John Lander, Central TV
Prime Minister, you've always said that people should buy British, if British goods are competitive in price and quality. But all too often they're not. What's wrong with British industry?
MT
Oh, I think they're coming up pretty fast. After all, we do export quite a lot and you know there are companies in this country, and shop distributors, who insist on buying British. But they do it the right way. They go to suppliers and say: “Look, you've got to come up to a standard” . And they do. And they can. We've got to win the customers at home if we're going to win them abroad.
John Lander, Central TV
For the first time since the Industrial Revolution Britain is now buying more manufactured goods from abroad than it sells. Isn't it time the Government intervened to stop this flood of imports coming in?
MT
No, I don't think so. When you have to export 30 per cent of your national income to live, you've got to reckon that if you stop imports someone else is going to stop your exports. Um … it's not surprising at the moment that we are getting more manufactured imports, because, of course, we've got the oil industry, we have got great big service industries—we're very successful at those—and naturally people who do well in those do import some goods as a matter of choice. But we could do much better with what we sell at home, and what we sell abroad.
John Lander, Central TV
Is being a member of the Common Market a handicap in this respect?
MT
It should be a great advantage, because after all it gives us a whole market in which we can sell our goods. And the majority of our goods are sold there. Don't let's write off our manufacturers too much. Exports have been … very good. They've held up well. But at the moment we've still got too many imports coming in. Cars, I think, are a very good example, but then our car manufacturers are getting much better in design. We need a bigger share of the market. But again, we have to win it. But I think our people are setting out to win it and are doing comparatively well. But we expect even better.
John Lander, Central TV
You know, Prime Minister, it's very common in the Midlands to see people in the motor industry driving around in foreign cars. And they're jobs depend on people buying British. Doesn't this suggest that your message isn't getting across?
MT
[pauses] It's very difficult. One has to go on and on. It makes me very cross. Sometimes in a steel town you will see people driving around in foreign cars, and what they are doing is importing foreign steel. … Um, but some of the other cars are very good [end p1] in design. Ours are coming up. They are coming up fast. But you know we ought to be able to regain a much bigger share of the car market. If we can do that, we automatically get more of the steel market, automatically more of the components and of all the accessories. So it's very very important that our car industries are as efficient as those on the Continent. They're not quite yet, but they are coming up fast.
John Lander, Central TV
Is there a case for people forgetting about price and quality and just buying British for patriotic reasons?
MT
No, I don't think so. Because what you would be doing then would be encourage inefficiency. I don't believe in doing that. If you want a reasonable standard of living, if you want a higher one, and a profitable business, you've got to earn it. And to do that you've got to win customers. Look at the outstanding example—it is Marks & Spencers. They go—and a number of other manufacturers—they've gone to business here and said “you can make that as well as they can overseas” . And they are making it, and they are doing it better. And every time they do that, and people buy because they are better, we are gaining jobs here. That's the way to go about it.