Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech at adoption meeting

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Woodhouse College, Finchley
Source: Thatcher Archive: speaking text
Editorial comments: The press release (337/87) was embargoed until 2000. Sections of the text have been checked against IRN Report 21 May 1987. The IRN broadcast also contained a passage which cannot be located precisely: "We have an independent nuclear deterrent. The present one will be phased out mid-nineteen-nineties because it will cease to be as effective as it is now. We need a new one. We took the decision on time. The Labour Party don’t believe in an independent nuclear deterrent, so that’s that. The SDP-Liberals say they’d cancel Trident. They’re going to modernise Polaris - they don’t know what with, but they haven’t in fact left themselves time to do it, and so we would have a dangerous gap without an effective independent nuclear deterrent."
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 2544
Themes: Autobiographical comments, Parliament, Conservatism, Defence (general), Economic policy - theory and process, Education, Employment, Elections & electoral system, General Elections, Privatized & state industries, Taxation, Housing, Labour Party & socialism, Local government, Liberal & Social Democratic Parties, Defence (arms control)
Opening section hand written by MT

Adoption Speech

1. It was in 1959—first adopted We were then a Conservative Government (1951–1959) going for a third term. We succeeded, the Parliamentary majority was 100. It seems a good precedent.

2. Since that time I have been in many splendid a regal halls from the White House, The Kremlin, Elysée Palace, Vice Regal Palace in Delhi, The Great Hall of the People in Peking. But Mr. Chairman—this hall, of this school in which you have adopted me this evening. Is the most significant & important—of our Parliamentary & Democratic life.

When a group of citizens meet together to choose their candidate to represent them in the House of Common. End of handwritten section. Typescript follows.] [end p1]

Manifesto—boldest most detailed most dynamic but realistic of any party.

All seventy-seven pages of it.

Only party with the courage to set it all out.

Moreover based on achievement of first eight years.

Most elections are fought on the Government's record, on the economy and plans for the future. [end p2]

But because record is good—it is receiving far too little attention.

But you will judge our commitment to the future on the basis of our past achievement. [end p3]

Economic Growth Key

— to higher living standards — to our standing in the world — to what we can do for the great welfare services. — to more jobs.

For good intentions are not enough. Someone has to create the prosperity before governments can spend it!

In June 1983 the British people re-elected us for a second term of Government. How far have we lived up to the people's trust? [end p4]

Suppose that, at the time of the last General Election, I had made the pledge: that if we won, then by the time of the next General Election. — we would have the fastest rate of growth of any major economy in the world. — inflation would be at the lowest levels for almost twenty years — the number of jobs would have risen by over a million, more than in the rest of the Common Market taken together — the basic rate of income tax would be down to 27 pence in the pound [end p5] — output, exports, investment and living standards would all be at record levels, and still rising

And we would have achieved all this despite having to endure the traumas of a year-long coal strike followed by a collapse in the price of North Sea Oil.

If at the time of the last General Election I had pledged all this, you would have thought I was being over—ambitious. Yet every single word of it has actually come about. We have more than lived up to the people's trust. And we shall continue to do so. You know where you stand with us. [end p6]

But you will still be saying. what of unemployment. Yes, it's still too high. But the prospects are better.

Unemployment has fallen for the tenth month in succession. Indeed the fall of unemployment in the past year is the biggest in any year since 1973. It's been falling here at a time when unemployment has been rising in the countries of our main competitors—France and West Germany. [end p7]

How has that been done? We have to thank business and commerce for producing what the customer wants. That's where real jobs are created.

We have to thank the Nigel LawsonChancellor of the Exchequer for demolishing so many controls and creating the framework of tax which has given incentive to effort and enabled business to flourish. And David Young and Kenneth Clarke for their tireless efforts to help unemployed back into work and provide training for the needs of industry. [end p8]

Too many of our youngsters leave school without basic skills. Too many people out of work become discouraged by their failure to find new jobs and cease looking——just when those jobs become available. Too many workers in their middle years lack the training needed by the new industries.

That is why we have introduced a comprehensive service for the unemployed—and unrivalled programme of assistance and training: the Youth Training Scheme, the Job Training Scheme, the Community Programme, the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and Job Clubs. [end p9]

No Government has done as much — but we will do more.

In the next Parliament, we are offering three guarantees to the unemployed.

