Mr Chairman, there is less than a week to go now. And we are in good heart. Because we are standing on our record and sticking to our policies—just as we have done for the past four years.
I cannot say the same for our opponents. In fact, some of them seem to find it rather difficult to stick to the same policies for four weeks running.
But then, of course, they find it so hard to stick to the same leader. [end p1]
I'm afraid I haven't brought any secret documents along with me tonight. I have, however, brought with me one document which the Labour Party would desperately like to be kept secret.
Here it is—it's called “No Hope for Britain” . It is the genuine official manifesto of the Labour Party—and how they wish it wasn't.
Because it is the most chilling and alien Manifesto ever put before the British people by a major political party. [end p2]
Some of Labour's leaders—the ones who are a little bit keener on scrambling back into power than on turning Britain into a Socialist state overnight—have tried to persuade us that they don't really mean what the Manifesto says.
Don't you believe it. If by some mischance a Labour Government were to be elected, then the Militants would take it as a mandate to impose every socialist syllable of the Manifesto. [end p3]
Irrespective of how many or how few Labour MPs are elected, the Militants would have a clear majority of Labour MPs after this General Election.
That is not what the British people want. Most of our people recoil from the prospect of an East European people's democracy transplanted to Britain. [end p4]
THE DANGERS OF THE PROTEST VOTE
Mr Chairman, there is an overwhelming anti-socialist majority in this country.
But voting socialist is not the only way of putting Labour in.
Look at the record. Every time a Labour Government has come to power since the War, it has come in on the back of a high Liberal vote. [end p5]
When Labour squeezed home in 1974, they obtained fewer votes than at any General Election since the War—fewer votes than we did. Who let them in? The Liberals.
And do you remember what happened in 1977 when the Labour Government was tottering? Who came to the rescue? It was those self-same Liberals with the notorious Lib-Lab Pact who propped up the most illiberal Government of modern times. [end p6]
It was Mr Steel and his friends who kept Mr Foot and Mr Benn in their Cabinet seats for an extra 18 months.
Today the Liberals have new allies: the SDP—the very men (and women, I regret to say, Mr Chairman) who sat in that self-same Labour Government who voted yet more powers for the trade unions, who ran up inflation to 27 per cent, who saddled Britain with debt, led us into the Winter of Discontent, destroyed our Grammar schools and voted for more nationalisation of industry. [end p7]
They kept Labour in power last time. They refuse to promise they would not put Labour in power again.
The truth is that there is no way in which you can predict for sure the result of a so-called “tactical” vote. It might let in a Left-wing Labour MP. It might let in a Left-wing Labour Government.
Call it a protest vote, call it a vote for the soft option—but whatever you call it, I do ask every voter to be aware of the risk. [end p8]
There is only one certain way to harness that anti-socialist majority.
There is only one Party which has sound policies and a clear philosophy.
If you really value Britain's restored confidence and self-respect, then vote for the Government that brought it about. [end p9]
SIX REASONS FOR VOTING CONSERVATIVE
Tonight, I want to give you six reasons for voting Conservative; six points where our policies are better for Britain than the alternatives put forward by our opponents—better, not just for the lucky or the wealthy or even the talented, but for all the people of Britain.
On June the 9th vote Conservative: —Because the Conservatives offer real hope of new jobs. —Because the Conservatives keep prices down. [end p10] —Because the Conservatives give everyone the chance to own their own home. —Because the Conservatives protect the social services. —Because the Conservatives ensure that this nation is properly defended.
There they are: six reasons for voting for the sort of Government that most people really want; the sort of Government that really does tackle the problems that are worrying people today. [end p11]
1. REAL HOPE OF NEW JOBS—FOR THE WEST MIDLANDS AND FOR BRITAIN
The foremost of those problems, and the one that takes the longest time to cure, is unemployment.
And it is a problem which confronts virtually all the nations of the West. There are 26 million people out of work in the OECD countries. Every country in Western Europe and across the Atlantic has been hit by the recession. [end p12]
Here in the West Midlands, you have been very severely hit.
For a skilled engineering worker who has never missed a day's work or gone on strike suddenly to be made redundant is a traumatic shock for the entire family.
