Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for ITN (Ottawa G7)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Ottowa
Source: Thatcher Archive: COI transcript
Journalist: Michael Brunson, ITN
Editorial comments: Exact time and place uncertain.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 954
Themes: Defence (general), Defence (arms control), Economic policy - theory and process, Employment, Monetary policy, Foreign policy - theory and process, Foreign policy (Western Europe - non-EU), Labour Party & socialism

Interviewer

Prime Minister, I know you've always cautioned that we shouldn't expect major new developments from this sort of Summit meeting, but what would you point to as the one thing that this Summit has moved on from things that were discussed at the previous Summits? What would you see as the major advance this time?

Prime Minister

Well, this time we were discussing something different. Remember two years ago, we were at the beginning of the big oil price increases. Now, we're in the trough of the recession caused by those price increases and we had to agree really on how to get out of it. And there was a remarkable unanimity on what to do. And it's reflected in the Communique. We didn't need to argue about fighting inflation. We all accepted that we must fight inflation as a top priority if we're ever to get unemployment down. We also accepted that you can't just do nothing about unemployment because of the tragedies it causes. And each of us in our own way is trying to do something. We have very big programmes for youth and, of course, they will be enlarged to meet our guarantee. And every young person who hasn't got a job by Christmas will be offered some work experience. Different countries do different things. But we all accepted we must fight inflation and at the same time we must do something about unemployment but not by way of reflating the economy.

Interviewer

Did you find that you personally were out on a limb as it were economically here?

Prime Minister

Not in any way. If you look at the Communique, it is absolutely in line with everything I've been saying. We must fight [end p1] inflation. Absolutely top priority. You heard Pierre Trudeau say, as he summed up the whole conference in front of the whole of the world's press. We must also do something about employment. We must, indeed, contain public spending. Heaven knows, I've preached enough about that. Also we must keep a tight control of deficits, because if your deficit gets too big, then it's another way of having inflation. It's absolutely in line with everything I've been saying. Indeed, I think Chancellor Schmidt, to coin a phrase with which I fully and wholeheartedly agreed, he said his policies were middle of the road monetary policies. I said that's exactly what ours is. We're getting inflation down. We're getting productivity up. We're getting pay settlements down. And we have a very tough budget in order to try to keep interest rates down. That is middle of the road monetary policy.

Interviewer

This was billed in advance as very much a Summit where, in addition to all the things we'd talked about already, there was an opportunity to get to know how other people's minds work. Can you give us, perhaps, a specific example of something that you would have learned about the other participants' position that you didn't know already?

Prime Minister

I think one of the most interesting discussions we've had was about East/West relations and the President of France made it very clear that he would keep the full defence capability of France and that he totally and utterly believes with the rest of us that you must keep up your defence capability to deter any potential aggressor. We all said, at the same time, that we must in parallel try to get disarmament talks going. But there was absolute unanimity if the free world is to continue to have its freedom, it must have a major defence capacity. It is so different from everything which the Socialists in our country say. Absolutely different. Now, there again, we have this tremendous unanimity on East/West relations, on to need to defence ourselves, to deter any potential aggressor [end p2] and in parallel to have talks about how to get down the amount of weaponry that we have. Absolute unanimity. It really was extremely interesting.

Interviewer

So you found, in effect, that the President of France was not soft on the Russians. But you might have suspected that …

Prime Minister

Very far from it. And so far removed from our own Socialists. I do hope they can learn a few lessons from him.

Interviewer

Prime Minister, you mentioned the fact in your statement and said it again in the press conference that political issues tend to be taking a greater share of the Summit. Do you think the time perhaps has now come to, as it were, drop the economic label and make the straightforward Summits to deal with whatever comes up?

Prime Minister

I don't think labels matter very much. I think it's the goods in the shop that count. And, in fact, we don't confine ourselves to economic matters. You couldn't possibly. After all, the enormous oil price increase—the first one came with the Arab/Israeli war, the second one came under terrible circumstances with the fall of the Shah and Iran. These were political causes. They had economic effect. But they were political causes. So you can't separate the one from the other and we never do. But when it comes to helping the developing countries, that is both political and economic. So forget about the labels, we discuss what has to be discussed. And even though in full plenary session we might sometimes confine our discussion to economic matters, I think the most valuable parts of the conference are when we meet privately in smaller groups over dinner and over lunch. Over a much [end p3] smaller table. And then you get much, much more intimate discussion. Don't forget that this time there were four new leaders out of seven and the way in which we all gelled together was remarkable and owed a great deal both to the whole atmosphere of the Summit which was engendered by Pierre Trudeau and the very careful and skilled preparation we had working up to it.