§ Q2. Mr. Watsonasked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 3 March.
§ The Prime MinisterThis morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House I shall be having further meetings later today. This evening I hope to have an audience of Her Majesty the Queen.
§ Mr. WatsonFollowing the teachers' 7½ per cent. pay settlement yesterday, will my right hon. Friend confirm the Government's commitment to cash limits for public sector pay? Is it not the case that the 7 per cent. now on offer to civil servants will add £315 million to the Government's pay bill?
§ The Prime MinisterYes. I confirm that the cash limits already announced will be adhered to. I confirm also that the figure given by my hon. Friend is about correct. I hope that the members of Civil Service unions who have announced that some of them will go on strike next week will have regard to the views of ordinary people, many of whom would resent it very much if those who have good and secure jobs attempted to strike for even more pay.
§ Mr. MarksWill the Prime Minister take time to consider her Government's relationship with the United Nations? In her discussions there and with President Reagan, did she consider the United Nations resolutions passed at the 1978 Special Assembly? Have she and President Reagan considered what proposals they will put forward for disarmament at next year's conference?
§ The Prime MinisterI saw Secretary-General Waldheim, but we did not discuss those matters. President Reagan and I also discussed arms control. We are concerned, as is everyone else, to see that the balance is struck at a much lower level than now, but any balance that is struck must be clearly monitored and verifiable.
§ Mr. William SheltonWill my right hon. Friend take time today to turn her mind to the hard-pressed ratepayers in boroughs such as Lambeth and Camden? Does she not agree that the time may have come for the Government to consider legislation to curb such boroughs?
§ The Prime MinisterWe shall consider what my hon. Friend has said. It is clear from some of the figures that are coming in that the most extravagant boroughs are those held by Labour.
§ Dr. M. S. MillerWill the right hon. Lady take a few minutes today to telephone her friend President Reagan in the White House and inform him, with regard to the British-American initative on the rapid deployment force, that John Wayne and Errol Flynn are dead, and that David Niven was 71 last Sunday?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. Member's remark is cheap and unwarranted, and will do damage to this country.