Finchley Speaking Note
When asked to comment on the current situation the Prime Minister said in her Constituency today:
“This weekend when we are beset by both a coal strike and a dock strike, let me make it clear: the Government will do everything necessary to keep the country working. In doing so we shall have the strong and resolute support of the British public.
“I believe that the British people are deeply appreciative of those miners and dockers who in the true spirit of brotherhood have stayed at work and are keeping the wheels turning.
“The country will not be held to ransom by a tiny minority—200,000 at most—who are trying to impose their will on the other 55 million.
“In today's world, monopoly trade unions have immense potential for destruction and can inflict severe damage and hardship on their fellow workers—indeed on their fellow trade unionists. That is what is happening today. And in the case of the docks it is being cynically applied at the start of the school holidays—and just when Britain's industries have been winning back customers.
“The only result will be to destroy jobs and business here and to transfer both to the Continent, to France, Germany, Belgium and Holland for whose workers strikes in Britain are good news.
“The British public know exactly where the responsibility rests and no amount of huffing and puffing on the part of a few trade union leaders can or will transfer the blame to others. They are the wreckers.