MT
Well, I … had we got just no further advance on £350 million and no prospect at all, then I would have had to have said “I'm sorry I must … there'll be a crisis” .
When you say “make a clean break” , to come out of the community—no. I think that would do immense damage to the free world and the only people who would rejoice at that would be those in Moscow. That's no part of my design and you know.
Julian Haviland, ITN
But you are willing to block progress aren't you? You made that pretty clear didn't you?
MT
Well, look. They are in fact blocking progress in Britain by requiring us to make such a large net contribution to Europe. You see, every penny the community spends in Britain we pay for and cover, and when we've done that we still contribute a £1,000 million to Europe. Next year no one else, though most are richer than we are, contributes anything like that amount. So to have us—one of the poor people—being one of the big benefactors of Europe didn't make sense. We could do with that money at home. We're having to cut expenditure at home and it is not fair that we should be required to make that kind of contribution.