PRIME MINISTER
(VISITS)
Q1. Mr. Beith
asked the Prime Minister whether he has any plans to pay an official visit to Luxembourg.
The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)
I shall be visiting Luxembourg on 1st and 2nd April for the next meeting of the European Council, Sir.
Mr. Beith
Will the Prime Minister try during his visit to form some impression of the standing amongst our Common Market partners of our delegation to the European Parliament if we choose to elect that delegation by a system which could succeed in electing no Northern Ireland Catholics, no Welsh Conservatives, no Labour Members from Scotland, no Liberals and very few more Members from the Government party than Luxembourg itself has?
The Prime Minister
My colleagues at the European Council do not concern themselves very much with the troubles of the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) and his party. However, they take very seriously our statement about direct elections. We have published a Green Paper on this subject which will be debated in the House in the reasonably near future.
Mrs. Dunwoody
Does not my right hon. Friend feel that it might be a good idea if the House were given an opportunity through Mr. Speaker's Conference to consider the implications of direct elections before any formal decision was taken to go ahead with the debates in 1978?
The Prime Minister
The Government have made a statement on this matter and there was a reservation for Britain, although the Green Paper shows that we [column 1531]should like to make progress in this matter. However, all these suggestions can be raised in the forthcoming debate on the Green Paper.
Mr. Tebbit
Is the Prime Minister aware that when he is in Luxembourg he will be in the only country in the European Community which has had a higher rate of increase in unemployment than Great Britain over the past 12 months? As Luxembourg's unemployment is about 600, is the right hon. Gentleman further aware that he cannot take much comfort from that?
The Prime Minister
No, Sir. The hon. Member cannot take comfort from erroneous facts.
Q2. Mr. Adley
asked the Prime Minister if he will pay an official visit to Ferrybridge.
The Prime Minister
I have at present no plans to do so, Sir.
Mr. Adley
Will the Prime Minister please explain to the Ferrybridge Six why his Government's legislation denies them the personal freedom referred to on page 12 of his party's February 1974 manifesto? Is he aware that the coercion to which they are being subjected is a classic example of the reason why Lord George-Brown has resigned from the Labour Party?
The Prime Minister
I think that would be a very improbable explanation. However, with regard to Ferrybridge, I point out that the matters in question have been debated in another place and are sure to come back here, where they will be given further consideration. I think that the debate is the right place for making the type of points which the hon. Gentleman has made. However, since the right hon. Lady the Leader of the Opposition has now, I understand, dropped a glove in the direction of the trade unions, no doubt when they pick it up she will be able to discuss the matter with them.
Dr. Edmund Marshall
May I assure my right hon. Friend that the affairs of these workers are receiving full attention? Is he aware that if he visits Ferrybridge, which is in my constituency, he will be assured of an affectionate welcome from the local people, who are hardworking and level-headed—as one would expect in [column 1532]Yorkshire—and who do not need any interference in their affairs from Conservative Members?
The Prime Minister
I very much agree with my hon. Friend's last few words. I have noticed how some Conservatives want to spend their time talking about any constituency but their own.
Mrs. Thatcher
As the Ferrybridge case refers to the rights of the individual where there is a closed shop, may I ask Harold Wilsonthe Prime Minister about a closely-related case close to Ferrybridge? Does the Prime Minister approve of the action of the Barnsley branch of the NUJ, which is urging the local town council to refuse to give Press information to anyone who is not a member of the NUJ?
The Prime Minister
The answer is “No” , and that is not the first time I have said it. There is no ministerial responsibility for the NUJ.
Mrs. Thatcher
The Prime Minister has ministerial responsibility to ensure the freedom of the Press and a free flow of information from a directly-elected body to the public. If the answer is as he says, will he ensure that there is a proper provision for the freedom of the Press in another place before that Bill comes back to us?
The Prime Minister
That is a totally different question as the right hon. Lady will find out when she starts to understand these things as a result of her long-awaited colloquy with the TUC. We are delighted to see that she is dropping everything she has ever voted for in this Parliament and the last. These are, however, important questions and I share her concern about them.
Q3. Mr. James Lamond
asked the Prime Minister if he has any plans to visit the Far East.
The Prime Minister
I have no immediate plans to do so, Sir.
Mr. Lamond
Is my right hon. Friend aware that since the EEC textile agreement was implemented on 18th July, Hong Kong manufacturers have been evading these quotas by channeling many millions of pounds worth of textiles through the Phillipines and Indonesia, which countries have no quotas, thus [column 1533]evading the whole spirit of the EEC agreement? Will my right hon. Friend do something about this matter?
The Prime Minister
Not only the EEC but the GATT Multi-Fibre Agreement has put restrictions on virtually all sensitive textile and clothing produces from Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia. My hon. Friend is no doubt taking up this matter with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade.
Mr. Pattie
If the Prime Minister visits the Far East, will he consider taking some of his hon. Friends below the gangway with him in order to enable them to broaden their tiny Chinese minds?
PRIME MINISTER (BROADCAST)
Q4. Mr. Ashley
asked the Prime Minister when he next proposes to make a Ministerial broadcast.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Mr. Stanley) on 25th November, Sir.
