Thatcher backs poll on devolution
The Welsh people should have the chance to express their views in a referendum on devolution, Conservative Party leader Mrs. Margaret Thatcher said at the end of a two-day visit to North Wales at the weekend.
Mrs. Thatcher, who was visiting Deeside, Mold and Wrexham on Saturday, told party members at Queensferry, “As I have gone around and met the people of North Wales I have been getting two reactions.
“They are either against it or, if it has to come, let us have a referendum on it.”
Meanwhile, in South Wales, a Young Conservatives conference at Tenby overwhelmingly rejected the Government's devolution proposals and called for a referendum.
Mr. Stephen Woods, Wales's Young Conservative secretary, told the 82 delegates that the Government plans were nothing but a panic reaction to Nationalist gains in recent years.
The people of Wales wanted better government from Westminster, not more government from a Glamorgan dominated by additional bureaucracy.
Mr. Jonathan Evans, prospective Conservative candidate for Wolverhampton North-East, described the devolution Bill as an irrelevant and unwanted measure that would only distract attention from our real problems.
Bill unwanted
Cardiff North M.P. Mr. Ian Grist told the conference that the Young Conservatives had a vital role to play in “winkling out” the thinking people of Wales. who had been seduced for too long into a misguided allegiance to the Labour Party:
Other speakers at the two-day conference included the Monmouth M.P. and Opposition Whip Mr. John Stradling Thomas, who said the Government would face great difficulty in getting controversial legislation through Parliament in the next session.
Mrs. Thatcher said when she met constituency workers at Mold that socialist ideals were strangling the expertise and free activity on which the country depended.
“The problems we are now experiencing are a result of the socialist policies pursued by this Government for the past two or three years,” she said.
“It is ironic that the countries we are having to go to to bail us out are capitalist countries who have a surplus while we always seem to have a perpetual deficit.”
Sir Anthony Meyer, M.P. for West Flint, said, “Whenever she has gone to North Wales Mrs. Thatcher has lit fires of enthusiasm. These are the fires that will consume socialism at the next election.”
The warm welcome given to Mrs. Thatcher in what is regarded as a rock-solid Labour area surprised even non-political observers.
Housewives brought traffic to a standstill as the Conservative leader walked through a street market at Mold.
At Wrexham, police could not hold back the crowds and Mrs. Thatcher was forced to accept a lift from Father Christmas on the local Round Table's motorised sleigh.
Despite her hectic schedule Mrs. Thatcher met a deputation from the Shotton Action Committee set up to fight for the retention of steel-making and 6,500 jobs at the British Steel Corporation's plant on Deeside. After the 30-minute meeting, the deputation said the results of the talks would be put to the full committee.
Mrs. Thatcher also recorded a question-and-answer session with sixth-form students from Wrexham for broadcast on BBC Wales Radio before leaving Hawarden by plane for London. [end p1]
(2) Liverpool Daily Post, 29 November 1976.Devolution not wanted in Wales—Margaret
North Wales wants a referendum on the question of devolution, according to Mrs Margaret Thatcher.
The Tory leader told Conservatives at Queensferry, near Chester at the weekend that wherever she had gone during her two day tour people had told her they did not want devolution.
“The message I got was ‘please, we don't want it but if it comes insist on a referendum’.”
During the weekend three member of the Shotton steel works action committee, where 6,500 jobs will be lost if the works close, met Mrs Thatcher in private for half an hour to discuss the Steel Corporation's closure plan.
Afterwards, they said the results of the meeting would be put to the full committee.
In Mold a crowd jammed the High Street stopping the traffic and climbing all over the street market stalls, to get a better glimpse as Mr Thatcher moved along at about one yard a minute.
For her supporters there she had some words about the record of the Government. “Our problems are the results of Socialist policy,” she declared. “They did not just happen. After three years under Socialism, the countries which are now bailing us out are the capitalist countries following policies which enable them to build up the necessary surplus to lend us. The problems of perpetual borrowing have been brought about by the policies of this government.
Mrs Thatcher spoke about the three C's of Conservatism: Conserving the best of the past, creating something in each generation as its contribution to the future, and producing extra facilities with which to care for the less fortunate.
Her day started immediately after breakfast with a visit to the farm at Babell of Mr Trevor Jones, a national award winner for land improvement and productivity, who stressed the problems of all farmers in getting sufficient returns on their expenditure and production to finance or even maintain further food production.
Mrs Thatcher stopped to pat Brandy, the pony, putting his nose over a loosebox door, but only stepped back just in time as Brandy took a firm grip on one of the gilt buttons on her coat.
Another unexpected problem was put to her by Mrs Irene Evans, who has been confined to a wheelchair for nearly thirty years and is worried about the withdrawal of transport for the disabled and the substitution of a £5 mobility allowance.
Mrs Thatcher promised to have the problem examined in detail.