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Conservative Party Conference Speech 1992
Well it hasn't exactly been a dull week has it? What we have seen has been democracy in action. And this Party is stronger and healthier for it.
Mr President, someone - I forget who it was - said that nothing that's good is ever easy. I'm beginning to know what they meant. Politics is a rough, tough, unpredictable business - and troubles come in bunches. But you have to keep your nerve. And remember that when you come out of the teeth of the gale you're tougher, more battle hardened and the weather is better.
Mr President, in this stormy period, some people seem to have forgotten something rather important. Just six months ago this very day this Conservative Party won the General Election. We did so against all the odds. Everyone said we didn't have a chance. The opinion polls - and in those days people actually believed them! - they were against us. The pundits were against us. They said history was against us. They all got even more egg on their faces than I did. Because they left something out of their calculations. 14 and a half million British people were with us. We got more votes than ever before in any election in the whole of British history.
So why was it that those television exit polls were so wrong? Why didn't the commentators see? Why didn't the experts see? For that matter, why didn't the BBC?
There were two reasons why we won that record level of support. First, it was the principles we all stood for - the principles we stand for still. And second, it was the people who worked for that victory. You. And thousands like you. Who did so much, gave so much, campaigned so hard together. Mr President, there is one lesson we should never forget. When the Conservative Party is united, it is an irresistible political force.
We Conservatives have great hopes and dreams for our country. But to make them reality we must win the battles we care about. Lift our country back into growth. And, in all we do, create the society we want for our children and the future.
But before I turn directly to the great decisions that face us, I'd like to say something about someone not with us today - Chris Patten. We planned the Election in the early days of January. We knew we would go into it behind in the polls - and we were confident we'd come out of it ahead. But we knew, too, that for Chris to run the Election and hold Bath would be desperately difficult.
So it proved. He's a huge loss, not just to us, but to British politics. It was typical of him to decline a by-election, turn down a peerage, and take one of the toughest jobs in the world - as Governor of Hong Kong.
Chris, win for Hong Kong, just as you won for us. And when you come back, come and join us. In Government. Because you'll still be welcome and we'll still be there.
Someone else was a tower of strength through that Election. Norman Fowler. He was always at my side. Always there - with everything from beef burgers to wise advice.
But every time I went out with Norman, something very curious happened. People threw eggs at him. But they kept missing him and hitting me.
There are moments when great truths become evident. And this was one. A man who could duck so fast so often was clearly the right man for Central Office. Norman - it's good to have you back.
But, above all, I must thank someone who is not a politician. Someone to whom my debt is too personal to express fully. She is here today - just as she was on every day of the Election Campaign. I mean of course, Norma.
Her role was even bigger than you may think. If I hadn't met her on April 9th 1970, I might never have picked April 9th 1992. All those oceans of ink guessing the election date! Wasted! If only they'd asked Norma!
Mr President, in all our Conferences there is theatre. You expect to hear us expose our opponent's policies. Expect none of that today. For Labour and the Liberal Democrats are utterly irrelevant. let us leave them on the sidelines - where they are and where they deserve to be. I intend to address myself to the country, the Conference and the Conservative Party.
Mr President, debates over our place in Europe have always touched raw nerves - in our Party and in our country. I don't find that surprising. There are gut issues at stake. Opinions are passionately held. It is right to speak plainly and directly, even if for some it is uncomfortable. People must know exactly what's at stake. The great dangers for our country and - as Douglas Hurd pointed out so graphically on Tuesday - for our Party if we make the wrong choices. And the right choices can only be based on facts. They can never be built on fears.
Of course, emotions run high. We saw that from both sides in the great Conference debate earlier this week.
For many of you, I know, the heart pulls in one direction and the head in another. There is nothing that can stir the heart like the history of this country. It is part of us. Nothing can change that. But it's a different world now.
Our families are growing up in a different age. They know we can't pull up the drawbridge and live in our own private yesterday. They know we live in a world of competition - and we can't just wish it away. Change isn't just coming, it's here. I want Britain to mould that change, to lead that change in our own national interest.
That's what I mean by being at the heart of Europe. Not turning a deaf ear to the heartbeat of Britain. But having the courage to stand up and do what we believe to be right.
Right for British industry, right for British jobs, right for British prosperity.
During the summer, when I was in Cornwall, a lady came up to speak to me. "Mr Major" she said, "please, please don't let Britain's identity be lost in Europe". She didn't tell me her name. But she spoke for the anxieties of millions. She spoke for this country. She spoke for me.
So let me tell this Conference what I told that lady in Cornwall. I will never - come hell or high water - let our distinctive British identity be lost in a federal Europe.
Let no-one in this Conference be in any doubt, this Government will not accept a centralised Europe.
And if there are those who have in mind to haul down the Union Jack and fly high the star-spangled banner of a United States of Europe, I say to them; you misjudge the temper of the British people. And you do not begin to understand the determination of this Prime Minister to put the interests of this country first, now and always.
Mr President, it's true, the European Community has centralised too much. It has talked too much about European directives, and thought too little about Europe's direction.
But at Maastricht we began to reverse that trend. And at Birmingham and Edinburgh we will carry that further.
So let me say to the European politicians; if you don't heed that, you will never build the European Community you want. You will break up the European Community you have.
You cannot go forward by browbeating Denmark.
And to those who offer us gratuitous advice, I remind them of what a thousand years of history should tell them, you cannot bully Britain.