Mr Chairman, we understand the problems, the human problems, the problems of dignity and self-respect. No government anywhere has shown more vigour and imagination in its efforts to help the unemployed. [end p13]
This Government has committed over £2,000 million this year in special measures to help the unemployed. Our special measures are helping more than one million men and women: —through the community programme for the long-term unemployed; —Through the Job Release programme for men and women nearing retirement age; —through the job splitting scheme which splits existing full-time jobs into two part-time jobs; [end p14] —throught the Enterprise Allowance which pays £40 a week to unemployed people who want to start up in business on their own; —And we've got the largest and most imaginative training scheme in our history—with places for 400,000 young people. That's the way to make sure that the next generation can match the skills of any country in the world. [end p15]
But alleviating the difficulties of the unemployed is not enough. We must offer real hope of genuine jobs and a real prospect of a sustained recovery.
A hundred years ago, when Joseph Chamberlain launched his great scheme to rebuild the slums of Birmingham and develop a city centre worthy of a great city, the quality he called for was “sagacious audacity” . [end p16]
It is sagacious audacity—a mixture of boldness and common sense—which we need today to rebuild the employment for our people.
Again and again, the Midlands have led the way—in the first industrial revolution, in the great expansion of light industry between the wars, in the post-war era of the car industry.
I am confident that the Midlands can lead the way again out of this recession. [end p17]
The resourcefulness, the adaptability, the skills are here. And this Government is here to help.
Several thousand Midlands firms are now benefiting from the Government's loan guarantee scheme, from our new venture capital scheme and from the Business Start-up Scheme. [end p18]
Our small Engineering Firm Investment scheme helps small firms to buy new machinery. In one month alone, 36 West Midlands firms have gone ahead with new projects which otherwise would never have happened. And there will be another £100 million available for grants.
The Midlands should be a major centre for the new technology and new investment from overseas. Large American and Japanese firms are beginning to move in. But of course they're not going to invest in the Midlands or anywhere else in Britain, unless the Conservatives win on June the 9th. [end p19] —They wouldn't come here if Labour won. Their investment would be put at risk by Labour's commitment to pull out of Europe, because that is where nearly half our customers are. —They wouldn't come here if Labour won, because a Labour Government would impose import controls on foreign goods, and foreign countries would inevitably retaliate by keeping out British goods. [end p20] —They wouldn't come here if Labour won, because interest rates would soar again and new firms would be strangled at birth by their debts to the bank, and larger firms would be plunged back into recession. —They wouldn't come here if Labour won, because Labour's spending programme would send prices soaring and British goods would be hopelessly uncompetitive again. [end p21]
2. KEEPING PRICES DOWN AND KEEPING RATES DOWN
Mr Chairman, keeping prices down is the key to recovery. “Inflation is the father and mother of increased unemployment” , as a former Labour leader once told us.
It eats at savings; it destroys investment; it prices exports out of world markets. There could be no hope of a lasting return to fuller employment so long as inflation was allowed to rage unchecked. [end p22]
Steady prices lead to steady jobs.
Don't forget what inflation means. A family who put £100 by in 1963 against a rainy day, finds that its value has fallen to only £16.50 today.
We had to keep prices down. And we have—to 4 per cent a year—the last time prices rose as slowly as that was fifteen years ago. [end p23]
The choice at this Election is clear as day. You can choose between low inflation with the Conservatives, high inflation with the Liberals and the SDP, and hyper-inflation with Labour.
Labour would have to print money to pay for their spend, spend, spend programme. Every pound they print would make the pound in your pocket worth less. And very soon they would be back where they were last time—back to hyper-inflation, back to the IMF, back to national humiliation. [end p24]
Do you remember the time when the supermarkets could not stick the new price labels on fast enough to keep up? Well, last year food prices rose by just one penny in the pound.
Do you remember the time when your local Labour council used to slap in a supplementary rate demand because they'd run out of cash half-way through the year? [end p25]
They did it here in Birmginahm only 2 years ago.
Well, this Conservative Government has outlawed supplementary rates.
As a result of our penalties and pressures on local government—if you leave out a handful of high-spending socialist councils—the average rate increase throughout the country this year was zero.
Yes, I know averages hide a multitude of sins. But for every council that put up its rates last year, there was one that held its rate steady or actually reduced it. [end p26]
Here in Birmingham, the Conservatives took control of the council in May last year.
The Labour council had been appealing to the Government for more grant because they said they couldn't make ends meet.
But the Conservatives were able to cut no less then £24 million from the City's budget—and, I might add, still take on 400 extra teachers and spend £250,000 more on library books. [end p27]
That is a remarkable tribute to the superb leadership of Neville Bosworth and an example to the whole nation.
