J M Barrie, in “What Every Woman Knows” , wrote: “There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make” .
He was, of course right. [end p1]
There are few more impressive sights than Scotsmen (and Scotswomen) on the make for the Newspaper Press Fund.
This is the prime reason why, as a life member and vice president of the Fund, I am here in this no mean city today to recognise your record breaking year. [end p2]
Since I became associated with the Fund's annual reception in 1982 very nearly £700,000 has been raised from appeals, special events and donations throughout the British Isles. And about £110,000 of that has been generated in Scotland—far more proportionately than might be expected from North of the Border. [end p3] Thus refuting Ogden Nash who wrote:
“No McTavish Was ever lavish” .
Much of this has come from the efforts of the Glasgow and West of Scotland District, and I would like to congratulate your chairman, Arnold Kemp, on setting a new record of some £31,000 in 1988. [end p4]
I should also like to thank your formidable secretary, Jim Rodger, for his tireless efforts on behalf of the Fund, among his many other good causes.
We are all delighted that his work for his fellow citizens was recognised in the New Year's Honours. [end p5]
His organising abilities have been rewarded today with a record attendance from a broad cross-section of Scottish life. And evidently a prosperous cross-section, too. [end p6]
Commercial radio and television, where an enormous expansion of choice and service will soon be with us, have steadily increased their real revenue. And so too has the newspaper industry which is staging a fierce battle for Sunday readers. [end p7]
Some estimates put the total advertising revenue (always a good test of prosperity) of the main Scottish media outlets this year at £400million. Those of us who weigh your job and property supplements in our hands are not in the least surprised. [end p8]
No wonder this is a happy occasion.
You are rightly celebrating success both as journalists with a care for colleagues who fall on difficult times and as part of a vibrant, expanding industry enjoying good times. [end p9]
I do hope your readers, listeners and viewers come to learn of your successes because the Scottish media can be a bit—how shall I put it?—dour. [end p10]
Last year Magnus Linklaterthe Editor of the Scotsman, returning from exile in London, made the point that “while always maintaining [a] posture of healthy scepticism, we could perhaps do more to accentuate the positive, to highlight the opportunities that confront us” . I agree. [end p11]
I start from a very simple proposition: that the Scottish people are enterprising and able and given a Government which enlarges opportunity and incentives, they will enrich themselves and distinguish their nation. [end p12]
For nearly 400 years Scots have taken advantage of both the larger market of England and then the UK's expanding overseas influence to find fame and fortune in a wider world.
They made Scotland one of the great economic and industrial power bases not only of the UK but also of Empire. [end p13]
It is no surprise that Adam Smitha Scotsman, a Professor of Moral Philosophy, wrote “The Wealth of Nations” . Scotland's scientists, inventors, industrialists, financiers, administrators and writers made a contribution to that wealth way beyond what could be expected from the size of the population. [end p14]
An Englishman, it came to be said, is a man who lives on an island in the North Sea governed by Scotsmen.
Certainly the United Kingdom benefits enormously today from the wise counsel of Malcolm Rifkind, George Younger, John MacGregor and, of course, our great Lord MacKayLord Chancellor. [end p15]
The wealth of a nation comes from the talents and abilities of her people.
Stifle them and the country declines. Free them and the whole nation benefits. [end p16]
Some politicians seem to think that ordinary people are not fit to run their own lives and that politicians are uniquely qualified to do it for them.
I recoil from such arrogance. It is totally at odds with everything I believe. [end p17]
And so one of our principal tasks has been to reduce the power of government and increase freedom of choice so that people can run their own lives.
The fact that some people do not want freedom of choice does not give them the right to deny it to others. [end p18]
And so, as a result of our policies, people are free:
Free to keep more of their own hard earned money. The top rate of tax down from 83p to 40p in the pound. And the standard rate down from 33p to 25p. [end p19]
Free from trade union domination. A series of Industrial Relations Acts curtailed the power of union bosses, who all too often exercised it for political ends, and gave it instead to the moderate majority of individual members. [end p20]
Free, as we eliminated pay, price, dividend and exchange controls, to manage their own business—and make decisions on the spot—something they had not been able to do for more than a decade. [end p21]
Free to run the great industries of the nation. Nineteen industries so far denationalised—an enormous transfer of power away from Government.
All this was only a start. [end p22]
Freedom does not consist of transferring power from one level of government to another, but of handing as much power as possible from Government to the individual citizen himself.
So since the last election we have moved to the next stage—of devolving more power to people directly. [end p23]
In the health service, devolving power to people as patients
In education, devolving power to people as parents
In housing, devolving power to people as tenants [end p24]
In the National Health Service, for which the Government has this week announced the greatest reform programme in its history, the patient must come first.
