Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Central Council

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Kensington Town Hall, West London
Source: Thatcher Archive: CCOPR 214/83
Editorial comments: Embargoed until 1200. On the reverse of the last page of the speaking text, MT added a handwritten phrase omitted from the press release, but perhaps delivered to the hall: "The drastic measures taken in France yesterday are the true face of socialism in practice" (THCR 5/1/4/43 f72).
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 3917
Themes: Arts & entertainment, Conservatism, Conservative Party (history), Economic policy - theory and process, Education, Secondary education, Employment, Industry, By-elections, Monetary policy, Energy, Environment, Taxation, Trade, Foreign policy - theory and process, Family, Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Health policy, Housing, Labour Party & socialism, Local government, Liberal & Social Democratic Parties, Science & technology, Society, Social security & welfare, Voluntary sector & charity

We started the year with high confidence and high hopes. And we come to this Central Council with our confidence reinforced and our hopes justified. Because our message is taking hold.

DARLINGTON

But first, I would like to say a few words about Darlington, because I think it will illustrate the point.

We had a first-rate Candidate. And we fought a first-rate campaign. For me that means one thing above all. We fought an honest campaign.

In the face of a barrage of promises from our opponents, we continued to tell the truth and spell out the facts.

And our Conservative vote remained loyal. In fact, we were gaining all the time, and still gaining at the finish. So our supporters in Darlington are looking forward keenly to the next race. And so am I.

But what came out vividly from the debates in this by-election is that young people are not going to be distracted by instant solutions. They are looking to the longer term future. And they are realists. They know that to rebuild our economy is not going to be a quick or easy task. And they are right.

And older folk are wary of promises.

Yesterday I heard the story of a pensioner who was stopped in the street in Darlington and told what wonderful things the Labour Party was going to do for him, and he replied: “Who's going to pay for it all? No—don't tell me, it's me, it always [end p1] is” . But then, of course, Labour always did leave us with financial problems.

PUTTING THE ECONOMY RIGHT

Labour left a pile of overseas debts behind. It's we Conservatives who have had to settle up. To date we've repaid nearly half what they borrowed. Paying our debts, living within our means. That's something to be proud of. Labour put a tax on jobs—twice.

First they imposed the Selective Employment tax. We had to abolish it.

Then they put on the National Insurance Surcharge. We have cut it by more than two-thirds. That puts back more than £2,000 million into industry. That's the way to get the wheels of industry turning again.

Labour puts the tax on jobs. Conservatives take it off again. And that's something to be proud of too.

Moreover, the name of Britain is respected again across the free world. And we have earned that respect not by our words, but by our deeds. And that's something to be proud of too.

Remember when Denis Healey had to turn back from London airport because of a financial crisis? Just compare Geoffrey Howe. When our Chancellor goes to the airport, it's to sort out someone else's crisis, as he did last weekend. And he does not turn back.

Last week's Budget was a responsible Budget. But then that's what you would expect from us. It offered hope without gimmicks. It was consistent, but it was also constructive.

But I'm asking you to do something which few British Prime Ministers in recent history would dare to ask. I ask you to look not just at last week's Budget, but at the last five Budgets. Because those Budgets form part of a firm and continuing strategy to put Britain right. [end p2]

Steadily we have brought this nation back to solvency. We have reduced the Government's borrowing. We've got public spending under control. The results are beginning to show: in low inflation; in falling interest rates; in rising productivity.

Mr Chairman, these achievements didn't just happen. They are the result of patient and careful husbandry through some of the roughest weather in our lifetime.

Isn't it amazing how, when you bring inflation down to a level far below what they said was possible, they take it for granted and say anyone could have done it?

In some years, we have had to produce tough and unpopular Budgets. This year, we have been able to reduce income tax as part of our long-term purpose. But every year, we have put the well-being of the nation first. We're not in the business of currying favour. We're in the business of earning respect.

Over on the Opposition side, you may have noticed that there is a crazy auction going on. The Labour Party promises to give away £11 billion. Then the SDP virtually matches the bid. The figures are unbelievable—and so are the claims to offer a credible alternative Government. Mr Chairman, election bribery is cynical and corrosive. We will have nothing to do with it.

The achievement of steady prices, lower interest rates, the opportunity of real growth and genuine jobs—all this is too hard won and to precious to put at risk. And that's exactly what Labour's economics would do. They would destroy the foundation we have worked so hard to build. We've been through it all before. Indeed it looks as if some others in Europe are going through it all again.

STRATEGY FOR JOBS

Unemployment has risen sharply throughout the Western world during the recession. In the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, it is worse than in Britain. In West Germany, the rate is now rising considerably faster than it is here. Unemployment is the foremost problem across the industrialised world.

