What do you consider your most important task and objective in domestic affairs?
The most important task remains what it was on the first day I entered No.10 as Prime Minister - to run the country on a sound financial basis and create a framework within which industry and commerce can flourish. Without that firm foundation, nothing else can be achieved. Over the last eight years we have made enormous strides financially, economically and industrially. We particularly look forward to a seventh successive year of low inflation and growth.
This combination of low inflation and steady growth - this year we are, in fact, the fastest growing major economy in the Western world - has helped us to transform Britain's standing in the world and British prospects.
But it has also provided the basis for greatly extending the ownership of property and capital. Two thirds of British people now own their own homes and share ownership has trebled. Both these are important steps along the road to creating a more dynamic independent and self reliant people.
I want to extend property ownership even more widely across the country. And I also want to extend consumer choice and raise standards, especially in education and rented housing.
We shall have a formidable programme of social reforms in train in 1988 - all of them directed at improving our quality of life - in housing, in schools, in health care and indeed in our inner cities which we are trying to revitalise.
The year 1988 promises to be a vital and exciting one. I am certainly excited by it. [end p1]
What do you consider your most important task and objective in 1988 in relations with Hungary?
I have been much encouraged by the development of Britain's relations with Hungary in recent years. I have warm memories of the visit to Britain by Mr. Kadar in 1985, and of my own visit to Budapest the previous year. We look forward to welcoming the Hungarian Prime Minister, Mr. Grosz, to London in 1988.
My intention will be to use that visit, and other official contacts, to broaden our two countries' understanding of each others' policies, including Hungary's programme of reform. I should also like to see our trade and economic links increase and many more contacts between private individuals in both countries. [end p2]
What do you consider your most important task and objective in 1988 in international affairs?
At the beginning of the decade I spoke of the “dangerous eighties”. Some of the dangerous influences are still there. The Soviet Union is still in Afghanistan. The Middle East remains volatile. The terrorist threat is still serious. But the eighties have in practice shown that, if the will is there, things can change for the better. I am heartened by the prospect of reforms in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China which could raise the standard of living in those countries and help reduce international tension. I have expressed our support for the bold changes which General Secretary Gorbachev is introducing in the Soviet Union.
My vision of the main tasks of 1988 is to see us build on the agreement on medium range nuclear missiles, by moving on to 50&pcnt; reductions in US and Soviet strategic nuclear missiles and to elimination of chemical weapons in which the Soviet Union has a massive preponderance. Britain gave up all its chemical weapons thirty years ago. I would also hope that the spirit which has made it possible to reach an INF agreement will extend to efforts to solve regional problems. This means, among other priorities, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and an end to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia. The Middle East is an area of particularly high priority. I would like to see progress towards an international conference on the Arab/Israel dispute, attended by all Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council, which can act as a framework for negotiation between the parties. I hope for action, too, to end the Iran/Iraq war. To achieve this we shall need agreement at the United Nations on enforcement action against Iran. I do not understand the Soviet Union's reluctance to accept this. In East/West relations, I would hope that 1988 would be the year in which the promises made at successive CSCE meetings on the observance of basic human rights will finally be kept. The common theme in all these [end p3] hopes is for a more stable and predictable pattern of international relations.
So let us hope that some of the hopeful signs of 1987 will bear fruit in 1988. That would benefit both Britain and Hungary in equal measure. But to be realistic, it is going to require the Soviet Union to match the changes which it is making in its internal affairs with less militant policies abroad.