PRIME MINISTER
Engagements
Q1. Mr. Archer
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.
Mr. Archer
The right hon. Lady having flatly refused to meet two successive presidents of the Methodist Conference, who were asking to see her on the instructions of conference, may I ask her to say whether the deep concerns of the Methodist people are as much a matter of indifference to her as are the concerns of the other churches, the Royal College of Nursing, the British Medical Association, the Royal Society, the Bar Council and the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom? Has she ever considered as a possibility that everyone else may be right and that she may be wrong?
The Prime Minister
I am very flattered that everyone would like to come and see me, but I am afraid that there just is not time for all that to take place. The president of the Methodist Conference wrote me a letter. I replied fully to it—the reply received a great deal of publicity—pointing out that despite the complaints of the president of the Methodist Conference, the amount spent on social security was vastly in excess of what was spent by Labour, that the same applied to the amounts spent on health and the disabled, and that this Government had well and truly discharged their duty of increasing the social services available to the people of Britain.
Mr. Dunn
Does the Prime Minister agree that the first duty of the British Government is to provide the means of defending their people and that it would be foolish in the extreme to change our defence policy now to take account of the short-term changes that appear to be happening in the eastern bloc?
The Prime Minister
Yes. I agree with my hon. Friend. The defence policy that we have is a NATO defence policy, as was made clear in the replies that I heard by George Youngerthe Secretary of State for Defence to previous questions. It is a flexible response and it can be changed only by NATO. These matters will be considered when the agreements on reductions in conventional arms have been completed. We shall have to consider the issues together so that one nation does not take advantage over another of the reductions.
Mr. Kinnock
Will the Prime Minister join me today in paying tribute to the skill and dedication of all the ambulance workers who worked at the scene of the tragic multiple crash on the M25 last night? Does she agree that it is inaccurate as well as insulting for those people to be described as merely professional drivers?
The Prime Minister
I gladly pay tribute, as I have always done, to all the ambulance workers, many of whom are still working full time and many of whom in particular are providing full emergency and accident cover. A number of those at the scene last night were on normal emergency and accident cover, in the usual way. [column 817]
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, it has been our wish—I believe that it has been the wish of the ambulance and Health Service—to increase the number of ambulance staff who have paramedical qualifications. For that reason, the pay offered to the ambulance workers, varying between 9 and 16.3 per cent. according to their qualifications and where they work, was slanted towards those who also have paramedical qualifications.
Mr. Kinnock
Will the Prime Minister now answer an essential part of the question? Does she agree that to describe the people who went to the scene of the crash last night as merely professional drivers is both inaccurate and insulting?
The Prime Minister
I have gladly paid tribute to the ambulance service and pointed out that we require a bigger proportion of ambulance workers to have paramedical qualifications so that they can give life-supporting medical treatment at the scene of accidents. For that purpose we have slanted the pay offer to the ambulance workers of up to 16.3 per cent. in London towards those who have the requisite medical qualifications.
Sir Anthony Grant
Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is wholly inappropriate and has never been the case under any Government that Cabinet Ministers negotiate directly with trade unions? Will she confirm that the line that the Secretary of State for Health is taking commands the wholehearted support of Her Majesty's Government?
The Prime Minister
Yes, I gladly confirm that. As my hon. Friend knows, the latest offer of 9 to 16.3 per cent., according to where a person works and his qualifications, included some £6 million of new money. The NHS executive had already moved to make that extra money available and we look forward to the ambulance people settling.
Q2. Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Banks
Will the Prime Minister take time today to compare her travel time to work with that of the average Londoner? As she sweeps out of Downing street past those new regal gates in her bullet-proof limo, with the police holding back the traffic and the angry crowds—[Laughter.] her travel time to work is probably about 90 seconds. We should all like that. Is she remotely aware of the terrible congestion on London's roads and the appalling state of London Transport? Will she come out of that bunker in No. 10 and, for once in her life, travel on public transport in London in the rush hour? If she did it just once something would change, but Londoners have to do it twice a day.
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman does not have his facts quite right. I live over the shop, as I have done for years.
Q3. Mr. Page
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Page
If my right hon. Friend, for perceived electoral advantage, were to change her deeply held views [column 818]on policies such as unilateral disarmament, the closed shop, sale of council houses and nationalisation, would the voter believe that she or any party that did so would revert to type after the next general election?
