British people deserve better chance

Everywhere I have been during this campaign I have found former Labour supporters telling me that for the first time they are voting Conservative. Why?

Because the Labour Party of today is no longer the party of Clem Atlee and Hugh Gaitskell. Reg Prentice, Richard Marsh and George Brown have all testified to that over the past few weeks.

There is widespread disillusion with Labour. They have doubled prices They have doubled unemployment, and crime has risen to an unacceptable level. This is what has happened in the last five years—and Labour propose no policy changes to make things any better. Indeed their plans would make things still worse…   .

This simply isn't fair to the British people. They deserve a better chance. It is appalling that a country with our rich natural resources—North Sea oil and gas, and the skills and enterprises of our people—should be doing so much worse than partners in Europe and our major competitors world wide.

Of course, politicians can't please everyone, and it isn't their business to try. Their job is to ensure justice for everyone, so that everyone has a fair chance and the ambitions of the strong don't make the weak even weaker.

Produce

Nearly everyone would like more money, no doubt. But most people recognise that if we doubled everyone's wages all we should get at the end of the day would be doubled prices. In the long run, no one would be better off.

Yet there is a way to make everyone better off. If the Government takes less in taxes, people have more money to spend, even more important, if people see the chance of keeping more of what they earn, it becomes more worthwhile to work a bit harder or longer and produce more.

It becomes more worthwhile to be in a job rather than on social security. With the right incentives, we can get more production, and on that everything else depends.

Unless we produce more wealth, there will be no more to spend on pensions, on hospitals, on schools and roads. If we do then the elderly the sick and the children will get a better deal. It is as simple as that.

As I go round the country, people constantly mention their anxiety about law and order. Crime rates such as we are seeing in our cities are a disgrace to a supposedly civilised society.

If a Government can't protect citizens and their property against violence, vandalism and theft, there is little point in having a government at all. We will wage war on crime immediately.

People can only be really free—free to live their own lives and go about their business in peace—if there are laws to guarantee that freedom and if the laws are to be observed.

So following the events of last winter, the Conservatives have put forward three proposals which command general assent inside and outside the trade union movement.

First, violence, intimidation and obstruction on the picket line cannot be tolerated. We shall ensure that the protection of the law is available to those not concerned in the dispute, but who at present can suffer severely from secondary action (picketing, blacking and blockading).

Second, people arbitrarily excluded or expelled from any union must be given the right of appeal to a court of law.

Thirdly, too often trade unions are dominated by a tiny handful of extremists who do not reflect the common sense views of most union members. Wider use of secret ballots for decision-making throughout the trade union movement should be given every encouragement.

We will therefore provide public funds for postal ballots for union elections and other important issues.

What are the other major issues people are worried about?

Well, for a start there is the way our children are being educated.

Standards have fallen in many schools. We shall promote higher standards of achievement in basic skills. The Government's assessment of performance unit will set national standards of reading, writing and arithmetic. Monitored by tests worked out with teachers and others, and applied locally by education authorities in teacher-training, there must be more emphasis on practical skills and on maintaining discipline.

Then there is the way in which we look after the elderly.

The level of pensions must be raised to take account of price rises. The November increases will go ahead. For a long time we have thought that the earnings rule for pensioners was unfair. It will be abolished. The Christmas bonus will continue, and war widows' pensions will be exempt from tax altogether.

We have also made it clear that we shall give council tenants the legal right to buy their homes. Our discounts will range from 33 per cent after three years, rising with length of tenancy to a maximum of 50 per cent, after 20 years. Those council house tenants who do not wish to buy their homes will be given new rights and responsibilities under our Tenants' Charter

Finally, what is my vision of a Conservative Britain?

I want to see a freer and stronger Britain, in which people live and work within the law, respecting the rights of others. A Britain in which workers and managers can earn more by producing more—and keeping more of what they earn. In which there will be more genuine new jobs created, and where skill and hard work are rewarded.