Engagements

HC Deb 03 February 1983 vol 36 cc413-4

Q1. Mr. Nelson

asked the Prime Minister whether she will list her official engagements for Thursday 3 February.

The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)

This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.

Mr. Nelson

Will my right hon. Friend find time in her busy day to reassure the many people who are deeply alarmed at the assumption in the Government's expenditure White Paper published this week that the prices of nationalised industries, including heating, electricity, transport and postage, will rise in the year ahead by the rate of inflation? As these prices have consistently risen by more than the rate of inflation for several years, does my right hon. Friend agree that both the Government and consumers are entitled to expect more restraint in the future?

The Prime Minister

What my hon. Friend says is true. The monopoly nationalised industries do not have the same spur of competition as the private sector. There will be an improvement only if strenuous efforts are made to cut costs and increase efficiency. In the meantime, we welcome the decision of the British Gas Corporation to freeze industrial prices and of the electricity industry not to increase average prices for the coming year.

Mr. Foot

Will the right hon. Lady give us a list of the nationalised industry price increases that she forced up by orders from on high? Furthermore, in view of the appalling figures published today, as the right hon. Lady has suggested that the only cure for mass unemployment that she believes in is a fall in the inflation rate, will she tell us when she thinks her cure will start to work? Is it not a fact that her Government are contemplating an increase of 280,000 or more on the already hideous and terrible unemployment figures published today?

The Prime Minister

The unemployment figures are a great disappointment. However, as the right hon. Gentleman will know, unemployment is rising the world over and in some countries, for example, Germany, the United States, Canada and Holland, it is rising faster than in the United Kingdom. Rhetoric, rows and strikes will not improve the position. It is only by having sound financial policies—which we have—by trying to keep interest rates down, by having industrial incentives and by drumming up orders the world over, delivered on time and at a price and design that people want, that we shall improve the underlying employment position.

Mr. Foot

If the right hon. Lady talks about drumming up orders all over the world, why has the Central Electricity Generating Board placed a £10 million order for a cable-laying ship with a Korean shipyard at a time when British Shipbuilders is perfectly prepared to do the job? What representations has the right hon. Lady made to put that right? When she talks about the general situation, does she recall that she said that 1981 would be the year when results begin to show? What has gone wrong since then?

The Prime Minister

What has gone wrong since then, as the right hon. Gentleman would know if he looked around him, is that there has been a very deep world recession—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—which was much deeper than expected, and that hit other industrial countries as well as our own—a recession that is the deeper because of the enormous loans that were made to the under-developed countries, greatly in excess of what some of them could afford to repay in either interest or capital.

On the subject of the vessel, there is an intervention fund for British Shipbuilders. Where the ship required is the one which the purchaser wishes to buy and can be quoted at a competitive price, the order goes to British Shipbuilders. Where it is not, the order goes to the shipyard most suitable for the task.

Mr. Foot

If the right hon. Lady is not prepared to intervene at once to get the order for British shipyards, will she cease to go around the country talking about buying British? [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]

The Prime Minister

No, because, unlike the right hon. Gentleman, I am prepared to advise people to buy British only when British goods are the best, most competitive and most suitable to the buyer. The alternative course of protecting and cosseting British industry would lead to untold increases in the cost of living, untold inefficiencies in British industry, and a reduction in our standard of living.