INTRODUCTION
Madam, Chairman, It's always good to be in the North West and this is my second visit during the election campaign.
For many special reasons, I am pleased to be in Chester one of the most beautiful cities in the country. Whenever I come here, I am always impressed by enormous changes that are taking place. Today, I have been to the new paper mill at shotton built on part of British Steel's old site with Government assistance, it is now directly employing 270 people using the latest technology, as well as 100 per cent British raw material. We pay tribute to the fantastic commitment. And achievement of the management and workforce. [end p1]
But it is not just new businesses like these which are flourishing. Cheshire for centuries has been rightly famous for its cheeses. And today I have also been to a farming company which is continuing that 900 year old tradition but using modern methods of production. No wonder Britain is one of the most efficient dairy producers in Europe.
And we saw the new headquarters of marks and spencer for their new financial services—another 400 jobs. And there will be many more ventures on the new business park.
What I have seen today is enterprise in action in the north west. How I wish more people would proclaim it—for enterprise is a large part of what this election is all about. [end p2]
Madam Chairman, this election campaign has now lasted three weeks. It has another week to go. Millions of complicated words have been expended about its meaning—mainly by the Neil KinnockLabour leader. But it is really about some simple home truths, about what is important to the ordinary British family.
Security at home and security abroad.
Confidence in the future, that it will be even better than today. [end p3]
Freedom—Freedom to speak your mind and to be heard, freedom to own your own home, to own a part of your own company—a part of your own future.
Pride—pride in your work and pride in being British.
And belief—belief that this will continue to be a safe country, a good place for you to live and for your children to grow up in.
Madam Chairman, we have not fully achieved these things. But we have gone a long way towards doing so in a tough world. [end p4] Britain is a much stronger country than it was nearly eight years ago—it is more prosperous, it is more enterprising, it is more energetic, it is brighter, and it is better able to care for those who can't care for themselves. Beginning of section checked against BBC TV News Report 2100 5 June 1987
And when I go to the Western Summit in Venice on Monday as your representative, I will go with my head held high as the leader of a strong country. End of section checked against BBC TV News Report 2100 5 June 1987.
I'm sometimes called a strong leader—but that's because we have created a strong country, bubbling with energy and ideas. [end p5]
Of course, amidst this success, we have to remember that some have borne the brunt of change, and that they need our help as much as we need their contribution to future prosperity.
As long as I am Prime Minister and you have a Conservative Government, we won't forget that. These are the issues that this election is all about. [end p6]
SUCCESS
We have worked hard to achieve this success. We have been through a lot together. Sometimes—for example, the coal strike, the fight against inflation, the battle against terrorism—the road has been a hard one. Winning through isn't easy. But our efforts have borne fruit. [end p7]
This is clear not just from the official statistics—good though they are—but also —from the new spirit of Britain —from the energies and vision of young people which have transformed Manchester's Corn Exchange into such an exciting theatre. —from the handiwork of the new British designers and workers who are revolutionizing design, worldwide, restoring the pride of Lancashire textiles. [end p8] —from the advances of British medical technology. Do you know that the first combined heart lung and liver operation was performed in this country, before anywhere else in the world, giving new hope to people who would otherwise be without it.
And Madam Chairman, it's not just material self-improvement that you see around you. Measured in what we do for other people less fortunate than ourselves, this country has a conscience—and a conscience more active than ever. [end p9]
Giving to charities and good causes has doubled in the past eight years. And like you, I am proud that our own youngsters led the way with Band Aid for the poor people of the Ethiopean famine. They had the vision, the heart and the skills to take this idea around the world.
We have stopped running away from challenges. We take problems head on and we win. We help to make the world a better, safer place. [end p10]
This is a good time to be living in Britain. It is great to be great again—and don't let Labour tell you otherwise. [end p11]
Today people enjoy a new security because the Tories have made it possible for them to buy their own homes. They now have the key to their own front door a real asset for the future.
That is not just the key to your home; it is also the key to your children's home, the key to a more secure future, a happier future. [end p12] It now belongs to you—to almost one million of you because that is how many council tenants have bought their homes under the Tory right to Buy.
Would Labour let you keep it? You know that they didn't want you to have it. And they certainly wouldn't be keen on many other names being added to the list of new owners.
Today, twenty million people have got more in their pay packets as a result of our tax cuts—to spend on your homes, your families, your future security. [end p13]
LABOUR'S THREATS
Now let's look at what Labour would like to do—put up everyone's income tax by 2 pence in the pound; — take away the married man's tax allowance, altogether putting up his tax bill by some £10 a week.
What they don't tell you is that that is just for starters. It doesn't even cover the deposit for the massive spending programmes they have promised—some £35 billion. Equivalent to vat at 50 per cent or a [end p14] doubling of the basic rate of income tax.
