialists to portray our history as dark and discreditable is so damaging. To denigrate our past achievements strikes at the very root of our future advance. It undermines our belief in ourselves.
They present our past as misery and injustice at home and oppression abroad. They never stop to think why people the world over admired and imitated Britain. [end p40]
They never stop to think what we have given to the world. Parliamentary democracy; Liberty under the Law; an Empire and Commonwealth; a wealth of literature; free trade unions.
Scientific discovery and invention owe more to Britain than to any other country; the list of great names is almost endless from Newton to Darwin. Our political thinkers—Burke, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Adam Smith—altered the course of world society, not just British.
Each generation's contribution must be judged by comparing what it inherited from its forebears with what it bequeathed to its children. We shall be judged similarly. We must not be found wanting. [end p41]
Russell FairgrieveMr Chairman, I have come to this Conference as the Leader of the Party of the Union.
No-one can claim that the last few years have been easy or successful for Britain. Today, our national self-confidence is at a low ebb. Indeed there are those who would argue that the United Kingdom has had its day, economically and constitutionally.
You will not be surprised to learn, Mr Chairman, that I am not one of them.
I have come to Scotland to reaffirm my confidence in the Union, in the United Kingdom. [end p42]
The four nations of these islands have long and glorious histories—but it was only when they came to form one United Kingdom that our full splendour came to fruition.
It was in the Union that the peoples of these small islands of ours found strength and purpose, and greatness.
None of this involved any sacrifice of distinctive national traditions. It was a Union, but absolutely without uniformity—a unity of the individual genius of the separate nations, into an even greater whole. [end p43]
To preserve and to strengthen that Union is the great historic mission of the Conservative and Unionist Party, and it is on that basis, with policies and a programme geared to that end, that we will be fighting the next election.
Our opponents offer only division and discord, socialism and separatism. Each of them wholly at variance with our great heritage, our great traditions. Each of them wholly destructive.
Nearly forty years ago, these islands stood alone, a beacon of light and freedom, while the rest of Europe lay in darkness under the dictator's heel. Anyone who wants to write off Britain should remember that. [end p44]
In the past we struggled together, we fought together, we succeeded together, we triumphed together. In our Union we have found strength. Let us face the future as we faced the past, united for victory.