Anne Nankivell, Central TV
The Prime Minister flew in to begin her visit at British Alcan Tubes. The company uses aluminium to make products varying from scaffolding for building sites, Tessa Sanderson's javelins, radio masts, and torpedoes. Five years ago, the factory was in big trouble. A merger led to a halving of the workforce. But now a programme of investment and specialisation is expected to safeguard the three hundred jobs left through good times and bad. The Prime Minister pressed the button to start a new £6½ million machine that was bought as part of that strategy. Like many other firms which have only recently emerged from the recession, this one is worried by the return to high interest rates. But at the moment the prospects are said to look as bright as the products.
Manager
The workforce here has been tremendous and we've really seen a very substantial change from where we were, in a typical old Midlands environment, typical old Midlands factory, which actually came good.
Anne Nankivell, Central TV
[voiceover] The emphasis has been to build a business that is, as near as possible, recession-proof. Mrs Thatcher was clearly impressed, but with a combination of [word drowned by noise of heavy machinery] hitting exports and high interest rates at home, could the Prime Minister promise that there wouldn't be another dramatic downturn in our economy?
MT
We've had seven to eight years of growth now, and we're all trying, all countries in the world, by pursuing steadily sound financial policies to get … You can't get steady growth. Inevitably you grow more in one year than in another. So inevitably there will be some changes. But whether, how the cycle goes on, depends on the efficiency of industry, depends on them spotting the products of tomorrow, and depends on companies in this country keeping ahead of those in Japan, and in Germany, keeping their costs down, their designs up, their value for money good.
Anne Nankivell, Central TV
[voiceover] Later, Mrs Thatcher, a trained chemist, had her eye pinned to a microscope. She was investigating maggots [inaudible words] at the University of Warwick. On the tour of the glass houses, she was presented with a box of apples, home-grown on trees scientifically manipulated to produce a bumper crop. Mrs Thatcher the housewife was very appreciative.
MT
[barely audible] They look much better than the ones we had in …