The causes? For a start—world recession. But that is not all.

That recession has coincided with a new technological revolution—old products have become obsolete and the new technologies have often substituted machines for people. All this hit our industries at the very time when we had to find more jobs anyway. For the baby boom of the 1960s are today's school leavers looking for work. [end p3]

And in this world recession the competition our industries face has really hotted up. The easy days of the Fifties and early Sixties are gone—and gone for good. Then, many of our present competitors were still recovering from the devastation of War. The challenge from new industries of the Far East—from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore—had not begun. They were our traditional markets. Now they are competing for our markets both here and throughout the world. This new competition is here to stay. Life will never be the same again.

So there's no point in looking back. We must be way up front in the new industries, the new products, the new services. For new technologies bring new opportunities as well. That's where the new jobs will come from. That's where they've always come from.

Think of the successful new businesses which did not exist ten years ago and were not dreamt of twenty years ago. Think of Clive Sinclair and his microcomputers—virtually every secondary school in the country now has a microcomputer as a result of this Conservative Government's programme.

And that created a lot of business too. For the parents feel they have to buy computers to keep up!

Think of the things which we now import in Britain but which we could perfectly well make ourselves if we got the price and the design right—the cameras, the video recorders, the word processors. These are booming. There's plenty of demand but we don't produce the supply.

If our industries could secure one per cent more of our home market, there would be 80,000 more jobs for our people. One per cent more of world export orders, then we'd have 250,000 more jobs here.

Of course, Government alone cannot make all this happen. Nothing can replace the enterprise of individuals or the drive and pressure of the market place. But there are things that Government can and must do to help create jobs and this we are doing.

—like keeping inflation and interest rates down to the level of our rivals and preferably lower.

—like tax incentives which keep creative people in Britain.

—like cutting back bureaucracy. [end p4]

—like persuading people that pay increases must be matched by higher output.

—like more sensible trade union laws.

But that is only the start of what we are doing. We can actually take advantage of these difficult times to do things Britain should have done decades ago.

This Conservative Government launched the biggest training programme for young people in our history. We are going to train this generation in the right skills for the new industries and the new technologies—yes, and for some of the old skills too.

We've known of the need for years. Now this Government is tackling it.

It took some time to prepare. We had to find 480,000 places from employers all over Britain in factory, shop, office and farm.

By next September, every school leaver will have a real choice: either to go into further education or to take a job or to have a training place under this exciting new scheme.

The whole purpose is to set young people on the path to long-term jobs.

And we're not confining our efforts to school leavers either We're not satisfied with the standards of technical education in this country. That's why our education and employment Ministers, Keith Joseph and Norman Tebbit, working with David Young of the Manpower Services Commission have launched an imaginative new scheme.

A dozen technical schools are being started up around the country to teach 14–18 year-olds skills that lead directly to work.

Germany has had them for years. Now we are bringing high quality technical education to our schools too.

You can tell the demand by the speed with which local authorities have snapped up the offer. Let me tell you of one more remarkable development. [end p5]

We are setting up across the country, a network of Centres where unemployed young people can go for training in computer programming and the new electronics. They learn very quickly when they can see some purpose in what they are being taught.

Let me give you one example.

In the Salford Centre, every trainee on the forty week course has been offered a job even before he has finished his training. The jobs are there provided we train for the right skills.

Yes, Government can get the climate right and see we have got the training right. But even that's not enough. This Government is doing a lot more to help bring the jobs of the future to Britain.

We have always had the inventive genius, as our sixty-two Nobel Prize winners in science demonstrate. What we have to do is to turn that genius into production and profit.

Since 1979, this Government has more than trebled our support for the new technologies. Any high technology firm with a suitable invention can get a grant from the Department of Industry to cover one-third of the costs of bringing the product to the market.

And the sums involved are not small. Indeed, we are already spending £180 million. And in the last Budget another £185 million was allocated to give Britain a world lead in the high-risk, high technology fields—micro-electronics, fibre-optics, advance, machine-tools, robotics—where many of the jobs of the future will be found.

The potential is there. This Government is helping to get the jobs here.

But whatever the technology—whatever the product—whatever the service—every business has to start somewhere.

People talk about the black economy and the white economy. I want to talk about the unsung economy—the millions of small businessmen, shopkeepers, professional people and craftsmen. Most of them don't belong to a union or lobby to [end p6] shout their cause.

In Britain, for years these staunchly independent people were left to fend for themselves. The tax system was against them. The planners were against them. All too often, the politicians were against them because they thought Big was efficient.