First, we guarantee a place on the Youth Training Scheme to every school-leaver under-eighteen who hasn't got a job.

With this guarantee, no school-leaver need be unemployed. [MT added in margin: stay on at school, go to further education, get a job, go for training] In these circumstances, young people who deliberately choose to remain unemployed will no longer receive benefit.

I believe most people—especially parents will think this right—and better for young people. [end p10]

Of course, those with disabilities or with special family responsibilities will continue to receive full support as now.

Second, we guarantee a place on the Job Training Scheme, the Enterprise Allowance Scheme or in a Job Club for everyone between eighteen and twenty five who has been unemployed between six and twelve months. That will be a giant step towards providing young people with the qualifications that employers want in today's world—and tomorrow's world. The training is geared to the jobs which are vacant in the area. [end p11]

Third, we guarantee to everyone unemployed for more than six months an interview and counselling to help him or her into training or into a job under our successful Restart scheme. We know from experience that this often gives people the hope and incentive to start again and succeed where they had given up hope.

Ron ThurlowMr. Chairman, the only promises this Government makes are those we know we can keep. [end p12]

Defence

The security of the nation is the prime duty of any Government. [Beginning of section checked against IRN Report 21 May 1987] For without security, nothing else is possible. Employment, technology, schools, the health service, all our concerns, all our hopes, without security none of them would have any meaning. We must therefore debate this vital issue calmly, seriously and factually, as is our habit in the Conservative party. [End of section checked against IRN Report 21 May 1987] We cannot shrink from honestly pointing out the dangers of Britain's defence posed by the policies of the opposition parties. [end p13]

A nuclear deterrent is vital to the defence of the West. And Britain's independent deterrent is vital to the security of our own country.

Nuclear weapons have kept the peace in Europe for over forty years. They have prevented not only nuclear war but conventional war as well.

The life of our existing Polaris deterrent cannot be extended beyond the mid—1990s. The submarines will be nearing the end of their hull life; the ability of the boats to remain undetected will be much less certain; and the ability of the missiles to penetrate anti-missile defences will become less effective. [end p14]

Because it takes a long time to design new submarines and new weapons, we had to take a decision well in advance about what should replace Polaris. That is why the decision was taken in 1980 to replace Polaris with Trident. The decision was needed that early to be certain that Trident missiles and Trident submarines would be ready as Polaris and Polaris submarines were phased out.

The Labour Party is opposed to our independent nuclear deterrent altogether. But common to all of the opposition parties—Labour, Liberal and SDP—is their policy to get rid of Trident. [end p15] So that there is no doubt, let me quote from the SDP/Liberal manifesto: “We would cancel Trident because of its excessive number of war-heads and megatonnage” .

So what would they do when Polaris couldn't do its job properly because it is too old, and they haven't time to replace it with another effective nuclear deterrent? The result would be to leave us without any effective deterrent at all. [end p16]

There is little point in saying, as the SDP/Liberals do that they would maintain the deterrent “with whatever necessary modernisation …   . until it could be negotiated away” —because, with their policies it would in a very short time have withered away.

The fact is that at the time when the decision had to be taken on replacing Polaris, only the Conservative Party had the strength and foresight to make it. Labour would abolish our nuclear weapons altogether. The SDP/Liberals would leave us with a deterrent which would no longer deter. [end p17]

The argument used by the SDP/Liberals to cancel Trident doesn't stand up to cross-examination.

Its got too many warheads they say. Yes, it has got two and a half times as many as Polaris. And it needs them because the Russians have multiplied their nuclear warheads five times since Polaris was introduced. So Trident warheads will represent a smaller proportion of Soviet strategic warheads than the Polaris force did in 1970. [end p18]

Just as SDP/Liberals ducked the decision on Trident, so they ducked the decision on Cruise missiles. You may remember that we told the Soviet Union that if they didn't remove their SS20s we would station Cruise missiles and have them deployed by the end of 1983. On 31st October 1983 we put the decision to deploy Cruise to the House of Commons.[Beginning of second section checked against IRN Report 21 May 1987] The Labour Party voted against it. The Liberal Party voted against it. The SDP voted against it. It was the Conservative Party which had the resolve to take the tough decision, and the country has the Conservative Party to thank therefore for bringing the Soviet Union to the negotiating table to get rid of SS-20s because we had the guts to deploy the Cruise missiles.[applause]. [end p19]