Madam Chairman, Labour is really good at putting up taxes. They have had a lot of practice.
Look at the experience of the last Labour Government. It is all set out by Mr. Joel Barnett, who was Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury. And this is what he said in his own words: [end p15]
“Because we (Labour) tried to maintain and improve public services, against a background of low growth, we had to increase levels of direct taxation to the point where further increases did not hit the rich, but rather we hurt workers, not least the quite low-paid.”[end p16]
THE DIVIDENDS OF SUCCESS
Lower taxation and incentives work. Today, in 1987, we can count the dividends. Six years of faster growth in national output, faster than any of our continental rivals. Faster than France. Faster than Germany.
Six years of faster growth in shop-floor productivity than any of our major international rivals. Faster than the Americans. Faster even than the Japanese. [end p17]
Millions of our fellow-citizens with a stake of their own in British industry, for the first time in their lives, a share in success.
And British business more profitable than at any time in the past twenty years. That means investment to create tomorrow's jobs.
And take home pay is higher than ever. [end p18]
As this week's CBI report showed, orders are flowing into Britain's factories—from home and abroad. The recent balance of payments figures show we are more than paying our way in the world.
And figures out this week show that last month, Britain's official reserves rose by over four billion dollars—the biggest monthly increase ever.
And today comes the news that more houses are being built in the private sector than at any time since 1973. [end p19]
Madam Chairman, these are the achievements of the people who invest, the people who manage and the men and women on the shop-floor—all working together for the prosperity of their families, their company and their country. Our contribution as a Government was to release the talents and abilities and skills of the Nation's workforce, from the fitter to the banker, producing the goods, at the right time, at the right place and at the right price.
What a bitter blow all this must be to Labour's Shadow Chancellor. [end p20]
There he goes, trotting up and down the country, prophesying doom and gloom and despair and despondency, for all the world like some Socialist Jeremiah.
Labour simply can't bear success. Especially when it's ours. Understandably. Because they know they simply couldn't get within a country mile of it. [end p21]
THE THREAT FROM LABOUR
But be warned. Another Government could reverse success and turn it into economic disaster.
On every previous occasion, just when we were beginning to catch up on the competition, a Labour Government took office and threw away everything we'd gained. Financial prudence went out of the window. The pound went through the floor. Prices went through the roof. [end p22]
Indeed, only this week on “Panorama” , the Neil KinnockLabour Leader confirmed that Labour's policy would increase inflation.
We were not to worry, however. He wouldn't raise it by much—only to about seven per cent a year. [end p23]
Madam Chairman, that is how the inflation addict always begins his downward path. He injects just a little more inflation into the economy to give himself a temporary boost, Then he finds that a little more isn't enough to do the trick.
He begins by aiming at seven per cent inflation as the present Labour leader does, and he ends up getting 27 per cent inflation as the last Labour Government did. With worse threatening. [end p24]
But he doesn't just raise inflation. Since inflation destroys jobs, he would push up unemployment as well. He would end up with the worst of both worlds.
Don't just take by word for it. Listen to the voice of a sadder but wiser Sir. James Callaghan, reflecting on the rake's progress of inflation launched by the last Labour Government.
He said “We used to think that you could spend your way out of recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting Government borrowing. [end p25]
I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists and that insofar as it ever did exist it worked by injecting inflation into the economy. And each time that has happened, the average level of unemployment has risen. Higher inflation was followed by higher unemployment. That is the history of the last twenty years” .
Sir James learned that lesson eleven years ago. The present Neil KinnockLabour Leader hasn't learned it yet.
So a Labour Government would inflict ever-rising inflation upon this country.
It would turn the hard-earned savings of families into confetti money. [end p26]
It would reduce the savings and occupational pensions of people in retirement more and more every year—and make a mockery of any increase in the State pension, taking away with one hand what it gave with the other.
It would put into reverse the steady progress we have made in creating real jobs. [end p27]
Added to that, Labour is pledged to repeal our trade union reforms. Out would go union ballots. Back would come the enforced closed shop Back would come secondary picketing, and Back would come the violence at the factory gates.
Our present industrial peace would vanish like a dream. The nightmare would have returned. It is we Conservatives who work for co-operation. [end p28]
LABOUR'S ATTACK ON OWNERSHIP
I have spoken of home ownership; an ever widening property—owning democracy has been the purpose of this government, Madam Chairman.
Not only home ownership but share ownership and personal savings.
And as we denationalised companies, so we gave new opportunities to those who work in these industries, and others, to become shareholders.
Millions did so. Not only in British gas and British telecom, but in many other companies, including vickers shipbuilding and engineering. [end p29]
And they have done well by being owners as well as earners.
