1993 -
Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech to the 1993 Welsh Conservative Party Conference, held on 11th June 1993
PRIME MINISTER:
I had hoped to be here a little earlier to join you for lunch and to have the opportunity of meeting a number of you, but I was a little delayed by the weather as well. I’m very sorry about that, but I’m much more concerned about the people who've suffered as a result of the weather. They've suffered a great deal more than inconvenience, the need for evacuation, many people whose homes have been damaged in the floods on the North coast. I’m delighted that Wyn has already been there and delighted that John and Wyn will be returning later on today. I've asked them to give me the fullest possible report of the damage that has been caused. But I would like to express my sympathy to everyone who has faced these particular difficulties over the last few hours and also my congratulations to the emergency services. They've acted swiftly, they've acted efficiently and I believe they deserve our thanks for everything that they've done.
Before I turn to domestic matters, I just want to say a word or two about something happening in the last few hours in Bosnia. Many of you will know, all of you will know, for many months now British troops have been in Bosnia helping and protecting convoys in a most remarkable way. As a result of the work of those troops in Bosnia, many thousands of people are alive who otherwise would not have survived the last winter. It has been a superb performance by the British troops who've been there.
Yesterday, as you know, they were involved in some incidents when a convoy they were
supporting was attacked. The British troops, rightly in my view, responded in self-
The recent incidents we've seen may, may be relatively isolated, but I have to say
to you that there is now increasing evidence of widespread deterioration on the ground.
We have contingency measures in hand to protect our troops in Bosnia and to ensure
their reinforcement if that should prove to be necessary. Yesterday, we announced
further measures to supplement them. There have been long-
Madam Chairman, it’s always fun to be back in Wales. I dare say that sounds to you
like an all-
And let me just say a quick word about Welsh secretaries of state. David Hunt succeeded by John Redwood. Superlative performance succeeded by superlative promise. Achievements for Wales to be followed by further achievement for Wales. John Redwood is here to fight the corner for the principality and I can tell you from my experience of him in Government he will fight it very hard, very often and very fiercely. You will have a very good champion.
It’s possible, communications being what they are, that you may not have heard that
the Cabinet changes involved the odd scratch. This move in Wales was oil-
There was a time when you could have pushed Wales to one side, as though it was just
there on the side of England, but you certainly can’t do that any longer and no one
would wish it. Since 1979, on average, every year there’s been 1,500 new businesses
a year, 1,000 new inward investment projects -
They could have gone anywhere, they could have gone anywhere in the European Community
and established themselves to do future business. But they came here. They choose
of their volition to come here and establish themselves in Wales and they did so
I believe for two overwhelming reasons. Firstly, because of the skills that are available
in Wales and the attractive quality of life that they can find here. And, secondly,
because of those Conservatives that made it attractive for overseas investment to
come to the United Kingdom rather than other countries in the European Community.
That combination -
And Wales has benefited, as well as the rest of the United Kingdom, from that. Of
course it hasn't always been apparent to everyone. Not everyone has always taken
the long-
But, what has happened? What has happened to those people they said would never work
again after the Shotten steelworks closed down? What actually happened has been dramatic
and it shows the qualities and the opportunities that exist in Wales. What has happened
is that a realistic Shotten has come through, it’s come alive, it competes and it
lives on its own energies – a living competitor, not a tax-
The fact is that Labour just took the short-
Have they changed? Our opponents? Have they, hell. Cardiff Bay barrage. Now you've
had the Labour resistance to the Cardiff Bay barrage. Here is a great development,
a development that will do immense good for the future and so it must, by some Labour
MPs, it must be stopped. A remarkable development opposed by unremarkable, bone-
And it’s no good the leadership walking on the other side of the road and washing their hands of it. They have done nothing, nothing to restrain these Labour MPs holding back this moment and I think I can understand why. Up there in Scotland where the Labour leadership lives, they can’t see the importance of investment here in Wales; but we can. Here, here in the principality and may it always be a principality, people are proud of being Welsh and they’re right to be proud of it. Few political ideas have been worse served by politicians in this century than the idea of nationalism. I’m unapologetic about it. I am a nationalist, a British nationalist. Any leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party could be no other.
