§ 8. Mr. Peter Archerasked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library of the House a copy of his public speech at the Guildhall on 16th November on Government policies.
§ The Prime MinisterI would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8th December to Questions from the hon. Members for Norwood (Mr. John Fraser), Accrington (Mr. Arthur Davidson) and South Ayrshire (Mr. Sillars).
§ Mr. ArcherI recognise that the Prime Minister acted with great promptitude and decisiveness in this matter, but will he 666 be even more helpful and say whether he agrees that his assertion that British policy will be determined only by British interests may appear to the rest of the world to be not only self-centred but self-defeating because it will encourage other nations to reciprocate? Since today is Human Rights Day, will the right hon. Gentleman at least undertake that Britain will conform to Security Council resolutions about arms for South Africa?
§ The Prime MinisterIf the hon. Gentleman had gone on reading what I said, he would have realised that I pointed out that this was not to be regarded in any narrow or selfish way. When I was at the United Nations in October, I found that the representatives of other countries were very glad that we should state what we considered to be British interests because they could then formulate their own foreign policies in relation to them.
§ Mr. HastingsDoes my right hon. Friend know of any other nation which does not pursue its own interests in foreign affairs?
§ The Prime MinisterSome nations may pursue interests which seem to us to be rather strange, but no doubt they believe that they are their interests.
§ Mr. PrenticeIs the Prime Minister aware that hon. Members would not need to keep questioning him about his Guildhall speech if from time to time he followed the example of all his predecessors and made a major policy speech in the House, which he seems very reluctant to do?
§ The Prime MinisterI shall make speeches in the House when I think it appropriate. It has for many years been the privilege of the Prime Minister of the day to speak at the Lord Mayor's Banquet at the Guildhall. I carried on that tradition.
§ Q12. Mr. Barnettasked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library of the House of Commons a copy of his public speech at the Guildhall on 16th November on Government policies.
§ The Prime MinisterI would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8th December to Questions from the hon. Members for Norwood (Mr. John Fraser), Accrington (Mr. Arthur Davidson), and 667 South Ayrshire (Mr. Sillars).—[Vol. 808. c. 238–9.]
§ Mr. BarnettShould not the Prime Minister issue an explanatory memorandum indicating what his real policy is on wage inflation? Is it not a fact that he proposes simply to allow the policy to develop on the basis of the substantial balance-of-payments surplus inherited from my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Stechford (Mr. Roy Jenkins)?
§ The Prime MinisterThe economic policy of the Government as a whole was set out in my Guildhall speech, and it certainly did not consist of the suggestion put forward by the hon. Gentleman, as he knows full well.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsIs it not clear from figures issued recently that the balance-of-payments surplus for the year will be at least £500 million Indeed, The Times talked about £600 million yesterday. Would it not be a simple act of common honesty for the Prime Minister to agree that his June judgment about a deteriorating trend in the balance of payments was, to say the least, mistaken?
§ The Prime MinisterWhen the full year's figures are available, I will deal with them.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsIs the right hon. Gentleman denying that there will be a surplus of at least £500 million? Is it not increasingly clear that he will twist and wriggle as much as he can rather than allow any doubt to be cast on his own infallibility?
§ The Prime MinisterI told the right hon. Gentleman that when the figures are available I will deal with them.
§ Mr. MartenDoes my right hon. Friend recall that in his speech at the Guildhall he said that the community must be protected from the encroachment of sectional interests? Will he say what the people can do to protect themselves against the sectional interests of the workers in the electricity supply industry?
§ The Prime MinisterI think that the great mass of the people in this country have made very clear their views about the impact on the life of the community of the present disturbances caused by the electrical workers' union and those associated with it. I do not think that any- 668 body can be in any doubt about the views of the nation on this matter.
§ Mr. OrmeHaving spelt out what he felt about the wage situation, and the Government having expressed that feeling in their attitude to the electricity workers by not going beyond 10 per cent., how does the Prime Minister explain the increases of over 30 per cent. which he announced on Tuesday for higher civil servants, generals and chairmen of nationalised industries? How does he expect ordinary people to accept that?
§ The Prime MinisterIf the hon. Gentleman considers the matter for a moment, he will recognise that this was the last and concluding stage of what had been happening over the past four years. It was put in hand by the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition when he was Prime Minister, and we accepted the recommendations for the chairmen of nationalised industries and higher civil servants and fixed a date for the implementation of the last stage. There followed from that, as is bound to be the case, the judges and the higher serving officers. I thought that the House welcomed, as did the Leader of the Opposition, their offer to postpone the date when the increase would become effective until 1st July next.