You can't Take out more than you put in

People have got to realise that the more they take out from the State, the more they have to put into it. It is part of the Government's job to make people realise this.

This was stressed by Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, MP, when she spoke at the annual luncheon of the Women's Advisory Committee of the Finchley and Friern Barnet Conservative Association on Thursday last week.

Mrs. Thatcher continued “You cannot have more out unless you put more in. We are prepared to help people, but not in a way which feeds them from the cradle to the grave.” Mrs. Thatcher went on that she would never be a member of a party that used bribes to gain votes. She pointed out Britain had a society which was the envy of the world. Poverty was a thing of the past. “We have not got a government of ‘yes-men’,” stressed Mrs. Thatcher.

Earlier in her speech Mrs. Thatcher had likened the government of the country to bringing up a child. “You would think you were not bringing up your child properly if you said ‘yes’ to everything they asked for. What sort of government would that be?” she asked.

An achievement

Pointing out that pensioners now enjoyed a high standard of living, Mrs. Thatcher added that when the Conservative party came into office over 10 years ago there were six working people to every retired person. Now there were only four to every pensioner, but they still retained the high standard. “The achievement has been terrific.”

Mrs. Thatcher said people were always asking the government to do something about old age pensioners. What they did not realize was what the government was doing and had done since they took office. Illustrating her point she said that the average working family spent 31s. per head on food.

The average pensioner spent 29s. 11d. per head on food. “The working man is putting enough into the government to make the pensioners standard of living the same as his.”

“The results will be seen in the next two years” , she added.

Protest vote

Guest speaker, Mr. Geoffrey Johnson Smith. M.P. for Holborn and St. Pancras South, said there had been a tremendous growth in women's luncheon clubs in the Conservative party and it meant that the women wanted to know more.

Mr. Johnson Smith said he saw no reason to be gloomy because of the recent by-election results at Orpington and Blackpool. He was sure it was basically a protesting vote. He pointed out however, that it was no good fighting shy of the problems by going away and saying that you hope another party will do better.

“This kind of protest vote is not going to make the government work any harder because they are working as hard as they can now,” he said.

He also spoke of the seemingly stringent wage pause and said it was not the professional classes who would suffer because their pay was already behind that of the unskilled worker.

Export more

He stressed the importance of improving exports and said that exports would never go up until trade unions, the management and the workers all pulled together. “We are not selling as much as we would like, to improve our standard of living.”

It was not enough to draw attention to the problems there must also be a solution, he added. The Liberals were demanding an emotional response but they were not suggesting any solution to the problems. Referring to the question of disarmament he said that it was not enough to bale out, but that the problem must be solved and he said “I think that the sooner they abolish the arms race the sooner we can spend the money on more peaceful things.”

A toast to the guests was proposed by Mrs. R. Vokes, member of the committee for the Whetstone ward. It was replied to by Cr. S. P. Esom, Chairman of Friern Barnet Council. Mrs. Tiplay proposed a toast to the chairman which was replied to by the chairman, Mrs. W. D. M. Mackrill.

Among the 220 guests present were the Mayor and Mayoress of Finchley, Cr. and Mrs. F. D. Gibson, Mrs. Esom, Mr. C. H. Blatch, divisional president, and his wife, and Mr. D. Webster, divisional chairman and his wife.

The luncheon was organised by Mrs. D. C. Quick, who was also the toastmaster.