Humphrey Atkins
Tonight, instead of us telling you what the next Conservative Government will do, we'd like you at home to imagine that you were part of the next Government. Put aside for the next ten minutes whether you vote Labour, Conservative, Liberal or anything else and just look at the problems in a practical, common-sense way and decide what you would do. Let's say you've got the power to raise taxes, look after prices, wages, pensions, deal with industry and the unions, what would you do?
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What do you think should be done to get production moving?
Sir Geoffrey Howe
Production earns the money that pays our wages. It pays for our schools, our hospitals, our housing, our pensions, in fact almost everything. So it really is the key. And we are producing no more iron and steel than we did twenty years ago. We are producing only half the cars we buy and, worse still, the whole of our manufacturing industry is actually producing less than it did five years ago. That's why we have been overtaken by France and by Germany and by Italy and by lots of others. So of course you'd start wondering why we produce so much less. Why do we produce so little? Perhaps because there is no incentive to produce more. Perhaps because we pay too much tax. Well, that's an argument we've all heard before.
So in fact how do we compare with other countries? In Britain, most people pay about 40 pence in tax and National Insurance out of every extra pound they earn. That's 4 pence in the pound more than five years ago. In Germany, as a married man with two children, you'd have to be earning £300 a week to pay that rate of tax. In Canada, you'd have to be earning £500 a week. In France, about £800 a week before you paid tax at that rate. But in Britain, less than £50 a week. So, that's your first decision. If other countries seem to be able to get production up by keeping income tax down, would you put it up, as Labour has done over the last five years? Or leave it as it is, or get income tax down?
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What do you think should be done to tackle inflation? [end p1]
Lynda Chalker
The story here is pretty bad. Over the last five years prices have gone up faster and more than at any time since records were kept. And they've gone up much more than in Germany, France, Holland, Japan and the USA. And now, inflation's on the way up again. Well, why did it get better for a short time you'd ask? It got better mainly because countries from whom Labour were trying to borrow money would only lend it on one condition—that Labour didn't waste it on unnecessary Government spending, like nationalisation and an ever-growing army of Civil Servants interfering in everyone's business. So that's the next question for you.
If inflation went down last time because we cut Government spending, would you cut Government spending or increase it?
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What do you think should be done to improve the social services?
Dr. Gerry Vaughan
If you were in the Government, another vital area of concern is the social services. Our hospitals, our schools. There things are looking pretty bleak and, although Labour keeps saying things have been getting better, you and I know full well that the standards are getting worse. There are appalling delays of up to two years for people waiting for operations. And there is low morale amongst doctors and nurses and hospital workers. And the public services, they are falling apart too with dustmen, firemen, water workers all feeling bitter about pay and conditions. Now this is a very tricky problem. The right social services cost a lot of money and yet we all know that too much Government spending causes inflation. So what's the answer? It must be a question of priorities. So the question is if it were your choice what would you spend the taxpayers' money on? On the key social services or spend it on nationalisation?
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What do you think should be done to help people pay less tax?
Sir Geoffrey Howe
Now obviously the Government has to collect money to pay for our schools, hospitals, police, defence and so on. The question is how should you raise it? Basically there's a choice of two ways. You can tax what people earn and they have to pay whether they like it or not. As we've seen, too much of that seems to slow down production. Or you can tax some of what people spend. Then at least they have some choice. But I can almost hear you saying it, won't that put up prices? The answer must be not to put tax on essentials, the things we all have to buy like food, housing, fuel, public transport, childrens' clothes, and so on. And at the same time to protect pensioners from any price increases. Having done all that, would you give people the choice and tax some of what they spend or would you prefer not to give them the choice and tax what they earn? [end p2]
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What do you think should be done to help people buy their own home?
Michael Heseltine
Housing is another crucial area for many people. Most of us want to own our own home. New homes of course to-day are only being built at the lowest rate since the 1940s. Local Councils can't afford to build enough homes to house everyone. Some of them are being hard-pressed to keep the estates they've already got in decent order. There is a way out. A lot of Council and new town tenants want to buy their homes from the Council and some of that money coming in could help people in acute housing need or reduce the enormous housing burden on the rates. Would you give people who want to buy their own homes from the Council the right to do so or would you stop them like so many Labour Councils do?
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Well, there are five basic questions for you to think about.
Sir Geoffrey
On income tax, would you bring income tax down? That's Conservative policy.
Heseltine
On inflation, do you think we'll get it down if we are really determined to cut out Government waste and over-spending? That's Conservative policy too.
Sir Geoffrey
On the best method of taxation. Taxes on what you earn or on some of what you buy? That's Conservative policy too.
Vaughan
On social services, do you agree that we should spend the taxpayers' money on the social services as our first priority? That's Conservative policy too.
Heseltine
On housing. Would you give Council and new town tenants who want to buy their own homes the right to do so? That's Conservative policy too.
Atkins
Now it wouldn't surprise me at all if almost every person in Britain agreed with your decisions. Not because they are Conservative policies but because they are common sense.
Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher
As I go round the country campaigning I find that most people agree with us that we must cut tax on earnings to give incentive and that we must cut tax on pensioners' income because that's a matter of elementary justice. But they are worried that it might involve putting a little something extra on VAT. Not a lot, but a little. And they say is it worth making the change? I want to prove to you that it is.
If we leave you with more of your own money in your own pocket you can choose how you spend it. A young couple for example might choose to pay off the mortgage [end p3] more quickly. No VAT on that. A housewife might choose to spend it on more food. No VAT on that. She might spend it on childrens' clothes, childrens' shoes which cost so much these days. No VAT on them. An older person might spend it on a little bit more warmth in the home. No VAT on that. She might wish to pay a visit to her grandchildren a long way away and take a train journey to do it. No VAT on that. People might even save a little more. No VAT on that.
In all those ways you can choose what you do with your own money provided it's left in your own pocket. But there is another thing as well. So many people say to me it isn't worthwhile to work harder. If we leave you with more of your own money by cutting tax, it will be worthwhile to work harder. Will be worthwhile to do the extra overtime. Will be worthwhile to acquire an extra skill. Then we might also get some of those brilliant managers, inventors and people who have started up business overseas, they might come back, they might do it in Britain. They'll help themselves of course by doing better but they'll help Britain as well. That way we shall get expanding industry and commerce. That way we shall get new good jobs for our young people. That way we shall be able to compete with our neighbours. That way we shall get Britain back into the top division of nations.
Incentive, courage, achievement. That's what we Conservatives want for Britain.
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