Interviewer
Could I ask you first, Prime Minister, has it been a good Summit for you and have you got what you wanted?
Prime Minister
I think broadly speaking we have got what we wanted.
I would have preferred the Finance Ministers to have had the whole consideration of the Delors Report. I thought they came to a very good conclusion. We have gone a little bit further than that, but not in fact committed ourselves to Stage 2 or 3 of the Delors Report at all.
Interviewer
Have you gone farther? Have you made more concessions than your political instincts would have led you to?
Prime Minister
No. The only difference is that they have referred to an inter-governmental conference - calling an inter-governmental conference - although we have not called one. Some people say, “Why [end p1] did you do that?” and the answer is really very simple: it can be done by a simple majority of members of the Council at any time, so one was not giving anything away, but on the substance we have conceded nothing.
Interviewer
But how much pressure was put on you during this Summit? There have been people like President Mitterrand who have said you are a brake on European unity - there are people who are saying you are putting up a smokescreen, you are sounding positive when you are being negative. There does seem to have been some amount of pressure.
Prime Minister
Yes. But then they talk an awful lot, don't they? My answer to President Mitterrand is this: “Why haven't you abolished foreign exchange controls? Is it because you need them to keep the franc where it is against the deutschmark? Why haven't you got free movement of capital? Is it that you are afraid it might leave France?”
No, I am not the brake. His not doing those things is the brake! [end p2]
Interviewer
What about your position so far as Europe is concerned? Do you feel at all isolated? Do you feel as if you are out on your own battling for something quite different?
Prime Minister
Certainly not! Look at the result of our battles!
First, to get the surpluses of the Common Agricultural Policy right down. That was a tremendous achievement. We have had to battle month after month - we have very nearly done it.
To get the finances of the Community in reasonable shape and see that people do not overspend.
Yes, you had to battle for nearly ten years. We have done it.
Yes, we wanted a Single Market. We joined Europe so that we could join a Common Market of 320 million people. Have we? My goodness me, no! It has been full of barriers to trade.
We led the way on what is called the Single Market. We are doing very well. We are leading the way on some Directives. It is other people that are dragging their feet and I will tell you why: they do not like freedom, some of them - they prefer some of the controls which protect them.
So yes, of course I do battle.
Interviewer
Are you saying that there is no real cohesion amongst the twelve leaders? [end p3]
Prime Minister
No. What I am saying is that some of them prefer many of the restraints to trade which they have because it protects them. Let me give you two examples:
On shipping: we are maritime nation. Any ships belonging to other European nations can ply their trade up and down the ports of Britain, can pick up trade at one port and take it to another; drop it, pick it up at another and drop it and then pick it up there and then to the continent. They can do that. This is our natural free way, but we cannot pick up trade in their ports and go round and drop it and go to others. That is a precise case where we are much more open than they are and, as a matter of fact, in our latest Act I have had to take steps to close down our ports to some of them because they will not open them to us.
Lorry business is another one. A lorry should be able to pick up trade across Europe on its way their and back and drop it. No, they cannot! They simply will not have it.
Insurance policies, life policies, cannot be sold freely and easily across Europe. Why? Because they do not like it. They want their industries protected.
They give more subsidies than we do. Why? They like their industries protected.
They are not a free lot - we are! [end p4]
Interviewer
How successful do you think you have been in impressing this message on your partners?
Prime Minister
Oh, they do not like it. They come round and say: “She is a brake!” I am not the brake at all - I am the accelerator!
Interviewer
How much pressure do you think there is on you now at home? You have got economic difficulties, industrial disputes, bad election results in the European elections. Are you feeling embattled in any way?
Prime Minister
The main economic difficulty we have is inflation at 8.3 percent, which is much too high for our liking, although it was unsustainably low for the last Labour Government and we must get that inflation down.
But in fact - you talk about economic difficulties - we have the highest standard of living we have ever known; we have the highest number of jobs we have ever had; we have the highest amount of investment in manufacturing industry; the highest amount of investment in business as a whole. That is a good present and it augurs well for the future. And the highest standard of social services we have ever known. So I do not feel embattled with that. [end p5]
Interviewer
But the industrial disputes are certainly not welcome!
Prime Minister
Of course they are not welcome and I think it is absolutely disgraceful that people in the transport unions do not think about their fellow citizens. They do not care at all if you have to struggle and walk to get to work under conditions either of rain or of heat - they do not give a damn! How appalling!
And you know, in the Social Charter here, was there any reference to a duty - a duty in essential services for people to work, to see that their fellow citizens have available those essential services? No. All rights! That is one of the problems with democracy today and it is the public sector unions that are the problem in British Railways, in London Underground and in the Passport Offices. Those people are there to serve the public, but they do not!
Interviewer
So you do not feel, finally, Prime Minister, under any great strain?
Prime Minister
No. Work continues. I just carry on doing it with all my might.