But every step this Government took to give new opportunities to the average person labour fought tooth and nail.
Because ownership brings independence—anathema to labour. Because ‘shareholders all’ unites the management and shopfloor, thereby reducing the conflict.
Now Labour say they will take away the shares of millions, and replace them with Labour Government bonds at what would be a substantial capital loss—a kind of I.O.U. signed by a Labour Chancellor—steadily devalued by inflation. [end p30]
They call it nationalisation—or social ownership. We call it confiscation.
But it's not surprising.
Today's Labour party wants to create a society where power is in the hands of the left-wing politicians, whether in parliament or in local Government—and in the hands of the extremist trade union bosses.
It was they who divided industry and made it a battlefield. Division is at the heart of Labour's policy. [end p31]
UNITING THE NATION
Yet Labour accuse us of being divisive. I find this hypocritical coming from the party which actually believes, and practises, the theory of class warfare, the block vote, and the closed shop, and whose road to power lies in turning one section of the people against another. To Labour's charge of being divisive I answer in one word—humbug! But of course what they really mean is that the Government has given the country leadership—definite, strong, clear and above all consistent leadership, the only way to secure success at home and respect abroad. [end p32]
And strong, consistent leadership is pushing ahead the policies which unite the nation. Let me give you just six unifying objectives, which all sensible men and women in Britain support —the freedom of the home. Owning your own home, now enjoyed by nearly two thirds of British families. —Freedom of the schools. Letting parents have a say in which schools their children attend, and what they are taught there —Freedom of the workplace. The right by law for all to decide whether or not to belong to a union, and if they decide to belong, to share in its decisions. [end p33] —The freedom that comes from savings—share ownership the opportunity for all British families to share in national prosperity and in the success of the firms where they work. Beginning of section checked against BBC TV News 2100 5 June 1987
—and fifth Freedom to go about your lawful business. The knowledge that the police who enforce our laws do so impartially and professionally, and not under the partisan control of party politicians. (Applause.) —And, above all, national freedom, guaranteed against aggression by fidelity to our alliances and by armed forces equipped with the most effective means we can afford and buy. [end p34]
Here, then are the six objectives around which the nation can unite. All of them are Conservative policies to build one nation. They constitute the head, the heart, the core, and the bedrock of Conservative policy. End of section checked against BBC TV News 2100 5 June 1987
Strong leadership to unite the nation—that is what Conservative Government is about. [end p35]
INNER CITIES
And let me answer the charge that we are neglecting the inner cities. Because I find it a very curious allegation indeed. For this Government was the first to bring hope back to the inner cities.
Take Liverpool's Albert Dock—one of the [best?] examples of urban renewal in Europe. We have by-passed the Militants' private army and brought in private enterprise instead. And now we are following up these successes with the same recipe for partnership between public and private sectors all over the country—in the Black Country, in Teeside, in Tyne and Wear, in Greater Manchester, in Cardiff Bay. [end p36] These are going to be the biggest developments in those areas since our nineteenth-century ancestors first brought wealth and enterprise to what had been small ports and market towns. If those are Victorian values, then I am proud to share them and revive them.
And let me say something else about the inner cities. I believe that local government will work better and not worse because of what we are doing. Because we shall be reviving industry and commerce bringing back jobs and people, and that means fresh leadership for local councils and fresh income to support local services—the meals on wheels, the libraries, the children's homes. [end p37]
Our new City Technology Colleges won't cream off good teachers as the Socialists claim. They will help to draw cream back in to the teaching profession. The new landlords—the building societies, the housing associations, the insurance companies—will raise standards of service generally—better maintenance, quicker repairs. Their arrival on the scene will benefit all tenants, not least those who choose to stay with the local authority. Even the hard left councils will have to shape up if they want to keep their customers.
Because competition always helps to improve the quality all [Round?] Mr. Deng Xiaoping in Peking knows it. Mr. Gorbachev in Moscow is beginning to see the light Only the labour party is still in the dark. [end p38]
MORALITY OF FREEDOM AND CHOICE
They want to punish the people who, by building up businesses and providing jobs for others, have also done well for their own families.
Only this week, in the journal Marxism Today, Labour's all-purpose campaign manager, Mr. Bryan Gould, asserts that higher earners should be taxed very heavily, not in order to raise revenue, but to reduce their incomes in the interest of equality.
No matter how hard someone might have worked, no matter how great his achievements, no matter how many jobs he created, the Labour Party would insist on levelling him down. [end p39]
That is what I call “The arrogance of power” .
It's also the politics of envy and decline. It's what Britain has been suffering from far too long.
We want a system of rewards not punishment. That's how to make the country bubble with activity.
It is also the way to a more decent life for all our people.