As a result, the council was able to cut the rates by 12 per cent. That meant £38 off the rates for a typical three-bedroom semi, and £500,000 less for British Leyland to pay each year.
That's the way to cut costs. And that helps new orders and new jobs. [end p28]
And in the next Parliament we're going to make sure that every ratepayer is protected against unpredictable and unreasonable rate increases by high-spending councils.
We're going to take reserve powers to impose a general limit for rate increases on all local authorities.
And we're also going to abolish the wasteful, unneccessary Metropolitan Councils and return most of their functions to great cities like Birmingham. [end p29]
What do Labour offer as an alternative? This is what their Manifesto says: “We shall give a power of general competence to all local authorities to carry out whatever activities are not expressly forbidden by statute” .
In other words, a blank cheque. A socialist council could spend your money on anything it liked unless there was a law forbidding it. I leave to your imagination the crackpot schemes, the waste of money and the gigantic leap in expenditure. [end p30]
No wonder they also say they would remove all our controls on local government expenditure and allow councils to levy supplementary rates again.
They'd have to. The effect on the householder, the shopkeeper and industry would be devastating.
Mr Chairman, this is not what the people of Britain want. It is not what British industry and commerce want. And the only way to stop it happening is to return a Conservative Government on June the 9th. [end p31]
3. REFORM OF THE TRADE UNIONS
Mr Chairman, Government can do every blessed thing in the book to bring costs down and help bring new jobs to birth. But if people on the shop floor want to put costs up again and destroy jobs—often their own jobs—then in the last resort, we cannot prevent them.
Every one of you knows the sorry history of strikes and restrictive practices and overmanning which have ruined so many businesses in this country. [end p32]
Every one of you has seen managers giving in to blackmail and timid governments taking the easy way out.
We know from bitter experience how many customers were lost by irresponsible trade union power and how much damage was done to trade unionists themselves and their families, and to the nation as a whole. [end p33]
Yet Labour would put the Trade Union leaders back in power. That's what their Manifesto says. “At the heart of our programme is Labour's new partnership with the Trade Unions …”
The men who encouraged the strikes, the men who defended the overmanning, the men who entrenched the restrictive practices—the men who brought Britain the Winter of Discontent—these are the men who would be partners in Government under Labour. [end p34] “Our starting point in Government” , they say, “will be to discuss and agree with the Trade Unions a National Economic Assessment” .
Not with Parliament, mind you, but with the Trade Unions. We Conservatives believe that Governments should be accountable to Parliament—because only Parliament is elected by the whole people. [end p35]
We have seen too much of trade union power. We don't want the union leaders to have so much control over our lives.
For we have seen a better way. We have seen how responsible behaviour on the shop floor can revive firms which seemed beyond hope, and help industries through the darkest days of world recession. [end p36]
We have seen, time and again these past four years, trade union members reject foolish and destructive advice from their shop stewards or their national officials—in the motor industry, in the coalfields.
This Government has been ready to offer substantial support through difficult times to industries with a viable future and workforces who are ready to meet that future half-way—British Steel, British Shipbuilders, British Leyland—more than £1,000 million to British Leyland alone. [end p37]
But we put that money in only in return for a sustained and steadfast effort to win back customers with a better product, more reliable, better designed and delivered on time.
And that is what we have certainly seen at BL. Productivity at Jaguar alone has doubled over the last two years. Sales were up fifty per cent last year. The success of the Maestro has followed the success of the Metro. [end p38]
I pay whole-hearted tribute to the men, the managers and the local union leaders who have made that achievement possible.
We want to build on those better relations in industry. We want to finish restoring the balance between unions and employers and their own members.
Our two Employment Acts have begun the process. And they are just that—acts to improve the employment prospects of every union member in the country. [end p39]
Because if strikes are the last resort and not the first resort, if unions keep their agreements as a matter of course, if unions give their members the chance to vote in secret on the big decisions, if secondary picketing becomes a thing of the past, then we believe that trade unions can at last begin to help and not hinder the real interests of their members and their country. [end p40]
Because Britain will be more and more an exciting and rewarding country to do business in and do business with. And that means new customers and new jobs.
But it will only happen with a Conservative Government. Because a Labour Government would instantly revive the pretensions and inflame the egos of every ambitious militant in industry, and wipe out all the progress we have made. [end p41]
And that progress is not only towards more competitive firms and more jobs, but also towards more democracy and more say for individual trade union members in the decisions of their union.
