Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Remarks canvassing East Finchley (Budgens Supermarket)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: High Road, Finchley
Source: BBC Radio News Report 1300 21 May 1983
Journalist: Peter Hill, BBC, reporting
Editorial comments: MT visited the supermarket at 1000 and spent the rest of the morning on walkabout in East Finchley.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 157
Themes: General Elections, Monetary policy

The Prime Minister was out supermarket shopping in North London to demonstrate for a melee of cameramen the low rate of increases in food prices in the last year. She spent £11.94, but she didn't have any money at the checkout, so daughter Carol paid the bill. She bought butter, Lymeswold cheese, light bulbs, pate, cling-film and part-baked rolls. But it was all for a political purpose.

Thatcher

No, I'm sorry (background noise) yes, food has increased over the past four years, but not nearly as much as it did under a Labour Government. When I came here this time in the previous election, food prices over the period … had more than doubled—they were up by 122 per cent. Now, this time they're up by very very much less—very very much less. It's one of our great successes and in the last year taking food prices as a whole, they've gone up by less than a penny in the pound.