PM: “We shall pass to our children a country to be proud of.”

RESOLUTE STAND WILL WIN THROUGH

1983 will begin to show the benefits which the British people are gaining from the Government's resolute approach, the Prime minister has told supporters.

The Prime Minister began her New Year message with a “profoundly felt ‘thank you’ to all Conservative supporters” .

She added: “This has been one of the most testing and momentous years in our recent history. Throughout, you have sustained the Party and the Government with unwavering loyalty and understanding. None of us in Government will forget what that loyalty has meant to us.

“1982 demonstrated the resolute approach in action. I am convinced that 1983 will begin to show the benefits which the British people are gaining from that approach.

LEADING

“Britain is leading an uncertain and unsettled economic world back to sound money and steady progress. Under this Conservative Government, we are recognised as one of the most politically stable and reliable nations in the West. We repay our debts. We pay our way in the world. We honour our obligations. We keep our word.

“We are not inflexible. But where questions of freedom and justice are concerned, we are uncompromising. That is the great difference between this Government and its predecessors – and the world recognises the difference. We showed it in the Falklands. We show it still in our determination to restore and to maintain a strong economy.

“At the same time, we are mindful of what being a good ally and friend entails. We have bargained hard with our European partners; harder than any other Government since Britain joined the Community on January the first, 1973. We remain resolved to secure the best possible deal for Britain. We also remain unshakably committed to the Community. And we are proud to belong to it and to celebrate our ten years of membership.

ALLIES

“We have had our disagreements this past year with our other great ally, the United States. We saw the pipeline issue differently. But the true lesson of that disagreement was the speed and goodwill with which it was resolved. The Western Alliance holds and will continue to hold.

“Our allies, both in Europe and the United States, have been bedevilled by high unemployment, as we have. Like us, they recognise that its cure can only be slow and arduous. There can be no quick fix – either through the beggar-my-neighbour tactics of the trade war, or through the reckless borrowing proposed by the Labour Party. We have been down that road before. and we know it is a dead end.

“You cannot put people back to work by shutting yourself off from the rest of the world, nor by borrowing as if there were no tomorrow – because tomorrow comes sooner than you think.

“There is no great mystery about where new jobs are to come from. They come from contented customers. Why do we no longer supply the world with cameras and motor-cycles? Why is our unemployment rate five times higher than Japan's? We cannot dodge the connection between these two questions. But next time the answer has to be different.

“I am confident that Britain will not be left at the start in this race to develop the new technologies. We must make sure that in the mid-1980s we shall not need to be bullied to Buy British. We'll buy British gladly because British is best, because the design is good and the price is right. We want to recreate a society whose hallmark is quality, through and through.

“And that is a task for which governments can only supply the conditions. The rest is up to us. Opportunity can knock, but only we can answer.

“The Conservatives are pressing on towards a society which fits the aspirations of the British people; a society based on choice, individual responsibility and individual ownership.

“By the end of this Parliament, some half a million counci tenants will have bought their own homes. You can see the effect on almost any council estate – the new front door, the garden transformed.

RESPONSIBILITY

“We believe strongly that individual rights cannot make a society work without matching individual responsibilities. When we talk about law and order, we are not simplying talking about what this Government has done to recruit more policemen and to pay and equip them better – although we are proud of that.

“We are talking about the need for all of us to help restore standards of behaviour and consideration for others – in the schools, on the football terraces, in relations between men and managers.

“This Conservative Government has a list of achievements which can match any of its predecessors. Our Employment Acts have begun to restore rights to individual trade unionists and the long eroded balance between unions and employers. We have safeguarded the National Health Service through the worst recession since the War. For the first time since the War too, the Government has widened, and will go on widening, parental choice in schools. We have reformed and reinforced our national defences, and our commitment to NATO is second to none.

BUBBLING

“All this is only the beginning. Most governments approaching their fifth year in office have run out of steam. But we are bubbling with ideas. And we have the energy to put them into practice and the experience to do the job properly and sensibly.

“In 1983, we shall be starting to prepare our programme for the next Parliament, which must begin by the summer of 1984. We have always believed that turning Britain round would be a ten-year task.

“We shall not slacken or shirk now. For the rewards to all our people will be great, and we shall pass on to our children a country to be proud of. Thank you again, and a Happy New Year.”