Remarks visiting Launceston

Document type:	Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue:	Abru Aluminium, Pennygillam Industrial Estate, Launceston, Cornwall
Source:	Western Morning News, 10 March 1979
Editorial comments:	Morning. The Daily Telegraph reports some additional remarks: "The only way to create genuine jobs is to produce goods or services other people will buy. Far too many people look to the Government suddenly to create jobs, but on the whole jobs created by government are those which use up the wealth other people have created". See also Remarks visiting Hallworthy.
Importance ranking:	Minor
Word count:	519
Themes:	Employment, Industry

TORY LEADER ‘MEETS THE PEOPLE’ IN N. CORNWALL

FACTORY workers and farmers had their chance to meet Mrs. Thatcher in North Cornwall yesterday, but it was in the town square at Launceston where she walked among the crowds, that the Conservative leader had her most enthusiastic welcome.

There were no real speeches during the day from Mrs. Thatcher. “I have come to meet the people and hear what they have to say,” she told farmers as she spoke from the auctioneers' rostrum at Hallworthy Market, near Camelford. “I am here to gain the benefit of your advice,” she said.

The advice Mrs. Thatcher had to give after meeting the people was that the only way to produce genuine jobs was to produce goods and services which would sell.

Abru Aluminium, at Launceston, the first stop during her visit to the marginal seat, was an excellent example, she said. “You have to encourage those who can start up small businesses and expand.”

Large businesses, or shipyards, had to be certain they did not get involved in overmanning or demarcation disputes. “You have to give the tax incentives to those who can build up something which will employ people like you and me, producing things which ordinary people want to buy.”

Small business, she said, was the key to the economy of the South-West. “Even the Socialists are coming round to that way of thinking,” she said.

Mrs. Thatcher tried her hand at operating the machines which bend the aluminium into shape. On her second attempt she said: “It's getting better.”

Another worker at Abru, Mr. Roger Jewell, asked her why wages in the Westcountry were so much below the national average. “It all depends on how many of these you can make or sell,” Mrs. Thatcher said, pointing at the leaders.

Mrs. Thatcher said that Abru, which had expanded in Launceston in the past 10 years, and had sales of more than £2 million a year, “had a fantastic success story. I wish we had more like it,” Mrs. Thatcher told two of its directors.

She also met the Transport and General Workers' Union shop steward Mr. Sid Lynch, who told her the sort of industrial problems they had at the factory could be handled internally. Asked if he would vote for Mrs. Thatcher, he replied: “Not likely.”

After lunch, at Launceston, Mrs. Thatcher and her party made their way to Worthyvale Manor, near Camelford, where she was shown around, a trout farm and a holiday development. The business is run by the Parsons family.

Throughout the day the mood of the visit was informal. As Mrs. Thatcher carried on talking to the Parsons family in their 16th-century manor house, her husband hurried her on with “Come on Thatcher.” His words obviously had some effect because Mrs. Thatcher headed off to see the holiday development leaving her handbag behind.

On Thursday evening Mrs. Thatcher paid a surprise visit to Exeter after being driven by her husband from the House of Commons.

She went straight to the Western Area Conservative office in Magdalen Road where she met Mr. Tony Speller, Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for North Devon.