It is time for a change

This election will decide what kind of Britain we live in, what kind of life we and the next generation will lead, I say “we,” I mean all of us, whether we are wage-earners, salary earners, professional people, self-employed or retired.

It is not just a choice between two parties, but between two different ways of life; between the way this country has been going of late, the kind of life we deserve and could achieve. We intend to reverse the trends of recent years.

Things have been going downhill. Prices have doubled under Labour, unemployment has doubled under Labour. Crime and vandalism has been increasing fast.

Because of the level of crime, in some parts of our cities, shops have to close down, homes and other buildings are abandoned. Elderly people fear to leave their homes, mothers to allow young children out of their sight.

We spend more on education than ever before, yet hooliganism at football matches and elsewhere is evident to us all.

This was not what the Socialists with what they called progressive education intended. But it has been a direct and unavoidable result of their words and actions.

Police

We shall act to bring back law and order. For a start, we shall show respect and give support for the law, the police, the judges, as Labour has failed to do so. Example counts as much as words.

• We shall implement in full the police-pay award which Labour has delayed.

• We shall toughen up the treatment in some detention centres, what Willie Whitelaw calls the “short, sharp shock to violent young thugs.”

• We shall expand the use of attendance centres, a cheap way of making vandals and hooligans learn the hard way.

• We shall amend the present law so that courts can give sentences of up to three years to criminals in the 17–21 year group.

The trade union movement, which was originally set up to ensure a fair return to each man's labour, has come to a point where it is doing the exact opposite. The unions, dominated by the big battalions have ground down wage differentials to a point where skill and hard work receive little if any reward.

A shortage of skilled men in industry is not the only result of squeezing differentials.

It also increases resentments and sense of unfairness which affect people's behaviour generally, at work, at home, in the streets.

So does the widespread resentment among millions of people who work hard for their living at having to pay out so much in taxes.

People who really earn their pay, producing goods and services for their fellow citizens at competitive prices or for export, see their taxes being wasted on extravagant Government projects while hospital waiting queues get longer and longer; and our elderly and those least able to help themselves suffer worst of all.

• We shall safeguard the standard of living of our pensioners.

“What is the use of working hard” —is the reaction you meet with continually. But we must not lose hope. We Conservatives intend that it will once again be worthwhile to work hard, to acquire and improve skills, to save, to be honest.

• We shall cut out wasteful Government spending, and so cut taxes right across the board and let people keep more of their own money, to spend as they see fit.

When we do this, and when we ensure that rewards for work will replace reward to political muscle, people will respond by initiative, hard work, greater consideration for their fellow-citizens.

Defence

True, we shall spend more on police and defence, because if the citizen is not defended against violence from inside or outside the country, he has nothing.

• We shall amend trade union law in several ways—free trade unions can only flourish in a free society.

• We shall pass laws to restore picketing to its original and proper function, namely to allow workers involved in a dispute to try to persuade fellow workers to join them, provided they do it peacefully and without threats.

• We shall ensure that the protection of the law is available to those not concerned in the dispute but who at present can suffer scarcely from secondary action (picketing, blacking and blockading). We believe that picketing should be limited to those in dispute picketing at their own place of work.

• We shall change the law regarding the closed shop, which leaves a man's right to work at the mercy of a union or a small part of a union, which becomes judge in its own cause. Victims of the closed shop must be given the right of appeal to a court of law, and compensation for the loss of their right to work. We shall take steps towards bringing more democracy to unions, in the belief that if a majority of members participate, the extremists would be deprived of many opportunities for their destructive activities.

Secret

Wider use of secret ballots for decision-making throughout the trade union movement should be given every encouragement.

• We will therefore provide public funds for postal ballots for union elections and other important issues. Every trade unionist should be free to record his decisions as every voter has done for a hundred years in Parliamentary elections without others watching and taking note.

We believe that the vast majority of the trade union members will support us in these changes.

We know that we shall not be able to repair all the damage overnight, after years of Labour misrule. But we know that given a chance, the country will recover by the efforts of its people, as a body recovers from illness.

Tomorrow, I ask you to return a Conservative Government with a clear working majority. It is time for a change.