John Cole
Why does your new Government seem a bit more accident prone than the old one. There have been rows over various things—hanging, MPs' pay, emergency packages on public spending, BP charges, Stock Exchange. What's wrong?
Prime Minister
I don't think its been accident prone at all. It is the classic tactic of Opposition to have a row, particularly when they are disunited. It's the classic thing and they were doing it before the Election—there was a row a day, usually a procedural row. There is nothing new in that.
JC
But were you expecting the emergency package that Mr. Lawson had to give out.
PM
I wouldn't call it an emergency package. What he was doing was saying, we fought the Election on the basis of certain public expenditure figures, we are going to keep to that total.
JC
But that does mean cutting back real programmes for some of those things like unemployment benefits and agricultural subsidies have become more expensive, haven't they…
PM
Yes. But the housewife understands perfectly and so does the businessman. If you're overspending in one sphere, you've got to cut down in another. But above all you can't go over your total income. We laid out the public expenditure totals. Every penny piece we have to get to fulfil them comes out of the taxpayer's pocket for more. So we say, like a housewife or a businessman “We've got to keep within the budget”. [end p1]
JC
But haven't you a difficult real long term problem that wasn't really discussed during the Election. That is in a low growth economy, which is what you have at the moment, and with a rising number of old people, it's going to become increasingly difficult to pay for the services we already have.
PM
But now you're reading back to me some of the things I've been saying about public spending. What we're looking at and will have to look at is what happens beyond this Parliament. We have to look at the long term trends, the number of elderly folk. When I'm an old-age pensioner and have been an old-age pensioner for some years, there are really rather a lot of us. We have to look then at the relationship of the number of elderly folk, particularly those who need a lot of medical care in relation to the numbers of people in the working population. Any government will have to do this. In the very long term it's going to be quite a problem.
JC
When do these decisions fall to be made?
PM
Well we know roughly the figures during the lifetime of this Parliament. What we are now doing is looking in the very long term. And that I think we should do.
JC
But during the Election the Opposition said that there was a hidden manifesto cutting the Health Service and the public services and you denied that. Do the measures you're now considering in public expenditure really not give some credence to their argument?
PM
No I would not think that at all. Again I said we laid out our long-term public expenditure plans, we laid out our record. I really think the Opposition have a nerve to say that. Don't forget we have a lot more nurses, doctors and dentists than they had when they were in power. A lot more. [end p2] Fifty-six thousand more doctors and dentists and nurses. Of course they all have to be paid out of taxation. But really we have a very good record on the National Health Service.
JC
But are there not going to be any cuts in hospital beds and staff and so on?
PM
You heard what I said. That National Health Service total expenditure this year will not be less than the figure that appeared in the Public Expenditure White Paper.
JC
Some drug prices and so on will go up, so something presumably will have to be cut to compensate it?
PM
But don't you remember during the Election, I think it was on one of those … . is it something like the Bolton 500. Someone from the audience asked me about how much was being paid for the National Health Service drugs. I said yes certainly there are considerable profits being made but that's under the last review of drug prices which took place in the lifetime of the last Labour government and we were at that time reviewing it for the next contractual period. The announcement has been made of that review and yes we are I believe going to get a lower profit margin on drugs and some of it of course comes from lower than expected inflation. One of the tremendous feats of this government.
JC
Well Mrs. Thatcher you have often spoken of your ambition to lower taxes generally. Do you think we're going to be able to do that in the next Budget or if not, when?
PM
Well I hope during the lifetime of this Parliament yes because I think the proportion that the Government takes of the Nation's income is too high. And we have a duty to people to spend every penny wisely. To see that we're looking at services and running them efficiently and to see if we possibly can reduce taxes. I believe that among our people they expect us if we possibly can to reduce the proportion that the Government takes out of their pockets. [end p3]
JC
And what are the chances for next April?
PM
I would not think they're very high for next April.
JC
Thank you Prime Minister.