PRIME MINISTER
Engagements
Q1. Mr. Jack
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House I shall be having further meetings later today.
Mr. Jack
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the National Union of Teachers is wrong yet again when it blames Government policies for violence in schools? Does she agree also that, as discipline starts at home, that may be difficult for some parents to achieve because they were victims of the NUT's approach to teaching in the permissive 1960s?
[column 1282]The Prime Minister
I agree that young children's conduct is usually laid down by the standards that are set at home long before they go to school. It is wrong to attribute violence in schools and elsewhere to any one set of causes. It is a very complex phenomenon, and we wish to see as much kindly discipline in the home as possible and to support those teachers who are trying to give discipline and good teaching in the classroom.
Mr. Kinnock
Will the Prime Minister take this opportunity to explain to families in Britain how a large rise in their mortgage payments combats inflation?
The Prime Minister
As the right hon. Gentleman saw the figures published yesterday, he will know that there was a necessity to tighten the money supply. I shall repeat what Nigel Lawsonthe Chancellor said in his Budget speech:
“Short-term interest rates remain the essential instrument of monetary policy. Within a continuous and comprehensive assessment of monetary conditions, I will continue to set interest rates at the level necessary to ensure downward pressure on inflation.” —[Official Report, 15 March 1988; Vol. 192, c. 997.]
That is what he has done and I support it.
Mr. Kinnock
Will the Prime Minister tell the people of this country, in the plain language that they deserve to hear, how it is that the average mortgage payer, paying an extra £22 a month for the mortgage on his home, is helping to combat inflation?
The Prime Minister
If the right hon. Gentleman understood anything about monetary policy, he would not need even to ask that question. Of course an increase in interest rates, when it comes to a certain limit, puts up mortgage interest rates. Of course that takes other pressure of demand out of the economy. Of course that helps the money supply.
Mr. Kinnock
I recall that in the Budget four months ago, the Government got their inflation forecast, their balance of payments forecast and their money supply forecast hideously wrong. Will the Prime Minister, who once said that steep rises in mortgage rates were the result of Government economic mismanagement, explain how big rises in mortgage payments combat inflation?
The Prime Minister
We do not take lectures on inflation from the Labour party—[Interruption.] For one month the Labour party got inflation down to 7.4 per cent., which was the lowest. Prices rose about as much in a single year during the last Labour Government as they have in the whole of Nigel Lawsonmy right hon. Friend's five years as Chancellor.
Mrs. Ann Winterton
Without anticipating the contents of the Queen's Speech may I ask my right hon. Friend, whether she agrees that it is vital to introduce legislation in the next Session to ban experiments on the human embryo, a measure for which there would be overwhelming support in the House?
The Prime Minister
I cannot anticipate everything that will be in the Queen's Speech. I know that very strong views are held on that matter on both sides of the opinion divide and that those views are not necessarily across party lines. We shall need a very great deal of debate before we decide precisely what to put into legislation.
Q2. Mr. Cox
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
[column 1283]The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Cox
The Prime Minister and I are both London Members and we are both aware of the enormous increase in house prices in London. Can she tell first-time buyers in London, who are estimated now to have to find another £40 per month on mortgage repayments, how they are better off under her policies? Is that not yet another example of the callous indifference that she shows towards people trying, with all the difficulties of housing in London, to obtain a home while she puts yet further problems in their path?
The Prime Minister
As I said earlier, it is absolutely vital to keep downward pressure on inflation, because the worst thing for everyone would occur if we had the kind of inflation that was customary under the Labour Government. May I point out to the hon. Gentleman, also as a London Member, that the number of people who own their own houses has greatly increased under this Government and will continue to do so. We shall continue the policy of tax relief on mortgages.
Mr. Burt
My right hon. Friend will be aware of the phrase “cruel and unusual punishment” which appears in the Bill of Rights that we celebrated yesterday. Does my right hon. Friend share my concern that the Home Office might find itself accused of just that should a prisoner unfortunately be locked up in a cell with a member of the Opposition who has wilfully refused to pay his taxes?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend has made his point more effectively than I could. He is well aware that my right hon. Friend Douglas Hurdthe Home Secretary has recently published a White Paper on suitable punishments.
Q3. Mr. John Evans
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Evans
Will the Prime Minister take this opportunity to explain to the House why, last night, she cast her vote to force handicapped people to pay the full rate of poll tax?
The Prime Minister
For the very good reasons that were given at the time and also because of the enormous increase in benefits that the Government have given to the disabled over the years. We have increased spending on benefits for the long term sick and disabled by more than 80 per cent. over and above inflation, to almost £6.75 billion. As the hon. Gentleman is aware, the mentally handicapped are not liable to the community charge. The physically disabled can receive up to 80 per cent. rebates at higher levels of income than other people, and if they are on income support they will receive help with the other 20 per cent.