We've changed all that. We've changed the whole climate. [end p7]

Geoffrey Howe and Patrick Jenkin and John MacGregor have produced a whole series of schemes to make life easier for small businesses.

If you want to set up in business and you are not sure how to go about it, you can go to the Department of Industry's Small Firms Service and actually get help not hindrance from the Government.

They will suggest sources of finance; they will help you to deal with unfriendly authorities, be they local or central; and they can put you in touch with experienced businessmen for advice in crucial areas like marketing and cost control.

And, under our scheme for guaranteeing loans which we have just extended you will find your bank much more ready to lend to you, even when you have no successful track record.

No Government in the world has done more to nurture the growth of enterprise. Our record is unsurpassed.

We use our Budgets to work for industry and to help create new jobs. Look at what we did last week alone.

There are jobs in North Sea Oil, so we reduced the tax on companies exploring for oil.

As a result we now expect new oilfield developments to come forward at a rate of one every six weeks over the next two years. Only on Wednesday, Shell said they would be looking again at a number of developments.

We wanted more jobs in engineering. So we made £100 million available for small engineering firms to buy the latest machinery.

We wanted to encourage people who were unemployed to start up on their own. So we've introduced a new nationwide weekly enterprise allowance that they can draw for a year. We'd already had a pilot scheme going for some time. And the results are good.

And to follow up our exciting Enterprise Zones, we are launching a remarkable experiment in freeports to give our international traders the same flexibility [end p8] and opportunity as their rivals.

In this Government, we never stand still. We are always looking for new ideas. That's just what the Labour Party cannot stand.

In a world recession when you've got old industries running down and new competitors coming up, it's a slow and arduous business creating new jobs. You can't just urge business to take on extra people. That would only add to their costs. You've got to go at it the hard way by creating new products in the new industries, or better designs and better quality in the old. I believe our people know this. I believe they realise that we are the Party that can and will bring this country through to success; that our policies, which I have just described, are the only ones that will create genuine jobs. Governments can set the climate right, bring the taxes down, help small business and get the training right.

But the spirit of enterprise can only come from men and women with the drive and dedication to overcome all the obstacles and win through.

THE CONSERVATIVE APPROACH

That is the Conservative perspective. Britain's oldest party—yet vibrant and alive with new ideas. We are here to last—just as the society we are building will last. The roots of that society run deep, for it grows from the family and it is the family which gives us our first view of society. In the family we look back with our parents and forward with our children. We are not selfishly concerned only with the wants of today.

And so it is with our society. We shall destroy ourselves if we become a one-generation society—regarding a week in politics as a long time.

Conservatives recognise their obligations for the future just as they acknowledge their debts to the past. As Edmund Burke said, people who never look backward to their ancestors will not look forward to posterity. Continuity is the first quality of the Conservative Society. That is the Conservatism which lies deep in the hearts of our people. No wonder our opponents hate calling us Conservatives. They refer to us as the Tory Party—with or without an adjective or two! [end p9]

Well, that's an honourable name, but it does not have the ring of Conservative. It does not remind us in the same way of our desire and our duty to conserve the best of our inheritance.

And conservation is not just for the rich. You sometimes hear people say, “what have I got to conserve?” .

Instinctively we know that the answer is “a vast amount” . A tolerant and fairminded country. Personal liberty, protected by the rule of law. Democratic institutions defended by armed forces who serve rather than rule.

There are other precious things too. More and more of us have a home which we own and want to conserve. Half a million who were council tenants at the last election will be property owners at the next. Every one of them now has something more to conserve for the future.

Nor is it only material things. We seek to protect and pass on the treasures of our p* the art and the architecture; the wildlife and the countryside. It was Conservatives who established the National Heritage Fund, Conservatives who passed the Wild Life and Countryside Act, and the Clean Air Act, Conservatives who protected grants for the performing arts even in a recession. And all that because we seek to keep the best—and hand it on for future generations to enjoy.

We are a conserving people and that is the second mark of a Conservative society.

Yet merely to conserve is not enough. We have to enhance and improve.

For as Disraeli said, “change is inevitable—in a progressive country, change is constant” .

And change is the third quality of a Conservative society.

That pressure for change and improvement comes only in countries where the customer can choose what he buys.

Call it free enterprise, call it capitalism the essence is that enduring prosperity is earned only by bringing the best to the consumer. [end p10]

I hear that last week the centenary of the birth of Karl Marx was celebrated rather quietly in Moscow. The truth is that most of the Russian people would rather be celebrating the centenary of Marks and Spencer.

It is not communism but capitalism which truly serves the people.

For what is the market economy? It is where the people choose. Where housewife and secretary, factory worker and miner, doctor and student themselves decide what they want. They choose—not just the unimportant things, but increasingly make the really vital decisions about their own lives.

