My Lord Chairman, my Lady Mayor, Professor Ashworth, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First, I was delighted to be asked to come to Wigan Pier, even more delighted to come to this mill, to know that it is being restored; partly used still for its old purpose, and partly for this new purpose.
These mills have a profile that is the same all over the world. Wherever you see it you know that there was once a very lively textile community and that reminds one immediately that where there was a textile community there was a very powerful community spirit; there was a very wholesome way of life, that people knew one another, cared about one another and they had their own standards which they seemed to be able to penetrate through the whole of life in the area.
So those were two reasons: First, to Wigan Pier; and then to this, the refurbishment of this lovely mill; and third, for a cause which is really very much needed now.
You reminded us my Lord Chairman of many things. First, I must say, you reminded us that you are Welsh and you always remind us English! The Welsh and the Scots get everywhere [end p1] and they always proclaim that they are Welsh and that they are Scots. I think I am going to state and proclaim that I am English! You know, we are underestimated, we are underestimated. We are quite remarkable, tolerant, wonderful people and we are glad to have a Welshman among us, several Welshmen and a Scot. Are there any Irish here? Right—it is the whole that makes up the United Kingdom.
You reminded us, really, of the beginning when the Group was (when it was in Brighton) called Keep Britain Tidy. I know when I was Secretary of State for Education how much work you did in schools and yet we haven't got Britain tidy. Indeed it is very untidy compared with some continental neighbours and I remember when I went to some Canadian cities to the Economic Summit, the first thing that I noticed was how beautiful and tidy and minus graffiti the cities were. Now the fact is, that when there is a lot of litter down, you notice the litter. You don't notice the beauty of the buildings, you don't notice the beauty of the countryside, you notice the litter.
And you are making renewed efforts to get rid of this. Now we are also, in government, making tremendous efforts because there is not much point in talking a lot about the great global environment, about the pollution of the air, unless we do what we can about the immediate environment of the streets and the countryside and keeping that clean.
So we are bringing in new powers; so if for example local authorities don't keep the place clean then a citizen can take them to court. But it's not fair to bring in those powers (and I am very conscious that the Lady Mayor is with [end p2] us today) unless each of us determines that we will not throw down the litter.
Because, to give extra powers to the local authority and to the rate payers will mean extra costs and that comes to be bourne by the rate payer and the community charge payer and the tax payer. If we want these costs diminished, we will, as individuals, as schools, as groups, as companies, have to see that we clean up our own litter so that its not a task for the local authority.
Now, of course, they are very different days than what they were many years ago. There is much more packaging about, far more packaging than there used to be. (If I might say so, I sometimes think too much). I buy things for what's in the packaging not for the packaging, which I tear off and put in the waste-paper basket to be carefully wrapped up and then go to be disposed of. And I think perhaps there is too much packaging; Christmas is different, but too much packaging and it is too easily thrown away. And then again it is made of materials which did not exist in my youth. Some plastic materials (and you know they blow about, you see, everywhere) and they are everlasting these plastics.
There are now bio-degradable plastics but even so, unless you pick them up immediately and dispose of them, you find that they are everlastingly blown about and its very difficult to get rid of them. And that really requires an even greater effort than we ever had to make before. Now I think that the children are now very interested in this, and I learn from what you are doing that you are getting great cooperation from them. [end p3]
But the first thing to keep Britain tidy is, “Do not throw your litter down” . Wrap it up and take it home and dispose of it yourself. And the second thing is, “Do not disfigure the walls with graffiti” . It gives the local authority a terrific job and it makes our reputation as a country very low indeed. When you go and see property well maintained, the streets clean, and anyone that has a shop seeing full well that the pavement in the front of it is well looked—after and not littered, that is a great improvement and we have got to bring that about.
This isn't really just tidying up Britain, it is beautifying Britain and really releasing the many beauties of which we are all proud—lovely buildings, a marvellous heritage, a beautiful country.
And so we are bringing in new bills, new powers and I hope they will be successful. But point number one: it is an offence to drop litter; a criminal offence. The police haven't had perhaps so much time as they would have liked to have watched and to have taken people to court. Well now, the offence is going to be punishable with a fine of £1000 and I notice that one of the schemes which the Keep Britain Tidy Group, (Oh dear, dear, dear, the Tidy Britain Group—the tidy is the important point, action is the important point.) But one of the pilot schemes you had was in a place where the police deliberately, consciously operated the powers under that act, very intensively for a month and what a difference it made.
So it is for us and for the various groups. Now the [end p4] important thing about this Group is, it is always looking forward; the designs are good, the posters are snappy the message is good and it is good to be up-to-date because unless it is, it won't get over.
And we are now going to launch the third stage of the excellent work of this Group, which is ‘People and Places’ which is what people do, and what they can do and the places which they visit, whether they are beauty spots, whether they are towns, whether they are villages, whether they are homes, whether it is shopping. ‘People and Places’ and they have done twenty-seven excellent pilot projects because it is not just enough to exhort people.
If you've got a problem you have got to take teams together to work at it to get the best results. They have had these twenty-seven pilot projects in all sorts of different circumstances; they know if you've got a problem the sort of management team you want to go in to deal with it. They know what groups to get interested, they know how to motivate children, they know how to train people, they know the very best and latest equipment, they know the posters which in fact capture peoples imagination, they know how to get awareness.
So we've done the classic scientific thing. (I am a scientist by profession). We have done the experiments, we have looked at the results and now we are writing papers and spreading what we know about the whole community.
So that is this phase of ‘People and Places’. We have a management course, we have far too many applications for [end p5] the places we have got, but it will be pursued very very vigorously. So we have come from the first stage, through the ‘Clean Nineties’ programme, and we are now going to ‘People and Places’ and it will be pursued vigorously.
And let us hope that within a few years into the 1990s that we shall be able to say that Britain is one of the tidiest, cleanest places in Europe and we can all be so proud of it, because then it will show up our lovely heritage, both in towns and countryside. And our really rather marvellous heritage of people. (It is just that they have one or two little faults that must be cured!)
But they've really been very nice indeed and it is very good that we are launching this in the north because we southerners, we are quite the most down-trodden people! If anyone comes from the north they are shrewd, they are knowledgeable, they are good businessmen, and my goodness me, they can make things happen. And we southerners, well we just take it all! Well, we are one country.
So it is a great pleasure to me to launch ‘People and Places’ and to open this building which is both part of our heritage, part of our contemporary life and which is going to do a fantastic job for the future.
Thank you.