‘Miners courage etched on my heart’
Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher paid tribute to those miners who wanted to work through their union's long strike but were prevented from doing so, when she addressed two rallies of supporters at the week-end.
She told party followers at the meetings in Finchley and Whetstone: “The courage of those miners who wanted to work is etched on my heart.”
But she also warned against a return of the days when she first came to power—when the whole country was “riddled with strikes.”
She went on: “Many trade union members had no choice about strikes until the Tories gave them the secret ballot.
“In the miners' strike you saw the naked face of the left. The Labour Party sat on the fence. Now they want to repeal the trade union laws we reformed.
“If our laws are repealed you will have extreme trade unionists holding us to ransom,” said Mrs. Thatcher.
On defence, she said her government believed in peace and freedom with justice— “Not at any price.”
All previous Prime Minister had stood by the nuclear deterrent but now Labour wanted to abandon it, she said.
“Conventional weapons cannot deter nuclear. We must not let our defences go,” she urged.
On finance she said that as long as there was a Conservative government, the finances of this country would be well run. There would be no “going to the IMF. You have to live within your means … We do not propose what we cannot deliver.”
Inflation was now down but, she continued, Labour was now proposing to let it rise again.
“That would be a fraud on the savings of the people,” she said. “You cannot stop inflation just when you want to. You have the value of your money in just 2½ years.”
She said the Confederation of British Industry had reported good order books and record export sales.
Mrs Thatcher parried Labour thrusts that the Conservatives had cut back on health spending.
“Never has any government increased resources to the health service faster than this government,” she challenged.
“When I went into number 10, taxpayers could only pay £8 billion under a Labour government towards the upkeep of the health service.
“After eight years of Tory government you are affording to pay £21 billion. No amount of arithmetic or algebra can turn that into a cut. There are also 66,000 more nurses,” she said.
Mrs Thatcher added that as she left for the economic summit in Venice the next day, she would be going as the leader of a country that had respect and honour “because we have pulled ourselves up.”