Sometimes the decisions are difficult. If any decisions come up to Number Ten, if they were easy they've already been taken. We get the difficult ones to take there. Yes, sometimes at the time there's a lot of propaganda against them because the lefties are always active, particularly that CND, you know, lobby. Yes, sometimes they are unpopular. But I think the country wants to know that it's got a Government which will take the necessary defence decisions to keep our country secure. [End of second section checked against IRN Report 21 May 1987.] [end p20]

As with the economy, so with defence. The people know where they stand with the Conservative Party. They know we will not take risks with the defence of our country. The defence of Britain is now safe only in Conservative hands. [end p21]

Power to the people

The phrase we have used to describe our policies, “Power to the People” , has caught the imagination of the people. It is a vision for a Conservative society in which people and families will own more property, including shares and savings, acquire more independence and exercise greater choice in housing, education and the other matters which shape their lives. “Power to the People” is more than a slogan. [end p22]

We want a world in which people will take the important decisions for themselves—as tenants, home-owners parents, employees—rather than having them taken for them.

Extending the opportunities for ownership is one facet of this philosophy.

But let us start with personal taxation.

Under this Conservative Government a man or woman keeps more of what he or she earns. And quite right. The desire to do better for one's family is one of the strongest and best motives in human nature. [end p23]

We've cut taxes and will go on cutting taxes because we believe that people can be trusted to make the right choices.

People are right to want to do better for themselves and for their families.

If individuals and families are doing better the country is doing better.

That's what we mean by giving power to the people.

We have given council tenants the right to buy their own homes.

A million have. [end p24]

Two out of three houses are now owned by the people who live in them. Only America has a higher proportion of owner occupiers.

That's what we mean by power to the people.

We've given people the opportunity to buy shares in the companies returned to the private sector. Our privatisation programme has been enormously popular. The number of people who own shares has trebled. [end p25]

But Labour, Liberal and SDP all voted against the privatisation of British Telecom and British Gas—they didn't want a capital owning democracy.

But Britain's popular capitalists are one the move. We are creating a true property owning democracy. What was once only possible for a privileged few is available to all. [end p26]

Our vision of extending ownership has caught on all over the world. We've led the world in privatisation. Not just in countries with like minded governments.

That's what we mean when we say power to the people.

The last eight years have been a success story for the people. The next five will be even better. Power to the People? You ain't seen nothing yet. [end p27]

The other side of our philosophy is extending choice in local authority services like council housing and education—freeing people from municipal socialism. [end p28]

Parent power and tenant power

We will give parents the right to choose the school their children attend—a real right backed by resources, not some paper entitlement. And we will give council tenants who are dissatisfied with their local authority landlords the right to choose a new landlord—whether a building society, a pension fund or an approved private landlord.

Every parent and every tenant will benefit from these reforms. But who will benefit most? [end p29]

It is the parents of children in schools in inner cities who have most to gain from greater choice. They will now have the chance to send their children to a better school. And if left-wing local authorities continue to frustrate their wishes, then they will be able to take their school from local authority control and become independent charitable trusts with a direct grant from the Government. [end p30]

It is the tenant on run-down estates, where socialist councils have persistently failed to improve matters, who will use the opportunity to choose a new landlord.

It is to help these people that we have designed our policy of greater choice.

People have the right to make up their own minds about their own lives. Nobody else should make it for them—not the gentleman in Whitehall, not the Militant in the Town Hall. [end p31]

That's what we mean by power to the people. That's what we intend. [end p32]

Finale

Our policies are in tune with the deepest instincts of the British people. And we can point with pride to our stewardship of the last eight years.

The British people have seen the greatness of our country—which in 1979 was in a slough of despair and defeatism—revived and restored. Today Britain is a stable, prosperous and well-governed country with a proud presence in the world. [end p33]

Our Conservative Achievements were hard won. We didn't run away from difficult choices. We didn't fudge the issues. And when there was a crisis, we didn't back down. Don't take all that for granted.

All the improvements in the well-being and strength of our country have only been possible because we have had a strong government with sound policies and a decisive majority in Parliament. [end p34]

In this election so much is at stake. We look to your help, your strength and the people's support to elect a decisive, united, Conservative Government for the third time. [end p35]

The real choice is between the Opposition parties which wring their hands because their economic failure has destroyed any hope of better care, and the Conservative Party which cares effectively because it can deliver economic success.