The Prime Minister has said she will not intervene in the nine week ambulance pay dispute. She was speaking during a visit to South Wales - in advance of the talks the two sides are to hold in London, without preconditions, later this afternoon. More details - and the day's other developments so far - from our Labour correspondent, Stephen Cape [end p1]
Cape
Mrs Thatcher said that any intervention in the talks scheduled for this afternoon would amount to meddling in things which should be dealt with by other people. But she also claimed that the latest development in the pay dispute did not amount to the government backing down. The Chief Executive of the National Health Service, Duncan Nichol, made his appeal for talks on television last night. An exchange of letters resulted in an agreement to meet. Those discussions start in an hour and a half at the Department of Health headquarters in London. Earlier, control room staff in the capital postponed a ban on passing calls onto the police subject to a ballot. But the London ambulance service said control assistants in the northwest of the capital walked out when a station officer stood himself down. In other parts of the country, health managers are adopting a tougher attitude. In Hertfordshire, ambulance crews have been told their pay will be stopped, if they do not agree to end the dispute by four this afternoon. Similar action is being threatened by other ambulance services.