Isn't it moral that people should want to improve the standard of living for their family by their own efforts? [end p40]
Isn't it moral that families should work for the means to look after their old folk?
Isn't it moral that people should save in order to be responsible for themselves in later life? [end p41]
To most people, all this is obvious. It is only a matter of political debate because the Labour Party think they know how to run your life better than you do, because at the very heart of the Labour Party is the instinct to order other people around. Beginning of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 2230 5 June 1987
We Conservatives believe in power to the people. We believe in responsibility for the people. We believe that this is a more moral, as well as more efficient philosophy. Because we know that without freedom of choice there can be no real morality, and without that choice there would soon be no liberty. (Applause) End of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 2230 5 June 1987. [end p42]
OUR SECURITY
Madam Chairman, there are certain fundamental things which governments not only can do but must do. Right at the head of the list stand the two gravest responsibilities of all.
Defence of the realm externally—from foreign attack. Keeping peace internally—from the enemies of law.
I've faced irresponsible opposition in my time, but never before in our history has an opposition party abdicated both these responsibilities at once.
For what the Labour Party proposes is to strip our armed forces of their strategic weapons and at the same time place our police under political control. [end p43]
We would be powerless to resist our external enemies. Hampered even in fighting our domestic ones. Beginning of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 0900 6 June 1987
Soldiers without weapons and Police without operational authority.
That is the way in which Labour proposes to discharge the two basic functions of government.
It is a formula for surrender abroad and I fear some anarchy at home. End of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 0900 6 June 1987
The military power of the Soviet bloc is awesome. In every kind of weapon, nuclear and conventional, strategic and tactical, in tanks and aircraft, guns and men, the Soviets have overwhelming superiority. [end p44]
Faced with this fearsome array of military power, what kind of party is it that offers itself to the electorate on a platform, that Britain should throw away—without the smallest concession in return—the only kind of weapon which will make any aggressor pause?
Yet, if Labour were to win just a fortnight after the election, that is exactly what would happen, Britain's Polaris submarines would be de-comissioned, in just fourteen days, and trident, so important for the north west, would be cancelled.
What a celebration there would be in the Kremlin! They would probably lay on the caviar for Mr Kinnock at the Soviet Embassy here too—and vodka for Mr Healey to help him forget that he once said he would never take office in a unilateralist Labour Government. [end p45]
Never in the field of arms control would so much have been surrendered for so little.
The Labour Party drifted into one-sided disarmament. And now they have surrendered to CND, just at the moment when the resolution of the West has brought the Soviet Union to the negotiating table with a sheaf of proposals for arms reductions.
We all want arms reductions. But we want them on both sides.
Why on earth should the Russians negotiate if we give away our defences and seek nothing in return? [end p46]
Labour's policy would not merely destroy our ability to defend ourselves; It would wreck all our hard-earned progress towards a more peaceful world.
Yet—that is exactly what Labour proposes to do.
Again, we all know that the police today face a great variety of law breakers, more cunning, more ruthless, often heavily armed, above all infinitely more violent than ever before. How often have we seen on television our police sheltering behind their shields from a deadly hail of petrol bombs and missiles [end p47]
Are these brave men and women to be shackled in their battle against violent crime by political control? Yet that is exactly what Labour proposes to do.
You can rest assured, Mr. Chairman, that we Conservatives take our responsibilities to the security of the nation more seriously.
The operational duties of the police and related decisions must remain in their hands.
A strong defence policy is the best peace policy. [end p48]
OUR COUNTRY
As long as there is a Conservative government, and as long as I have anything to do with it, this country is not going to be occupied by anyone—not by a foreign power … not by the power of socialism … not by the forces of drift and surrender.
It's a free country. And it's going to stay that way.
It's a tolerant and fair-minded country. And we are determined to protect the liberties of all our citizens, whatever their colour, race or creed. [end p49]
It's a beautiful country. And we shall look after, protect and preserve all its treasures—the coastline, the countryside, the cathedral cities, the market towns, the villages.
It's a prosperous country. And we are determined to spread that prosperity to those areas which have suffered most from the painful changes that had to come.
It's an energetic and enterprising country—with the fastest growth rate in Europe, generating as many new jobs as the rest of Europe put together. That is the heart and crown of our policy. Without that, we cannot do any of the other things we wish to do. [end p50]
It's also a decent country which sets a high priority on looking after the sick and the frail and the handicapped, and on bringing up our children properly. That is our high priority too, and our record shows it, and so do our radical and imaginative plans for the next decades.
For this is a country with a past to be proud of. And under the Conservatives it will be a country with a future to be proud of.
As we submit ourselves to the Judgement of the people, we shall work for victory up to the final minute of the final hour. We hope and we believe we shall win another term in which to serve our country.