The Prime Minister
As my hon. Friend knows, the Government's policies are founded on sound principles and strong convictions. The policies will not change. The principles are excellent and they have done very well for the British people. We shall continue until the next election and through the next Parliament to pursue the same policies which are relevant, beneficial and advantageous to our people.
Q5. Mr. Andrew Smith
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Smith
Does the Prime Minister agree that, in the interests of proper public and parliamentary accountability, her former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Lord Young, must now agree to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to answer for the public losses and the threat to jobs at Cowley and elsewhere arising from the Government's giveaway of the Rover Group?
The Prime Minister
I do not believe that it is at all usual for Ministers to appear before the Public Accounts Committee, for reasons that the hon. Gentleman knows. It is quite a different matter to appear before the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, which I understand my Lord Youngright hon. and noble Friend has agreed to do.
Q6. Mr. Hind
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Hind
Does my right hon. Friend agree that excessive and irresponsible increases in spending by county councils will lead to vast unnecessary increases in the community charge? Is she aware that Labour-controlled Lancashire county council has increased its expenditure in the past 12 months? If a rate were to be declared, it would represent an increase of 33.4 per cent., which would cause unnecessary hardship to the ratepayers of Lancashire.
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend that unnecessarily high spending will increase the community charge and place an extra burden upon the electors whom councils are meant to serve. Let us look at the settlement for the coming year. In our settlement proposals, the provision for council spending is 11 per cent. more than the corresponding figure for last year. That should be quite sufficient for reasonable programmes and, therefore, a reasonable community charge. If that policy is not followed, I trust that electorates will know precisely what to do and cast their votes against such councils.
Q7. Mrs. Ray Michie
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mrs. Michie
How will Scotland benefit from the single European market if the Government do not heed the [column 819]warning by Sir Robert Reid that there must be a substantially increased investment in north-south rail links?
The Prime Minister
Of course, Scotland will benefit upon the completion of a whole common market of the kind that we shall have after 1992. In Edinburgh, for example, we have a flourishing thriving financial centre and one of the things that we are trying to do is to get much greater freedom to sell our services in the market. With regard to manufacturing goods and their movement, I hope that the hon. Lady will read in full Sir Bob Reid 's speech, which was very complimentary about the enormous advances made in the past few years during his chairmanship of British Rail. He pointed out a number of things that he wished to see done, some of which require private Bills—particularly the link from Heathrow to Paddington, which would affect everyone who travels down that way. It was some Labour Members—not members of the hon. Lady's party—who prevented the passage of such private Bills.
Mr. Boswell
Most people think that this is the first Prime Minister's Question Time of the decade. Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to comment on the recent staggering events in eastern Europe and take an early opportunity of going to eastern Europe and telling people there of the benefits of policies based on democracy and free enterprise?
The Prime Minister
I gladly respond to my hon. Friend's question. The events in eastern Europe confirmed that Socialism has utterly failed and has been totally rejected by the people of eastern Europe who want much greater freedom than they have ever known, a freer market economy and genuine democracy. We shall do all that we can to assist in that aim. We are already giving Poland and Hungary extensive help, in concert with other countries in the European Community.
Q8. Ms. Primarolo
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
[column 820]The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Ms. Primarolo
The Prime Minister referred to the Government's sound principles and strong convictions. As a mother and grandmother herself, will she explain why her Government have introduced social security changes which mean that a 16-year-old pregnant woman living in a hostel has only £3.65 per week to buy her meals and keep herself—excluding rent and breakfast? What is so sound about those convictions and principles?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Lady knows that benefits were changed so that those living in hostels have the same kind of structural benefit as those living in flats. They got their housing benefit, and of course they will get their rent rebate, and they have the requisite income support. That is very much fairer than favouring one group, who live in one kind of accommodation, against the other.
Q9. Mr. Butler
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 9 January.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Butler
Does my right hon. Friend share my disappointment at the banks' withdrawal from the student loans scheme? Does it not show that it is naive to depend on alternative economic strategies that involve the banks rationing their own credit at Government request alone?
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend. I am sorry that the main banks pulled out of the student loans scheme. I am afraid that it will be disadvantageous for students because it means that they will not be able to have the facilities offered by local banking branches. It is unwise of the students to urge the banks to do that, and it is unwise of the banks to agree to do it—it harms everyone. Nevertheless, the student loans scheme will go ahead.
I agree with my hon. Friend about credit control. Credit control would not work on days when we had no foreign exchange control, and it would be quite absurd to rely upon the banks to try to operate such a system.