As we extend opportunity for people and for their families—so we destroy monopoly power.

Once there are owner-occupiers on council estates, the municipal monopoly is broken and that is good news for all—for the tenants as well as the house buyers.

Once people begin to take a shareholding in the firm they work for—and many people have—they begin to break down the old barriers and the old attitudes.

Once parents have the chance to choose their children's schools, then education truly becomes a partnership and the diktat of the Education Authority a thing of the past.

Yet choice implies responsibility. The more important the choice—the more real the responsibility. But there are lots of people around who don't think we ought to be trusted with choice. Certainly not with worthwhile choice. The Labour Party is full of people who want to choose for you. Councillors who want to choose the colour of the front door of your council house. Educationalists who want to direct your children to the school they think is best for them. Politicians who think that they can control companies better than their shareholders. Oh—there are plenty of people who know what's good for the rest of us.

But choice is the fourth mark of the Conservative society.

It is the only way of ensuring that the people are in control. It's the only way of defeating the petty dictators and political know-alls who think that they, not you, should make the big decisions in your life.

But if we demand the right to choose, then we must accept the duties which come from choice. [end p11]

We can't snatch for ourselves what we want and have no concern for its cost or who pays for it. It is that sense of obligation and of duty which ought to mark our attitude towards the Welfare State.

Let me remind you of some words worth remembering:-

“The State in organising social security should not stifle incentive, opportunity, responsibility; in establishing a national minimum it should leave room and encouragement for voluntary action by each individual to provide more than that minimum for himself and his family” .

That was William Beveridge in 1942. It was true then, and it's true now.

The tradition of free health care in this country is older even that Dick Whittington and his hospital. St. Bartholomew 's has been treating patients free of charge for 800 years. Many of our greatest schools and colleges were founded by the Church and the Crown. The welfare state doesn't make all that effort obsolete.

It's exactly the opposite. The welfare state ought to encourage all the extra provision which voluntary organisations and personal effort can ensure. Our Party has no more intention of dismantling the welfare state than we have of dismantling the Albert Hall.

But we believe strongly in people doing and being encouraged to do what they can for themselves. There is not the slightest contradiction between the two. I would not wish to live in a society in which the weak and the sick were not protected, or the very old and the very young were not provided for.

But in this country, we are what we are because freedom and duty have grown side by side.

A caring society is not one in which we leave everything to the Government. In a caring society, we all care.

The Conservative tradition is one of partnership between the individual and the state, not a tradition of domination by the state. And we remain true to that tradition. But traditions have to be refreshed by new thought. [end p12]

You may have heard leaks that in this Government we have not stopped thinking. I understand that this has caused a degree of shock in some quarters.

You remember how the Thought Police operated in George Orwell 's 1984. In Newspeak, little children were taught how to “stop short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought” .

Well there are no Thought Police in this Government. We are constantly looking for fresh ways of doing things better.

I have told you some of them this morning. I have described how this country will find the jobs of the late 1980's. And I have said something of what the Conservative approach really means and of what its all for. Within a year or so the nation will have to choose between us and the Labour Party. There can be no fudging of this choice, because it will be clear and irrevocable.

And there can be no doubt about where we stand. From the beginning of our term of office, we have sought to restore honest money and sound finance to this country.

We have striven to balance humanity and fairness, and to reconcile the needs of the sick and the elderly with the burden borne by the working population.

We have recaptured the common ground shared by the great majority of our fellow-citizens because we speak for the great majority.

And we have acted from first to last as a reliable ally and a loyal partner. We stick to our treaties and we stick up for our friends. We know that in the interests of the longer term, we may have to postpone immediate satisfactions. But we never postpone immediate decisions.

Some years ago, a great American, Dean Acheson, wrote that Britain had lost an Empire but had not yet found a role. At the time that remark stung, because we suspected there might be some truth in it.

If Dean Acheson were alive today, I do not think that he would say the same. For we know now where we are going and the world knows it too. We are no longer the sick man of Europe. We are the cornerstone of the European Alliance. [end p13]

We are respected as a free nation, and a bold nation. If Labour won, we know that all this hard-earned respect could disappear overnight. We should be back to the old fudging and lurching from crisis to crisis. But this time the pace downhill would be faster and the outlook for freedom darker.

Mr. Chairman, we are determined that the British people shall not tread that path.

We shall fight to defend those qualities of tolerance and fairness and courage which have sustained us so long. We shall fight for our freedom in time of peace, as fiercely as we fought in time of war.

Liberty under the law, a steadfast Government, and a free people. That is the foundation of a great nation.

It is a vision worth fighting for. And we shall fight, we shall win.