Mrs T sees (green) light

Environmental issues featured high in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's address to the Tory faithful in Finchley.

Suitably dressed in green, Mrs Thatcher gave a speech touching on everything from ozone-friendly refrigerators to litter, at the annual meeting of Finchley and Friern Barnet Conservative Association in St Mary's church hall, Hendon Lane.

The standard of living was higher than ever, but people should pay attention to their surroundings, she said on Monday last week.

“Now we are turning money and our policies directly to looking at the quality of life,” she said.

She praised the government's record on tackling pollution and promoting green issues, but part of the responsibility lay with the public.

“When people talk about the environment, I do wish they would stop dropping litter. You know the environment is something we are all involved in and it would make an enormous difference if we were a little more careful,” she said.

Mrs Thatcher also stressed her commitment to the NHS, while defending plans to give doctors and hospitals the choice of controlling their own budgets.

“There is no question of privatising the National Health Service. We do not want to and it could not be done,” she said.

The chance for schools to opt out, better East-West relations, and encouraging a strong European community while safeguarding national identity, would all improve the quality of life, she said

But Mrs Thatcher was worried by increases in violent crime. And she admitted inflation was a concern, while promising high interest rates would curb borrowing and bring the level down.

The evening could not have passed without a mention of Mrs Thatcher's new status as a grandma. A bunch of flowers was on its way to the new mother from the association. [end p1]

World is ‘safe in PM's hands’

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was told: “The world is safe in your hands,” when she attended Finchley Conservatives' annual meeting.

The chairman and branch president Frank Gibson paid tribute to Mrs Thatcher in her 10th year as Prime Minister and in her 30th year as an MP.

Praising her for tackling major environmental problems, Mr. Gibson said: “To coin a phrase Prime Minister, we feel the world is safe in your hands.”

Mrs Thatcher warned: “The environment is something we are all involved in.”

One of the holes in the ozone layer was the size of the United States, and it lay over the South Pole.

Concerns over the ozone layer problem had prompted a meeting of 118 countries in London last week, Mrs Thatcher added.

“This is now so serious that some of the chemicals we are using, which were invented in the 1930s and were valuable at the time, are doing untold damage, especially chlorine.

“We should all be using ozone-friendly aerosols,” she declared.

She also said that scientists now classified 90 per cent of rivers in Britain as good quality or fair.

Defending the privatisation of water by her government. Mrs Thatcher said one-quarter of British water had always been privatised, and that further privatisation under the Water Bill made it the “biggest environmental Bill ever” .

This was because the National Rivers Authority, to be set up under the legislation, would mean that for the first time a central body would have control over water quality and prices.