Your leading article on my visit to Madrid this week noted that, contrary to expectations, I had escaped a “beheading” and—I quote— “returned remarkably unscathed” .
Of course. As you can see. [end p1]
And as the House of Commons has just discovered, for I have come here to open Ludgate House from reporting on the very satisfactory outcome of the European Council.
This is not the first new Headquarters of a national newspaper group I have opened in recent years. [end p2]
The quite remarkable scattering of Fleet Street around the Thames has provided me with quite a bit of extra work.
It is a task I am delighted to take on because this diaspora flows from the industry's new profitability. And that in turn springs from this Government's labour legislation and your ability to use modern production technology. [end p3]
It makes me very happy to be a part of your prosperity.
Ludgate House, housing the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star and United Newspapers & United Publications, is testimony to the regeneration under the Government I lead of the national newspaper industry. [end p4]
It is also a new chapter in the long evolution of the Thames.
In its time this site has been a moated manor, a theatre of the most unsavoury reputation, an unspeakably lucrative bull and bear baiting pit, a haunt of the famous and professionally infamous, and more latterly—until two years ago precisely—a neglected mud heap. [end p5]
And for years trains bound for St Petersburg, Vienna, Constantinople and Rome traversed its length.
Now you send out from here reporters to the ends of the earth to cover the momentous events of our times. [end p6]
Sometimes they will travel with me. Long may they send back dispatches which inspire headlines like yesterday's— “Maggie pulls it off” .
I intend to give you plenty of opportunities.
For there is a great deal to be pulled off in just one part of the world today—namely Europe. [end p7]
I recognise—and sympathise with—the aspiration, especially among our young people, to be a part of a dynamic, resurgent Europe.
The argument about whether we should be in or out of Europe is dead. And I think I can claim, more than most, to have killed it. [end p8]
Indeed, I think my Ministerial colleagues and I can reasonably argue that we have been instrumental in bringing the European Community to the springboard on which it finds itself today.
We ended the British grievance over its contribution to the Community. [end p9]
We paved the way for a Common Fisheries Policy.
We brought the excesses of the Common Agriculture Policy under control. And thereby rescued the Community from impending bankruptcy.
We have played a major part in getting a common European approach to world crises and issues. [end p10]
We supply a lot of the drive behind the single internal market which holds out such opportunities for British commerce and industry.
And now, as a result of our success in Madrid this week, we have opened up the whole argument about the future development of the European Community.
What kind of Europe is it to be? [end p11] I have no doubt. Nor do I think there are any doubts in Ludgate House.
It is a free trading Europe not a fortress Europe.
It is a fully competitive Europe not a bureaucratically bogged down and burdened Europe. [end p12]
It is a Europe rich in its diversity of language, custom and traditions with its member States doing together what we can better do as a team rather than individually.
And it is a prosperous, outward looking, reliable and just Europe playing a formidable role in search of a better, cleaner and safer world. [end p13]
Among so many friends here today I seek your support, in your new home, in pursuing that kind of vision which I know you share.
It therefore gives me great pleasure to open Ludgate House, the new Headquarters of Express and United Newspapers. [end p14]
To wish every success for your distinguished titles and your operations.
And I wish you well in bringing a new dynamism to this historic part of London.