Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

House of Commons PQs

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: House of Commons
Source: Hansard HC [177/1050-54]
Editorial comments: 1515-1530.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 2479
Themes: Executive, Parliament, Defence (general), Monetary policy, Privatized & state industries, Energy, Environment, Pay, Economic, monetary & political union, Foreign policy (Asia), Foreign policy (International organizations), Foreign policy (Middle East), Health policy, Law & order, Leadership, Social security & welfare, Transport
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Prime Minister

Engagements

Q1. Mr. Madden

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 16 October.

The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today. This evening I hope to have an audience of Her Majesty the Queen.

Mr. Madden

May I ask the Prime Minister a question of which I gave her office notice earlier today? Will she take this opportunity to condemn Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge for the mass murder of more than 1 million innocent Cambodians; and will she tell the House what action she and the Government are taking to stop Pol Pot and his allies marching back to power so that they can murder still more millions of innocent Cambodians?

The Prime Minister

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. We have repeatedly made clear our utter abhorrence for the Khmer Rouge and all that it stands for. We have never given support of any kind to the Khmer Rough. Our aim over many years has been to prevent a return to the atrocities of the Pol Pot years, and, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, we are working to achieve that through a comprehensive political settlement.

Mr. Lester

Does my right hon. Friend agree that those of us who seek to prevent the return of the Khmer Rouge [column 1051]should wholeheartedly support the Supreme National Council which has now been established, comprising both internal and external Khmers, and that we should wholeheartedly support the comprehensive political settlement which, in annex 2, deals with disarmament, with mines, with caches of weapons, with the return of refugees and with free elections? Does she further agree that, as the British Government recognise neither the external Khmers nor the Hun Sen regime as a legitimate Government, we should talk equally to both sides?

The Prime Minister

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I agree with him that we should support the efforts of the five permanent members of the Security Council. This is another example of the five permanent members working very closely together. The Supreme National Council includes Hun Sen, Prince Sihanouk, Sonn San and the Khmer Rouge—those are its components. I agree with what my hon. Friend said.

Mr. Kinnock

On the exchange rate mechanism, does the Prime Minister recall that on 20 September she was adamant, in her own words, that “the Madrid conditions won't be changed and they include getting inflation near to the European average” ? Whatever happened in the following two weeks to make her completely cave in?

The Prime Minister

The right hon. Gentleman will have heard what my right hon. Friend John Majorthe Chancellor said in his excellent statement. Several conditions were laid out in the Madrid statement. A number of them had been fully achieved; some others were on the way. The most important was progress on the free movement of capital; the next, progress on free trade in financial services; the next, progress on the single market and further progress in competition policy. Monetary conditions here made possible a reduction of 1 per cent. in interest rates. Yes, we could have gone on further and waited until inflation had visibly come down, but so many of the conditions had been met and there was so much speculation about when we were going into the exchange rate mechanism that we took advantage of the excellent opportunity—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. These are very important matters.

The Prime Minister

—of the excellent opportunity of monetary conditions' coming within their limits to end all the speculation about when we should go in and go in, just one year after we had increased interest rates to 15 per cent., just before the Tory party conference.

Mr. Kinnock

If the Prime Minister is so confident about her judgment, why will she not simply come to the House next week and speak in the debate? Is not it now obvious that her own personal position on this issue is utterly impossible to justify, and that she is just plain frit?

The Prime Minister

Unlike the right hon. Gentleman, I have a most excellent John MajorChancellor, an excellent Treasury team and a superb—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order.

The Prime Minister

—and a superb Peter LilleySecretary of State for Trade and Industry. I shall be here answering questions every Tuesday and Thursday, and I hope that one day the right hon. Gentleman may know how to ask a good one.

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Mr. Mans

Does my right hon. Friend agree that a responsible policy on the environment must be both practical and realistic, and that to insist on the reduction of CO2 emissions around the turn of the century, while at the same time discounting the future use of nuclear power, increasing the use of fossil fuels such as coal and promoting cheaper petrol, makes no sense whatever? Does she agree that that policy is highly environmentally damaging as well?

The Prime Minister

I agree with my hon. Friend. If one wants to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, one of the best ways is to support nuclear power. Recently we have also seen a substantial increase in the price of oil and petrol, without attempting to put it up further. Any promises that are made should be capable of being fulfilled, and the earliest date on carbon dioxide emissions when we can fulfil this promise is the year 2005.

Q2. Mr. Wallace

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 16 October.

The Prime Minister

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Wallace

Does the Prime Minister agree that the honourable and decent way forward in the tragic case of the 1,200 haemophiliacs suffering from the AIDS virus is to offer far more generous compensation than has been the case up to now, rather than continuing to fund ever-increasing fees for lawyers to argue the toss over the matter?

The Prime Minister

The Government have already made available some £34 million to the haemophiliacs who are suffering from this very grievous happening, as an ex gratia payment without prejudice to their taking legal action in the courts. Obviously, we wish to know the legal position before any further payment is considered.