Disraeli used to say that our party was a national party or it was nothing and, to understand what it means to be a Conservative, you must first understand what it means to be a nationalist. A true nationalist doesn't need to prove himself by exaggerated histrionics, doesn't need to promote himself by wrapping himself in a flag and offering a cheap imitation of what nationalism really means. Those people are offering symbols, they’re not substance. Put them aside and ignore them. Nations are made up of people; the true nationalist, the true nationalist wants those people to live at ease with themselves, confident, secure, able to reach out themselves, to reach and touch and achieve their own individual ambitions. His isn't a sectional interest. He wants to build a society where every single citizen, wherever they may have started from, rejoices in their own common birthright, in their own country that they love.
And to do that, we must understand what it is that people actually want, what their
ambitions are, what their hopes are for themselves and their families. They have
their place, no doubt, but go out into the housing estates of Cardiff or Peterborough,
or Birmingham, or Leeds and Glasgow. Go into the living room of the three-
I will tell you what the answer is I believe you will consistently get, whether in
Wales or Scotland or any of the regions of England. First and foremost, they want
jobs that allow men and women to provide for themselves and their families. Jobs
that give them independence and self-
And yet we Conservatives, we Conservatives care for those fundamental securities
above all else, so we have a task on hand. We must convey that message that we understand
and care about those fundamental matters right back to the British people in every
part of the United Kingdom. Nothing’s more important, nothing is more pressing, so
let me just pass this message to everyone who wishes the Conservative Party well.
No diversions, no squabbles, let’s get on with that job of passing back that message
and then we will have the self-
But our people are ambitious. They want a good deal more than what I've just set out in the last few minutes and they’re right to do that. They want with every justification, in my view, to feel safe at home and safe on the street. And they want to feel that the nation to which they belong can hold up its head in the world, play its part in the world and be a force in the world. I believe those are the instincts and the ambitions of the people who elected us and of millions of others who did not vote for us at the last occasion but share those same basic, patriotic instincts. We have no particular control over patriotism. It stretches across all parties, and I freely, I freely acknowledge that.
But those are the ambitions of the people who did elect us. And they are also the
ambitions that we have as a Party for the people of this country of all parties.
And it is our task in Government to find ways of enabling those ambitions to be met.
So how do we do it? If the 1980s taught us nothing else, and in fact it taught us
a great deal, it was a very remarkable decade. But if it had taught us nothing else,
it did teach us one vital lesson. You cannot spend what you haven’t earned. There’s
not the slightest point in arguing about spending priorities until you have first
addressed the question of how you pay for whatever it is that you want. And so all
social policy must begin with economic policy. And all economic policy must begin
with sound money. Our commitment as a Party instinctively, an instinctive commitment,
our commitment to sound money, to keeping inflation down isn't for us an abstraction,
a by-
The last two years have been cruelly difficult, I know, for many people. We came
from a boom in the late 1980s and into a recession. The boom spiralled above anything
we had imagined and the recession lasted longer and was deeper than we anticipated.
So it’s been a long period, a painful period, but as we emerge from that recession
and as we lift our eyes and look beyond our own shore, we see that our problems are
not just in this country. As we emerge from recession, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal.
Japan, even the United States all have to one degree or another, and in some cases
very seriously, economic difficulties. And I have to say, Madam Chairman, some of
their leaders -
There’s a novelty for a politician. We here are out of recession. Inflation is now at under one and a half per cent. Interest rates are at 6%. The exchange rate is extremely competitive. Our exports are growing and our business opportunities are ahead. Now is the time to lift our prospects, lift our hearts and take the opportunities that lie immediately in front of us. And if we’re to take them, we have to do so in partnership with business, for it is private enterprise that we Conservatives look to generate the growth we want to see. It cannot be done in Whitehall by politicians and it cannot be done in Whitehall by bureaucrats. So let’s be quite clear about that. It’s not we politicians who create jobs. It is successful businesses providing what people are prepared to purchase that actually provide jobs in this country.