Mr. Ashley
When my right hon. Friend next broadcasts, will he refer to the warning by Alexander Solzhenitsyn that Western civilisation is in danger of collapse to appeasement? Will he tell the nation that we intend to maintain the strongest possible defence policy in concert with our allies, but that nevertheless we do not propose to be panicked into deserting the détente?
The Prime Minister
I think that my hon. Friend has got this absolutely right. My hon. Friend asks whether I will give a ministerial broadcast about Dr. Solzhenitsyn. I appealed on television to the Soviet Union for his release to this country. As for the question of Western solidarity, my hon. Friend is right about NATO. I believe that it is more closely knit now than at any time in my experience. So, too, is the relationship between this country and the United States, and the same applies to the cohesion on these important matters within the members of the Community.
Mr. Blaker
When the Prime Minister makes the broadcast does he expect, for a change, to rise to the level of Solzhenitsyn?
[column 1534]The Prime Minister
Yes. There are many people on both sides of the House who pleaded for the release of Dr. Solzhensityn. What he says about what is happening within the Soviet Union must be taken seriously, but I would not necessarily agree, for the reasons I have given, with what he says about Western arrangements, whether on defence or integration of foreign policy.
Mr. Ford
When my right hon. Friend next makes a ministerial broadcast, will he choose that occasion to make an announcement of selective import controls applying to cheap imports from State trading countries? If the Government feel that they cannot make quota allocations, will my right hon. Friend at least oblige importers to prove that they are not dealing in dumped garments?
The Prime Minister
We have taken action on certain State trading countries in East Europe. I was as concerned as my hon. Friend about reports about very cheap suits coming from East Germany, a move which would very much affect my hon. Friend's constituency. But on examination I have found that none is coming into this country.
ECONOMIC POLICY (PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECHES)
Q5. Mr. Norman Lamont
asked the Prime Minister whether he will place in the Library a copy of his public speech on economic policy made at the Civil Service Department on 16th February.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesend (Mr. Ovenden) on 2nd March, Sir.
Mr. Lamont
With reference to the Prime Minister's comments on public expenditure, does he not find it alarming that by the end of the decade debt interest will be taking between 25 and 50 per cent. more than the individual programmes on health and education? Even if the Government's cuts are carried out, will not the main effect be to provide more room for consumption, but a redistribution of income to the rentiers of Government securities?
The Prime Minister
I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave [column 1535]to this question on Tuesday. According to the Financial Times, we could have avoided all this if we had printed money in the same liberal way as the last Conservative Government, an action which created our inflation.
Mr. Loyden
When are we likely to see the physical dispersal of the Civil Service in accordance with the Hardman Report?
The Prime Minister
We are pressing ahead with this. I discussed the matter with some of my right hon. Friends whose responsibilities are relevant to the question. I note the particular interest of my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Garston (Mr. Loyden) in relation to Merseyside. We intend to fulfil the statement by the Government, who accepted the Hardman Report, which the previous Government refused to do.
Mr. Lawson
Since the speech in question was about economic affairs, will the Prime Minister say how he explains that unemployment in this country has risen more over the past year than in any other Common Market country except Luxembourg? Why did he tell my hon. Friend the Member for Chingford (Mr. Tebbit) that the figures he quoted, which came from a Written Answer from the Department of Employment, were an erroneous fact?
The Prime Minister
This is a question of which periods one takes. [Hon. Members: “Answer the question.” ] If I give a wrong answer, I will be the first to withdraw it, but I should like to study the Written Answer. The increase in unemployment in 1974 was much greater in other European countries. The increase to which the hon. Member fairly referred was for a much later period, because unemployment began to rise here later than in the other countries. If one takes any period from the beginning of the slump, which began under the Government whom the hon. Member supported, one can see that our increase has not been greater than that of other European countries.
Mr. Molloy
Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be far better to make amendments to official policy, so as to get back to work the millions of skilled artisans and working men and women who create the wealth of this country [column 1536]than to feel concern for the Stock Exchange gamblers and the puny merchant bankers who are so well represented on the Conservative Benches?
The Prime Minister
None of this arises out of the speech I made at the Civil Service Department on 16th February which related to the Civil Service. I hope hon. Members in all parts of the House will welcome some of the things I said then. I dealt with the numbers and growth of the Civil Service under successive Governments. If the House decides that there are to be improvements in, for example, disablement benefits or a refinement in tax law in order to secure greater justice or to counter tax avoidance, this means more civil servants.
Mr. Baker
Does not the Prime Minister appreciate that debt interest in the next financial year will be £5,000 million, which is about one-third of the yield of income tax? How does he think many taxpayers will feel when they realise that one-third of their tax is going to pay interest on debts largely run up by this Government?
The Prime Minister
I cannot remember whether the hon. Gentleman was at the Treasury in the last Conservative Government?
Mr. Baker
indicated dissent.
The Prime Minister
Apparently he was not and he has proved his disqualification to be there by his question. I have already answered it when I made clear that we could have avoided this debt interest if we had printed money like water, as did the last Conservative Government.