So we are devolving more responsibility to the individual hospital and the family doctor. They are closest to the patient. They are best able to respond to the patient's needs. [end p25]
And by ensuring that in future the money for his treatment follows the patient, he and his doctor will have a wider choice over where he is treated.
In education we are devolving more influence to the parent and widening his choice [end p26]
By the end of October this year every school in Scotland will have its own school board with a parental majority.
And the legislation we are introducing this year goes beyond that. Parents, if they choose, will be able to vote for self-government. The money to run the school will still come from the public purse. [end p27]
In housing we are devolving power to the householder—to the tenant as well as to the homeowner.
Our ambition is that every Scot can become a man of property. The right to buy has lifted the proportion of home owners from 35%; to 44%;—so far. [end p28]
I should like to see that figure rise much higher so that more Scots can enjoy the satisfaction and independence that comes with ownership and have the ability to hand on something tangible from their own life's work to their children. [end p29]
But we are also giving public sector tenants the right to choose a different landlord—a housing association, for example.
Some will; some won't. The point is that we are enlarging their choice. Their freedom to choose. [end p30]
Mr Chairman, as G. B. Shawa famous Socialist writer put it: “Freedom incurs responsibility” .
I would add that when you strengthen the sense of responsibility of the citizen you strengthen the whole nation. [end p31]
Of course, there are some politicians—both national and local—who do not want more freedom to be devolved to citizens.
They want only one choice: their choice. [end p32]
They want to keep the power to themselves. And some of them want to do it with the aid of yet another layer of government.
That is not our way.
This Government believes in devolution to the individual citizen—a devolution which is now being achieved within the United Kingdom. [end p33]
And let me make it clear: this Government remains committed to the Union—as committed as ever.
I lead the Unionist as well as the Conservative party.
And it is in the Union that we have flourished and found strength. [end p34]
It was as the United Kingdom that we built an Empire and then a Commonwealth.
It was as a United Kingdom that we held firm in 1940.
It was as the United Kingdom that we joined the European Community in 1973. [end p35]
Mr Chairman, as you know, several countries in the European Community have separatist movements.
If those several movements were to succeed in their separatist ambitions, what would then be the position of the breakaway parts in relation to the Community?
I have no doubt about the answer. [end p36]
To fragment Europe would be to undermine its progress and destroy its strength.
I would have no truck with any such move.
And I am convinced my European colleagues don't want fragmentation any more than I do. [end p37]
Moreover, unanimous agreement is required in the Community on all important matters.
So I do not believe it will happen.
The twelve European Community countries are moving steadily forward resolving our differing views. [end p38]
Together we seek: —to achieve the benefits of a single European market and to match the trading power of the United States and Japan, giving us more jobs here, —to stretch our hands across the present East-West divide within Europe [end p39] —to meet the global challenges of the new technologies, and the need for environmental protection; and —to maintain the strength of NATO at once our shield and our defence. [end p40]
Our ability to measure up to these great tasks will depend not on further divisions, with all the sapping of Europe's strength it would entail, but on giving them our undivided attention.
Fragment Europe and you destroy it. [end p41]
I believe that the people of this country want the United Kingdom to have a strong and certain voice in Europe—especially our young people.
We have the tradition—and nowhere is it stronger than in Scotland—of being outward looking, of spreading our abilities and influence to all corners of the world. [end p42]
Not for us Fortress Europe closing inwards on itself against the rest of the world. We want Enterprise Europe, whose industry and commerce are efficient enough to prosper in fair competition the world over. [end p43]
Mr Chairman, I passionately believe that the best way to safeguard Scotland's future is as part of a strong United Kingdom, within a strong Europe, and as a bastion of the free world. [end p44]
Let there be no doubt that in this way Scotland is advancing and prospering.
You see it—in the highest standard of living in the United Kingdom after the South East of England—a level of prosperity which is enabling much more to be devoted to protecting the weak. [end p45]
You see it—in the growth of self-employment: a rise of 45,000 in the 1980s after three decades of stagnation; and in the spectacular growth of profits last year among Scotland's top one hundred companies. [end p46]
You see it— —in Silicon Glen —in the return of people to the Highlands and Islands where the prospects are better than for many a long year —in Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe, [end p47] —in Edinburgh, whose financial centre manages £80 billion—double the amount collected annually in income tax in the UK as a whole. I am sure the money is safe with you. —and you see it here in Glasgow, a city transformed in the last decade and the next European City of Culture. [end p48]
Scotland is resurgent because the Scottish people are working in a positive, constructive and enterprising atmosphere.
Our policies are working in practice because they have found a response in the Scottish people, however reluctant some may be to admit it! [end p49]
It is not surprising that freedom and enterprise are on the march here and in the wider world.
They bring success.
They have brought a better present and are building a better future. [end p50]
It is a good story.
I have told it today.
You tell it tomorrow.
Go on, have a go.