Key decisions aren't taken by a few politicians in Whitehall, They’re taken every single day by millions of individual people, deciding firstly that they'll spend their money and secondly in deciding on which goods and which services they’re prepared to buy. Now, our relationship as a Government is changing with business. And it is right in my view that it should change. If we look back with that 20/20 vision that we can all have with hindsight and we've seen a bit of that from time to time, if we look back with 20/20 vision at the ‘60s and ‘70s, I think it is clear in retrospect that governments were too keen to tell business what to do, to make their decisions for them, to decide where they should invest and how. To pick the right winners in Whitehall rather than let them win in the marketplace. We learnt it didn't work.
And then in the 1980s, I think as we look back in the 1980s, it is clear in retrospect
that perhaps we were just a touch too laissez-
But we in Government, perhaps should take every opportunity to smooth the way for
our businesses to build the success and the prosperity we wish them to achieve. And
there’s much we can do to achieve this, to set on course the right economic environment,
a consistent low level of inflation and all the economic things that follow that.
To make the supply-
For the Government to use its political muscle for British contracts abroad. When our ministers go abroad, I want them, whenever they can, to take trade missions with them. Trade missions to fight to sell British goods abroad and to attract investment from abroad into this haven of European investment as M Delors so kindly put it for us. Not all his comments are always so helpful. Ministers in the Welsh Office have led the way in taking trade missions abroad and you have seen the results here. And I know the plans that John and Wyn and William have for the future. They will be in Wales most of the time, indeed most of the time and may occasionally visit the House of Commons in between.
They will be taking the Welsh case abroad and bringing foreign investment to Wales. And then we must use our political muscle to lobby politically for our great British companies and we must make sure that the changing attitude in our foreign representation at embassies and elsewhere continues. I want our embassies to be as concerned about trade as they are about cocktail parties and diplomacy.
And we must make sure that we don’t put our British firms at a competitive disadvantage. That is why there have been the very remarkable changes in export credit cover, both the breadth of it and also the cost of it, over recent months so British firms can compete fairly with their European and other competitors. The growth in export promotion services and other ideas that are coming through at present. And then of course there’s the Government’s role to provide the right infrastructure for business. This isn't just a question of huge taxation and huge Government expenditure. That has its part but we are unlikely to deliver the infrastructure that business would truly like simply through taxation on companies and on individuals.
And so we’re going back to our basic instincts. Who built the great canals and many
of the railways in the first place? It was the private sector. There’s nothing novel
about that, it’s just a post-
And then in the interest of this growing business and jobs and prosperity, we need to oppose unnecessary social costs upon our great and small companies in this country. Whenever anyone mentions the Social Charter, you can see a socialist quiver. “Social Charter sounds good, we better have a slice of that.” But they don’t read what it is. Sounds very amiable The Social Charter is a job destruction programme for the European Community, European employers get extra costs, their goods become less competitive and the United States, the Pacific Basin and Japan get the orders and get the jobs. The only right that workers get out of it is the right to be out of work while Brussels politicians decide that they will provide extra socialist systems.
That’s not a bargain -
Of course I don’t expect the Labour Party to understand that. Mr Smith in auto reflex
action regards it as demeaning for Britain to proclaim our lower costs. What a fatuous
comment! Can you imagine selling your house -
But if pronouncing that lower costs is what we’re after is a bad thing, it does raise
an interesting question. What would he like? Higher costs? Higher costs -
Success for us these days -
And let me say this to you, Madam Chairman. If in the decade of Conservative governments
still to come, if we build everywhere as we have built in Wales, with jobs, with
productivity and with exports in mind, we shall build to last. And all the questions
that need addressing about this country are long term questions and so the answers
need to be long term answers. And one of those answers, I believe, is that new arm-
Madam Chairman, one thing business knows is that we have no choice but to control public spending and restrain taxes. And when I say that I know what will happen when I say that, know that the Labour Party will immediately jump around. Mr Gordon Brown will issue a press release. He'll tell us that this proves that all his scare stories were right. He'll undoubtedly demand a parliamentary statement. He will tell us things are terrible and they’re getting worse. You know, I can’t think why, but it reminds me of a toy that my son had when he was very small, many years ago; it was a small, a small Action Man toy that was on a little string. And when you pulled the string, this little Action Man uttered a few predictable sentences. I don’t actually recall whether he asked for a parliamentary statement or not but, thankfully, I do recall that when the string broke he went silent, so all is not lost.