Mr President, I speak as one who believes Britain's future lies with Europe. But, when I hear assertions from others in Europe, that we or the Danes should sign up on their terms. I'll tell you what I think. I think they should keep their advice to themselves. Sign up on their terms? Before I was born, if this country hadn't fought on our terms there'd be no free Europe to sign up to.
All these are frustrations. They cause great anger. But emotion must not govern policy. At the heart of our policy lies one objective and one only - a cold, clear-eyed calculation of the British national interest. What is right for Britain. What is right for our future. And from that calculation I will not be budged.
Let me come directly to the issue that has caused such controversy. The Treaty of Maastricht seems to have become enshrouded in myth and legend. Certainly, the Treaty I hear about is not the one I negotiated.
What are the fears people have about Maastricht? We heard many of them in our debate this week.
A Single Currency! Under the Maastricht Treaty, Britain is not committed to a single currency.
Immigration? Immigration policy is specifically excluded under the Maastricht Treaty.
Jobs and working conditions? I refused to sign up for the Social Chapter.
Education? The Treaty explicitly rules out any Community interference in what is taught in schools or the way education is run.
Defence? Defence is kept out of the control of the Community.
Citizenship? We are British citizens and we will always remain British citizens.
Conference; if I believed what some people said about the Treaty, I would vote against it. But I don't. So I'm going to put the real Treaty, the one I negotiated, back to the House of Commons.
There is one great prize in the Treaty. For the first time we have reached agreement on developing the community in voluntary cooperation between independent nation states. That means outside the Treaty of Rome, outside the jurisdiction of the European Court, outside the competence of the European Commission. We have wanted this principle established for years. And we now have it in the Treaty I signed.
It is time the distortions were put to one side. It is time to return the debate to reality and away from myth.
In the Treaty, there was give and take - there has to be in any partnership. But in the end we got what we wanted. Not the agreement our partners signed up to: a better agreement. We obtained for Britain the flexibility and freedom which others signed away.
When I hear some of the criticisms of the Treaty I think of Don Quixote - you may remember him. He read too many old books and got carried away, fighting imaginary battles. He tilted at windmills in the belief they were giants. He saw things that weren't there. There has been a lot of that in the current debate on Maastricht.
Yes, we made concession. But so did our partners. What would they now think of a British Prime Minister who fights a tough negotiation, gives firm undertakings, and then comes back and breaks his word? What would we think of someone who did that to us?
Who would ever trust Britain again? We would have broken faith. A demeaning position in which no British Government should ever be placed.
But, far more than that, what is at stake is something practical and hard-headed.
We wouldn't just be breaking our word. We would be breaking Britain's future influence in Europe. We would be ending our hopes of ever building the kind of Europe that we want.
And we would be doing that, just when across Europe the argument is coming our way. We would be leaving European policy to the French and the Germans. That is not a policy for Great Britain. It would be an historic mistake. And not one your Government will make.
Let us not forget why we joined the Community. It has given us jobs. New markets. New horizons. Nearly 60% of our trade is now with our partners. It is the single most important factor in attracting a tide of Japanese and American investment to our shores. It is absolutely vital for businesses, big and small - and for our prospects of economic growth.
There isn't a single business leader who believes Britain's interests lie outside. And I hope they will make their views clear - and public.
But the most far-reaching, the most profound reason for working together in Europe I leave till last. It is peace. The peace and stability of a continent, ravaged by total war twice in this century. Today images of violence and exile are being acted out on the shores of the Adriatic. Where only two years ago the children of a million tourists laughed and played, young men of Europe are locked in a bloody civil war.
That's why I want Britain to work in the '90s for a wider and wiser Community, embracing the new democracies of the East. That is the vision we have for the next generation. And it's vital for our own security. But it is a vision we will only make real if we're in there arguing for it, not scowling in the wings.
Mr President, I'm not starry-eyed about Europe. If I'm starry-eyed, it's about this country. Britain has always grown and prospered when it has looked outwards - from the time of the First Elizabeth, right through to the Second. Let us then not turn away and put up the shutters - but do what we believe - with faith, and courage and conviction. In the name of the present, and in the name of the future, we cannot sit this one out.
Some take the view that we must choose between Europe and our friendship with the United States. What total nonsense. Britain is the indissoluble link between the United States and the continent of Europe. We have growing ties of commerce and trade with Europe, but we have blood ties over many generations with our friends in America.
We in this party will preserve and strengthen our special relationship with America. It is longstanding. Tested in many battles. Reinforced by ties of kinship, language and shared values. Britain and America have stood side by side many times in many theatres of war against tyranny and oppression. On that line we must always take our stand and will, together.
Eight weeks ago, we decided to send some 2,000 troops to Yugoslavia under the flag of the United Nations. They will bring aid to the victims of that terrible civil war. Without this common effect, we would be seeing in a few months time hundreds of thousands of people - men, women and children in Bosnia - in Europe - dying of starvation, of cold and lack of medicine.
Britain is already the largest supplier of medicines. And, amidst all the dangers, our RAF Hercules have played a leading part in the airlift into Sarajevo. Those young men know the risks; but they have met them, just as the young men who will keep open the land corridors know the risks and will meet them. We can be proud of them - and we are.
The safety of these troops will always be first in our minds. They are there for humanitarian reasons. They are not there to hold the combatants apart - and they will not be asked to do so. They are there to fight only in self-defence and then they have authority to use all the force they need.
This is part 1 of the speech, part two is here.