Mr. Alexander

Has my right hon. Friend had time to notice British Rail's 25 per cent. pay offer to its track-laying and signalling staff? Does she agree that pay awards of that order will merely outrage fare-paying passengers, stoke up inflation and put off further the day when we can reduce interest rates still more?

The Prime Minister

If my recollection is correct, certain recommendations about signalling were made after the Clapham accident that must be taken into account when one judges that settlement. I am sure that my hon. Friend would agee that it is absolutely vital that we live up to the safety standards required of us by the report following that terrible accident.

Q3. Mrs. Fyfe

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 16 October.

The Prime Minister

I refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mrs. Fyfe

Does the right hon. Lady remember saying 15 months ago that lowering United Kingdom inflation was the most important of the Madrid conditions? If that is no longer the case, when and why did she begin to change her mind and decide that the right hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Lawson) was right?

The Prime Minister

Had the hon. Lady listened yesterday and earlier this afternoon, she would have heard John Majorthe Chancellor and I both say that a large number of the [column 1053]conditions had already been met and that there was an opportunity to go into the exchange rate mechanism. We took that decision and it was right. It has been warmly welcomed and I am amazed that Opposition Members are being so small minded about it. Did not they want us to go in?

Sir Jim Spicer

Many hon. Members know the Kuwaiti ambassador, but not many know that three weeks ago his brother-in-law was seized by the Iraqi forces, taken away and tortured for 16 days, and then taken back to his home to be executed in front of his house and family. Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that people who perpetrate such crimes will not escape punishment?

The Prime Minister

We all share the revulsion that has been expressed about that brutal act and we have seen the Amnesty International report about many other brutal acts conducted daily by Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. That makes it clear that we must deal with this man. I agree with my hon. Friend that he must be made answerable for these terrible crimes and must withdraw from Kuwait so that the legitimate Government of Kuwait can be restored. I join my hon. Friend in sending our sympathies to the Kuwaiti Government on this terrible brutality.

Q4. Mr. Bernie Grant

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 16 October.

The Prime Minister

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Grant

Is the Prime Minister aware of the indignation and outrage felt by Cypriots in my constituency about the Government's two-faced attitude to invasions? Troops have been sent to Saudi Arabia as a result of the invasion of Kuwait, but absolutely nothing has been done about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Is the Prime Minister—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. Mr. Grant.

Mr. Grant

Is the Prime Minister aware that the international financial bandit Mr. Asil Nadir and his company, Polly Peck, have made their money by stealing property, orange groves and hotels from Greek Cypriots who are living in exile in my constituency? Will she do something—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. This House is for putting forward views that hon. Members feel strongly about. We have a right to do that.

Mr. Grant

What will the Prime Minister do to prevent this carpetbagger, Mr. Nadir, from bringing his money, his ill-gotten gains, out of the north of Cyprus into this country in order to bail out his company, Polly Peck?

The Prime Minister

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman has forgotten that the events in Cyprus that led to the Turkish invasion and the toppling of Makarios happened during [column 1054]the lifetime of a Labour Government and the decision not to invoke the guarantee was that of the then Foreign Secretary who is now the noble Lord Callaghan. The hon. Gentleman will be fully aware that we wish to see the state of Cyprus continue bi-zonal and bi-communal and that we fully support the efforts of Mr. Perez de Cuellar, the United Nations Secretary-General, to bring that about. The hon. Gentleman knows full well that the matters that he raised in the latter part of his question are under investigation by the serious fraud squad.

Mr. Aitken

Will my right hon. Friend comment on the recent press interview given by the general commanding the British forces in the Gulf, in which he said that he expected that further British troops who are still under training would be deployed in that area? Does my right hon. Friend agree that while that policy may well be welcome and right, it would be preferable for such anouncements to be made in the first place in Parliament?

The Prime Minister

My hon. Friend is aware that the full armoured brigade is on its way there. I know of no intention to send any further people. Obviously, the brigade goes with its full support staff, including the engineers and the full hospital staff, which is not the 8,000 of the armoured brigade but about 11,000 in all. That is a part of the support for the armoured brigade.

Q6. Mr. Fearn

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 16 October.

The Prime Minister

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Fearn

Is the Prime Minister aware that 39 countries have now ratified the United Nations convention on the rights of the child? When will this country ratify those excellent terms? What are we waiting for?

The Prime Minister

I signed the convention on behalf of the United Kingdom when I was at the United Nations; to ratify it, it would have to come before the House.

Mr. Harry Greenway

Is my right hon. Friend aware that Mr. Tony Wilbraham, a Baghdad hostage and father of my constituents Joanne and Paul, could die as soon as Christmas from advanced lung cancer? Will she do all that she can to secure his early release together with that of his wife, who is standing by him and nursing him, and of other sick hostages who, so far, Saddam Hussein has not had the compassion to release?

The Prime Minister

We have every sympathy with Mr. Wilbraham and his family and also with the others who are suffering from terminal illnesses and being so wickedly detained by Saddam Hussein. It shows the true nature of that person. As my hon. Friend knows, our ambassador is still in Baghdad, and he is making strenuous efforts to ensure that those people are released. We utterly condemn Saddam Hussein for not releasing them.