Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher MP, The Prime Minister
I'd expected tonight to talk wholly about unemployment but events in Liverpool have changed that. What happened there horrified us all. A thousand policemen embattled in one of our great cities. Two-hundred injured. Riot shields and CS gas needed to defend the very men to whom we all turn for protection. Nothing can justify, nothing can excuse and no-one can condone the appalling violence we've all seen on television which some of our people have actually experienced and so many fear.
Each one of us, parents, grandparents, teachers, whether we have a job or not, whether we are black or white, whatever else we may argue about, we have this in common. We all know that violence will destroy everything we value. Government and Parliament can make the law. Police and courts can uphold the law, but a free society will only survive if we, its citizens, obey the law and teach our children to do so.
That's why the violence must be stopped. The law must be upheld. People must be protected. Then we can put these terrible events behind us, repair the damage and begin to rebuild confidence. That's the urgent priority.
There are other pressing concerns and the most insistent is unemployment. We all want the chance to work. In Britain, almost ninety workers out of every hundred have jobs. For those who are left out, all the statistics in the world don't make up for the personal heartbreak of redundancy or the feeling of rejection which overwhelms a school-leaver who can't find a job.
No wonder there's this huge temptation to go for the simple answer, the convenient cure all. To get the government to spend and borrow and print large sums of money to expand the economy. It sounds so caring and compassionate. I only wish it were as easy as that. Do you really think we would have rejected the easy way if it had any chance of working? Of course not. We'd have jumped at it. But the easy path will lead to even higher unemployment and higher prices. So I cannot go that way. [end p1]
In fact we all know that jobs depend on our ability to sell our wares to our customers. So keeping prices down is the Number One task in the fight for jobs. And we all have a share in that fight. We can't complain about unemployment if we demand large pay increases and thereby force yet more redundancies. And when we do produce more we shouldn't pay it all back to ourselves in wages. That would leave nothing for new investment. Nothing for hospitals, schools, the elderly or the unemployed.
Those in work do have a responsibility for those without work. Of course there are some things which only governments can do. They must ensure honest money, encourage initiative and enterprise. Help to cushion people and industry against sudden and unsettling change. And do everything possible to provide training and opportunity for the young.
But in the end there is only one way to provide more jobs. We have to make more goods better goods and do it quicker. We have to produce things which our own people would prefer and export things which other people will buy. Governments can't do that. Creating jobs involves us all. Every salesman who lands that extra order. Every employee who produces more. Every housewife who buys British goods. Every one of these helps to keep jobs.
So, instead of wasting our time hoping for the easy way out, let's get on with putting things right. If there were a valid alternative we would grasp it. But there is no easy way. This government cares too much about the future of Britain to pretend. That's why we won't turn back and that's why we believe you want us to succeed and why together we are going to.