Thatcher praises disease research
The Prime Minister took the opportunity of praising her “mad cow” disease scientific team when she officially opened the £7.5 million food science laboratory at Colney, near Norwich today.
Mrs Thatcher, accompanied by Cabinet Ministers Mr John Gummer and Mr John McGregor, described the scientific team as being “absolutely top class.”
“We could not have had better scientists working on it,” she said during a 10-minute informal speech.
Importance
“They are obviously concerned about the well-being of people both as scientists and part of the communities from the towns and villages, too.”
But she later refused to answer questions from the Press on the “mad cow” scare.
Mrs Thatcher, who was 15 minutes late arriving, admitted that, “It is quite a special pleasure for me to come back to a laboratory because I spent my early years working on food research.
“There is obviously quite a battery of us here today,” Mrs Thatcher said, referring to her accompanying ministerial team.
The visit also gave Mrs Thatcher the opportunity to stress the increasing importance of food science.
Youngsters
“But even with all this, nothing can substitute for the common sense of the housewife with her food,” she told a gathering of scientists and dignitaries including Norwich's Lord Mayor, Mr Bernard Smith.
Mrs Thatcher questioned people buying foreign mineral water when virtually identical mineral water is available in this country.
And she finished her speech by calling on more youngsters to make a career in science.
Scientists told her how food samples are analysed using the latest equipment. The suite carries out tests for lead in milk, following contamination of imported cattle feed last autumn, which sparked a major scare.
And she had a chance to try out the equipment for herself when she started a test for samples on a £200,000 analysis machine. [end p1]
(2) Anglia TV Archive: OUP transcriptJohn Francis, Anglia TV
The Ministry's Norwich Laboratory will investigate chemical contaminants in the food chain. Its main aim is to protect the consumer. It's not engaged in the investigation of BSE, but that evidently was one of the issues on the Prime Minister's mind as she ran the gauntlet of student demonstrators to open the lab.
chanting students in distanceJohn Francis, Anglia TV
She said she had been very concerned about the outcry over BSE and paid tribute to the top-class scientists who had been advising the government:
MT
[speaking to small audience] And I would like to say to people who sometimes wonder about the safety of food, that the people who work on it, the people who do research on it, the people who do product development—all of them are not only scientists, but they have families of their own and they live as members of the community. [ “that's right” , hear, hear] They wouldn't give their scientific judgment if they thought it was going to put family, friends or their community in difficulty or danger.
John Francis, Anglia TV
[commentary over MT's speech which becomes inaudible] As Mr Gummer prepared to return to London amid Labour claims that the Government has not taken sufficiently comprehensive action over BSE, Mrs Thatcher embarked on a tour of the laboratory, finding out about the analysis of lead in milk arising from the contamination of imported cattle feed last autumn.
The Prime Minister's Norfolk visit had begun in Broadland at How Hill, the Broad's authority study centre near Ludham. There Mrs Thatcher was introduced to her namesake craft by marshman Eric Edwards who presented her with the bunch of thatching reeds with the advice that she could make a bird table out of it.
MT
… and from one Thatcher to another … [laughter and groans]
John Francis, Anglia TV
Attention then switched from conservation to communications when the Prime Minister opened a European Information Centre at Norwich Chamber of Commerce. She was shown an electronic mail computer, designed to speed business communication with 187 similar centres throughout the European Community. And she said that as an island nation we were in special need of communications technology.
MT
Therefore, we have to make special efforts to inform ourselves, to see that we learn languages, to see that we have information ready to hand so we can make contact through this marvellous means of communication. [end p2]
John Francis, Anglia TV
A demonstration of naval gun mountings featured in Mrs Thatcher's last call, on Defence Equipment and Systems Ltd of Norwich. Inevitably perhaps the PM was persuaded to try her hand, her sights set on Mr Kinnock no doubt, if only in her mind. [film of MT sighting gun]