Q4. Mrs. Peacock
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mrs. Peacock
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the practice whereby an elected councillor—[Hon. Members: “Reading” .]
[column 1284]Mr. Speaker
Order. I hope that we can conduct Prime Minister's Question Time in good order today.
Mrs. Peacock
—whereby elected councillors in one borough obtain cushy jobs in a nearby borough at the expense of ratepayers, as Miss Linda Bellos has done, should be outlawed? Will my right hon. Friend take steps to ensure that the recommendations of the Widdicombe report are put into operation as soon as possible?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend has taken a specific example of the things of which the Widdicombe report complained and about which it made proposals to deal. A White Paper is due out on the Widdicombe proposals later today. I have reason to think that it will contain something about the point that my hon. Friend raises.
Mr. Beith
Whose view does the Prime Minister support on exchange rate management and joining the EMS—that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or that of her adviser over the water, Professor Walters? Is she satisfied to preside over a divided Government? If not, which one will she back, and which one will she sack?
The Prime Minister
I am very happy to preside over a Government who have such an excellent economic policy, which has produced prosperity at a level undreamed of before in this country. I congratulate Nigel Lawsonthe Chancellor on his excellent policies.
Q5. Miss Emma Nicholson
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Miss Nicholson
In her busy day, has my hon. Friend had time to congratulate the Secretary of State for the Environment on the successful passage of the Local Government Finance Bill—an infinitely fairer, more just and superior system than any combination of local income tax and fresh property tax?
The Prime Minister
Yes, the new community charge is far fairer than the existing rating system. It is far fairer than any system based on domestic rating revaluation, which would have been extremely unfair. It is infinitely fairer than any of the Opposition's proposals for an income tax and capital values, which would hit old people very much and mean that everyone would have to reveal his income to their local authority.
Mr. Terry Davis
Does the Prime Minister appreciate that people's views of the effects of the Local Government Finance Bill will be influenced by their experience of recent legislation, such as the changes in social security? What has the Prime Minister to say to my constituents, such as an unemployed man who this week was told by the social fund officers at Erdington in Birmingham that he must live in an unfurnished flat and that he could not have a crisis loan to buy a cooker or a bed because they considered that it was not a crisis or a risk to health to be without a bed or a cooker?
The Prime Minister
I am not going to comment on things that the hon. Gentleman suddenly puts to me. He is aware that the amount that has been allocated to the social fund is very similar to that which has been spent in past years—[Interruption.]
[column 1285]Mr. Speaker
Order. We must hear the answers that are given.
The Prime Minister
The amount that this Government spend on social security benefits of one kind or another is £50 billion—greatly in excess of that spent before.
Q7. Mrs. Gillian Shephard
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mrs. Shephard
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Royal College of Nursing has set a very good example to the rest of the trade union movement in its attitude to industrial relations, especially in its refusal to go on strike? Does she consider that its attitude may have something to do with the fact that, according to today, The Guardian, it has been refused a place to set up its stall at this year's Labour party conference in Blackpool? [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker
Order. The same rules apply to both sides of the House.
The Prime Minister
rose [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker
Order. It is intolerable for questions to be asked but for the answers not to be heard.
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend that the Royal College of Nursing is a most excellent professional body that sets extremely high standards. It does not believe in going on strike. It puts its commitment to its patients first. I should have thought that that would be applauded by both sides of the House.
[column 1286]Mr. Turner
The Prime Minister will remember a visit that she paid to my beloved Bilston, where she purchased two large hat pins. In view of her alleged disagreements with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, were they purchased for deflationary purposes?
The Prime Minister
I warmly endorse and applaud the policies of [Nigel Lawson Sir Geoffrey Howe] both my right hon. Friends to whom the hon. Gentleman referred. Sometimes I want hat pins to stir some Opposition Members.
Q8. Mr. Butterfill
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 July.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Butterfill
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the introduction of national identity card would not only help to control crime but would help with football hooliganism and under-age drinking, and should be feared only by those who have something to hide?
The Prime Minister
My right hon. Friend Douglas Hurdthe Home Secretary answered a question on that matter earlier. A number of cards are used for different purposes. They may be used to purchase drink, to ensure that one is over age, and they may be needed in football grounds. I doubt whether the case has yet been made for a compulsory system of national identity cards, with all that that means. Nevertheless, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has asked the police to update their views on the matter. We would need to make a strong case, and to prove it before a compulsory system of national identity cards is ever introduced.