For the first time, many of them will have the chance to choose whether or not to join a union.
For the first time in many unions, they will be guaranteed a right to choose their leaders by ballot. [end p42]
For the first time, many union members will be able to choose for themselves whether or not to go on strike—and to choose by secret ballot, without intimidation.
And we'll offer real choice. Labour offers only a return to the closed shop.
We have offered to consult with the TUC on all our proposals. So far, we have had no response. [end p43]
The truth is that, in the last analysis, it's not Norman Tebbit, or the next Conservative Government, which the Union leaders are afraid of.
What they really fear is the free choice of their own members. [end p44]
4. HOME OWNERSHIP
And that's what the Labour Party fears too—choice and independence.
Because a free and independent people sooner or later says goodbye to a Socialist state. And at this Election, I am confident that the British people will finally say just that.
For the Labour Party is in with a chance only so long as it can keep enough people dependent on the state as employer or landlord. [end p45]
What happened when we gave council tenants the legal right to buy their own homes? The Labour Party fought those proposals tooth and nail.
They are still fighting them today. This is what the Labour Party Manifesto says: “Labour will end enforced council house sales” .
So if the local council says no to sales under a Labour Government, bang goes your right to buy. [end p46]
And if you've already bought your council house and want to sell, you would be compelled to sell your house back to the council.
We do not know at what price. But when there's only one customer, who fixes a fair price?
Labour calls this policy “A new deal” for council tenants. I call it a raw deal. [end p47]
We are the only Party committed to give you an assured right to buy at an advantageous price.
Mr Chairman, under the Conservative Government, half a million council houses were sold. Half a million families growing up as freeholders. How's that for freedom?
I tell you frankly: we would like to have sold more. And we will. But first we had to pass the law in Parliament. [end p48]
Then we had to force recalcitrant Labour councils to do their legal duties.
In the next Parliament, we shall go full steam ahead. We want to double that half million to one million, at least, and then go on from there.
Because we want to see a society in which every family has the chance to buy their own home, and to build up their savings, and to pass something on to their children and their children's children. [end p49]
There are one million more home-owners today than there were only four years ago. For the first time, home-ownership in England and Wales has reached sixty per cent. Private housebuilding is now at its highest level for ten years.
This is one of the greatest social advances ever recorded within the life of a Government. [end p50]
5. PROTECTING THE SOCIAL SERVICES
Mr Chairman, Aneurin Bevan once claimed that “Socialism is the language of priorities” . Not today it isn't. The language of the Labour Party now is —the language of spending-money-you-haven't-got —and the language of promising-everything-to-everybody. [end p51]
But we in the Conservative Party know that difficult choices and difficult decisions do have to be made. That's what Government's about.
At the last Election, knowning the many demands for extra public spending, quite deliberately we chose certain priorities for public expenditure: —To improve standards in our schools —To protect the pensioner —To maintain the National Health Service —And to uphold the defences of this country. [end p52]
Those were the things we put first. And those are the things we have accomplished in the midst of the worst recession since the War. And we should be telling people what we've done.
In our schools, the number of teachers per pupil has improved every year since we came to power, and is still improving. The amount of money spent per pupil has increased every year under the Conservatives, and is now at its highest ever level in real terms. [end p53]
But standards don't depend upon money alone. They depend on parental choice and parental influence, upon better teacher-training, on better technical education.
This Government cares about freedom of choice. And it cares about standards. We gave parents the right to choose. We gave them the right to sit on governing boards. [end p54]
We insisted that schools should publish prospectuses and that school inspectors should publish reports. And we gave back to local authorities the right to keep their grammar schools.
And may I say, Mr Chairman, how delighted I am that the Conservative council in Birmingham has saved your famous grammar schools and saved your sixth forms.
The Labour council would have destroyed both. And at this year's local elections, the voters of Birmingham showed how they felt about that. [end p55]
Did you know we've installed a micro-computer in every school?
Did you know we've launched a great initiative to bring first-class technical education to 14–18 year olds?
Conservatives protect the best of the old in education, and stimulate the best of the new. [end p56]
Because education is not a workshop for experiments in social engineering. It is a living tradition to which each generation must add for the benefit of the next.
