California

HC Deb 07 July 1980 vol 988 cc16-8

10. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will make a statement on his recent visit to California.

Sir Keith Joseph

I visited San Francisco from 28 to 30 May to fulfil an invitation to address the Electronics Association of California. Whilst there I met industrialists contemplating investment in the United Kingdom and held discussions with people in the electronics and biotechnology industries. I was impressed by the vigorous and adaptable economy of California, by the wide-ranging employment oppportunities being opened up by microelectronics and by the role of venture capitalists in promoting high technology.

Mr. Hamilton

Is it not a fact that when the right hon. Gentleman was speaking there, he said, in seeking to attract United States investment here, that we enjoyed—he did not use that word, but that was what he implied—a low wage and good industrial relations society? If that is correct, how does he square that with the brutally crazy concept that he enunciated a week ago, that if workers who are now being threatened with unemployment would seek reduced wages, they could maintain their jobs?

Sir K. Joseph

But it is true that we have low wages, relatively, in this country, because we have low output, relatively. It also remains true that people can preserve their jobs or price themselves into jobs if they offer to their employers lower unit labour costs, either by way of lower earnings or by higher productivity, or by a combination of both.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

Will my right hon. Friend consider making one of his colleagues in his Department specifically responsible for information technology, so that he could act as a focal point for the whole of this industry, ranging from microtechnology in schools to new public procurement policies? Is it not clear that in the difficulties that we are facing in the industrial and manufacturing area this particular industry provides some of the greatest opportunities for Britain, where in certain products we have a world lead?

Sir K. Joseph

My hon. Friend has picked on one of the several suggestions in his recent speech on the subject which is certainly being considered by the Government.

Mr. Barry Jones

When he was in America, did not the right hon. Gentleman show that he has not yet grasped the enormous damage that his policy has done to British industry? Is he not unnerved by the great tide of redundancies, lay-offs and closures in British manufacturing industry? Is it not likely that when the recession ends our country will suffer the humiliation of having no manufacturing industry to meet supply and of having to import manufactured goods?

Sir K. Joseph

The precipitation of current problems is well covered by the New Statesman in its leading article this week. The onslaught by trade unions on efficiency, modernisation and profits over recent years has caused the chickens that are now coming home to roost in such abundant numbers.

Mr. Forman

Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the lessons of Californian success is the extent to which the State is open to public sector procurement and to a positive relationship between the private sector and the public sector? When will his Department put flesh on the skeleton of the suggestion advanced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister some time ago in the "no confidence" debate?

Sir K. Joseph

It is right that a huge defence programme in America is a vehicle for public procurement of an enlightened order. We are seeking to spread the good public purchasing practices of significant sections of the public sector to the sections that need to learn from it.

Mr. Les Huckfield

If the right hon. Gentleman was impressed by the capability of the economy of the State of California to generate about half a million net new jobs every year, will he take into account that most recent studies have shown that that is connected not with the tax-cutting activities of propositions 13 and 9 but with the Government's own research and development expenditure through their own budget, through the aerospace industry?

Sir K. Joseph

There is probably more than one cause in the phenomenon but the phenomenon is impressive.