So, we must control public spending and restrain taxes. That’s not just a populist
cry for lower taxes. We know we must restrain public expenditure, not because we’re
opposed to public expenditure per se, but because we’re bound by the laws of arithmetic.
You can’t spend what you’re not prepared to finance from either taxes or borrowing.
And I hope there is no doubt in anyone’s mind we’re not prepared to see an ever-
At present, we have a very large deficit, much larger than we would wish it to be
at around 50 billion. And people say, “how”? Tory deficit, the opponents of our party
call it. How has it happened, we had a surplus three or four years ago? Yes, we did.
We had a surplus on the back of an unsustainable boom with all the tax revenues that
helped put our finances into surplus. But the flip side of boom is recession and
the flip side of surplus is deficit and we must now rid ourselves of the deficit.
Seventy per cent, or thereabouts, one can never be entirely precise about the figures,
but as close as we can get, around 70% of the deficit is cyclical. By that I mean,
stripping away the jargon, it is the effect of recession the fact that we have a
tower tax revenue -
That will, over time, reverse itself, but there are other more fundamental reasons for the deficit as well. There are demographic changes, more thankfully as a result of the work done by the Health Service, not least by Norman Fowler who was Secretary of State for many years in that crucially difficult job. Our Health Service is better than ever it has been before.
And I may say, those people who said otherwise at the Monmouth by-
[small section of speech missing]
Madam Chairman, over the last few months, there has been something of a rumpus about education. We have been very heavily abused from many sides on the subject of testing, cardboard images have been set up. On one side there are the professionals, dedicated teachers serving the nation and, on the other side in this cardboard image, an intruding old Government interfering, bossy and setting irrelevant tests to interfere with the peaceful life our children have at schools. And our critics, including the Labour leader, are devoted to that cardboard image. I can't think why he had such an affinity for cardboard images. But what he doesn't have and what our critics don’t have, is a criticism of the performance of much of our education system. And let me be blunt, we should have a criticism of the performance of much of our education system because the reality is, I am sad to tell you, that one in four of our children leave secondary education and can’t read properly, can’t write properly and are not competent in grammar. And what are they going to do? They can’t all be Prime Minister. I’d better tell the press, that was a joke. But I bet it turns up in more columns than you've had hot dinners this year.
But that education outcome, that fails our children. Many of our teachers are excellent
and I have a great admiration for them, but they aren't all excellent. There’s a
choking [indistinct] of educationalists, a theory that despises grammar, looks down
on vocabulary and derides the well-
I'll never forget, I'll never forget a male teacher in a TV documentary and he was holding up a page of paper and it had blots and words and every fifth letter was spelt the wrong way round. “That’s pretty good,” he said. “That boy’s trying to tell us something.” Too true, he was. He was trying to tell us, poor lad, that he hadn't been well taught, that he’d been let down by his school, that he was another victim of theorising educationalists in a mission for search and destroy, he was trying to tell us that his future would be less adequate than it would have been if he’d really been taught to read and write and add up and emerge from school with good qualities and with good manners.
So whatever our problems in promoting John Patten’s brave policies – and they are
the Government’s policies -
So, let us hope we soon get out of this impasse and back to a sensible approach,
working as we wish to with the very best of the education profession. That is our
aim and I think that is our responsibility and their responsibility in the interest
of the children who are our joint charges as they go through school. And I hope the
unions will give up their opposition, that they apparently at the moment want the
Government to congratulate inadequacy and garland mediocrity. Well, we can’t do it
and we won’t. All John Patten and I want to know -
I know we've been pushing against a great settled glacier of trade unionist conformist mind, an attitude that despises evidence about educational problems, the way it despises most evidence and most knowledge. Knowledge, they seem to think, is bourgeois. Well, Madam Chairman, I define the task and I tell you, big and menacing as it is, we will not give up on this issue. As they used to say on the Left, the struggle continues and for us it will in the interests of our children.
Madam Chairman, our party’s policies address directly the problems that matter to
everyday lives. Always have done. That’s why our party has won and won and won again,
because our instincts flow from the innermost instincts of the majority of the British
people. We are there in Government to help people meet their ambitions. It has been
a difficult year. But that’s yesterday; it’s gone. We've learned from that and we've
moved on. We’re working for what we believe in -