Prime Minister
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for coming along to No 10 on this rather lovely morning. Naturally we feel quite a sense of achievement that we have completed ten years, but it is not so much the ten years, it is that during that time that Britain has been transformed. The standard of living for almost everyone is higher and that is a good thing. The standard of social services is higher and I think everyone recognises that Britain's standing in the world is greater than it has been for very many a long year. And that too gives us all a great sense of pride.
For us it is a very busy working day. After this we shall have Cabinet Committees and Cabinet meeting, the Questions in the House this afternoon and more interviews later in the day and then one or two friends and people in who contributed so much to arriving at this day. [end p1]
It was a very nice day this day ten years ago. The weather was kind then and it makes quite a lot of difference that the weather is kind this morning.
Gentlemen, you have not come along just to listen, I expect you have come along to question.
Michael BrunsonMichael, I can see you are ready with yours. [end p2]
Question (Michael Brunson, ITN)
Prime Minister, I wonder after having achieved plenty in ten years whether there is any thought at all of slowing down or handing over to someone else or giving up in the next ten years?
Prime Minister
That is quite a lot in one question. There is no thought of slowing down because we built a marvellous basis and we want to go on. It is a great source of pride to me, particularly after some of the photographs yesterday, that in fact the opportunities for young people are better than they have ever been, the education, the training, the choice, and somehow they are raring to go to make their contribution to the next generation.
And it is just going to be very exciting in the next ten years, coming up to the millennium, and I think we want to make a real special effort to see that everything is even better then than now.
Question
Does it concern you that weekend polls seem to suggest that the British public have not embraced much of what is described as “Thatcherism” ? [end p3]
Prime Minister
Well, nevertheless they have in fact practised it because that is why they have a so much higher standard of living. It is not that we have created the extra prosperity, it is that we have had the policies which have enabled them to get going and creating the extra prosperity. And I think that they are enjoying the enterprise and realising it gives a much freer life and realising it gives a much better life.
Of course there are some who will use the freedom and not always rise to the responsibilities, that is why we have to have a strong rule of law.
Question
Would you be willing to recognise, in addition to your successes, that there may have been failures and would you identify them?
Prime Minister
Oh goodness me, yes of course. There are always things not done as well as you would have wished or things that you wish you could have acted earlier or things which go far too slowly when you have started them. But on the whole it has been a ten years in which Britain is very much better off, now very much concerned with the quality of life because when your standard of living is much better, you can turn to other things and that too is important and Britain's standing in the world is important as well. [end p4]
Question
Prime Minister, what would you put at the top of the agenda, the thing that you have now most got to tackle? You once made it the inner cities, is there any one thing that you are determined now to focus perhaps more attention on than anything else, the environment perhaps?
Prime Minister
I think always extending opportunity, because when you see what it can do for Britain we just have to make certain that it does reach everyone. That is why we were concentrating too on the inner cities and why concentrating quite often on education there. And that too is beginning to work.
But I think it is in the next ten years, you call it the environment, the environment embraces everything, it is the quality of everything around us, including the standards in our villages and cities. Yes it is conserving the countryside and everything that we hold most dear, but it is also making our own very special contribution to it so that we can leave things a little bit better than we started. And we can make certain that those great life-supporting systems of the globe are passed on intact.
So I think it is very much emphasis on raising the quality of life. That means doing everything possible to reduce crime, and that is not just a job for government, it is a job for everyone, and everyone rising to the responsibilities which freedom gives.
It will happen, it will happen. [end p5]
Question
Prime Minister, you talked about the next ten years, do you want to go on to the millennium and if so, what do you want to see Britain being like in ten years?
Prime Minister
Look, right now we just carry on and take each day and do the very very best with it we can, always planning for the future. I have not got any better crystal ball than you have but I just hope that the level of improvement which we have set in hand will continue.
And I think one of the nicest things of all is that as people have come to have greater prosperity, so they have come to have such greater generosity and they are thinking far more of others than they have for a long time.
And I think that there is, therefore, a real sense of community which has developed as people are able to choose what to help and do it with a will and especially among young people.
Question
I am keen to know whether you really did describe yourself as a “tigress” . [end p6]
Prime Minister
I was pointing out to the very excellent interviewers which the Press Association always send along, you remember that poem of Kipling's, that it is the female of the species is rather better than the male at many many things, and I was pointing out therefore that it is the lioness who defends her cubs, it is the tigress who defends her cubs because she is always interested in the future.
I think they translated that into much more dashing language, the sort of tigress in the tank.
Question
You do not object?
Prime Minister
I do not object. They look after their cubs very well.