We promised to protect the pensioner against rising prices. And we've done better than that. Did you know that under the Conservatives, the retirement pension has gone up by sixty eight per cent—seven per cent more than prices? [end p57]
We promise to protect the pensioner against rising prices for the next Parliament too. And in future, when the pension is increased each year, it will be increased by the amount by which prices have actually risen—and not by the forecast of inflation, because those forecasts have been wrong in five out of the last seven years. [end p58]
Mr Chairman, I make another pledge tonight. We will protect the pensioner. And we will maintain the National Health Service in the future as we always have in the past.
You don't have to take my word for it. Look at the facts.
Four years ago when we came to power, Britain was spending seven and three-quarter thousand million pounds on the National Health Service. [end p59]
This year, we're spending fifteen and a half thousand million. That's more than double the amount spent by Labour. And even after you've allowed for rising prices, that's a real increase of seventeen per cent.
Did you know that there are —56,000 more nurses and midwives in Great Britain —7,000 more doctors and dentists —2 million more patients treated than under Labour. [end p60]
These are the answers to Labour's silly scare that the Conservatives would dismantle the NHS. They tried the scare last time. It didn't work then.
They're trying it again on the doorsteps and at the press conferences.
Mr Chairman, its contemptible, cruel and callous, deliberately to alarm and distress the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens. [end p61]
But it won't work this time, either. Because the scare cannot stand up against the facts. Of course, that doesn't worry the Labour Party. They prefer fantasies. I recall the words of Sir James Barrie, the author of Peter Pan: “Facts were never pleasant to him. He acquired them with reluctance and got rid of them with relief. He was never on terms with them until he had stood them on their heads” . [end p62]
Does that remind you of anyone?
Mr Chairman, I've said it before and I'll say it again, and I'll go on saying it until the message sinks in.
“I have no more intention of dismantling the National Health Service than I have of dismantling Britain's defences” . [end p63]
6 THE DEFENCE OF BRITAIN
Mr Chairman, the strength of NATO has kept the peace in Europe for nearly forty years.
In Europe, the nuclear balance has brought peace, not at the expense of freedom, but peace with freedom and justice.
Its a balance that spells security for all of us. It is the greatest prize of all. We must not put it at risk. [end p64]
This government has strengthened our defences. We have kept our NATO commitments. We shall continue to keep them.
We negotiate from strength to try to make disarmament on both sides a reality, both for nuclear and for conventional weapons.
But we negotiate together with our allies, as a reliable partner and a nation to be trusted. [end p65] Unlike the Labour Party, we do not propose to destroy the unity of the Western Alliance with dangerous gestures of one-sided disarmament.
At Williamsburg last weekend, the seven great industrial nations of the West stood together. Different countries with very different governments, but sharing the belief that those things which unite us are far greater than any which divide us. [end p66]
Together we committed ourselves to pursue with impetus and urgency all the disarmament negotiations upon which we are now engaged: on strategic weapons; on the intermediate-range nuclear missiles; on chemical weapons; and on the reduction of forces in Central Europe.
Let me read to you the last two paragraphs of the statement which was agreed by every one of us—Socialist France, Christian Democrat Germany, Liberal Canada, Republican America, and Conservative Britain: [end p67] “Our nations are united in efforts for arms reductions and will continue to carry out thorough and intensive consultations. The security of our countries is indivisible and must be approached on a global basis” . “We commit ourselves to devote our full political resources to reducing the threat of war. We have a vision of the world in which the shadow of war has been lifted from all mankind, and we are determined to pursue that vision” . [end p68]
That is the unity which a Labour Government would shatter. That is the vision which Labour's one-sided disarmament would destroy. That is the peace with which the Labour Party would gamble. [end p69]
THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
Mr Chairman, I have offered six reasons for voting Conservative. Six reasons why we believe that our programme represents the wishes and aspirations of the majority of people in this country. Six reasons why we must work every hour between now and polling day.
But there is one reason more. That reason is that this Government has the character to stick to this programme, and carry it through to success. [end p70]
There are no escape clauses; no small print in our policies. We say what we mean, and we mean what we say.
For it is not enough to start off with the right programme.
We must have the tenacity to see it through.
This Government will not let the British people down. [end p71]
We shall uphold the right and protect the weak. We shall encourage talent, enterprise and ability wherever they are found.
We shall maintain with unswerving dedication the traditions of justice and liberty which are at once the heritage and spirit of Britain.
It's a free country. We shall keep it free.