§ Q3. Mr. Dykesasked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 24 February.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. DykesIf my right hon. Friend has time today to consider the future of the National Health Service, a matter which all Governments must consider all the time, will she agree that it is absurd for people in the Labour party to suggest, for instance, that limited privatisation of certain maintenance and contract cleaning activities in the NHS would be a serious attack on the basis of the NHS? As the chairman of the trade association has suggested that £40 million could be saved if those activities were privatised, would it not be a good idea to provide more resources for genuine patient care?
§ The Prime MinisterI agree with my hon. Friend that a great deal of money could be saved by putting some services such as cleaning out to contract and that the money thereby saved would be much better used in patient care. If money were saved it would go to patient care.
§ Mr. GrimondIf the Prime Minister today is considering further possible wage claims, will she discuss with the leaders of industry how they expect workers to take very small increases when very large increases and large golden handshakes are constantly given to directors, regardless of the success of the companies, and when, even in the nationalised industries, increases at the top have been far bigger than at the bottom? If Victorian virtues are to return to this country, should they not start at the top?
§ The Prime MinisterIf the right hon. Gentleman is referring to the top in politics, what he says is indeed true?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydIn considering the National Health Service, will my right hon. Friend remind the House that during this Parliament expenditure on patient services has been increased by 6 per cent., after allowing for inflation, which is indeed poor evidence of an intention to dismantle the welfare state?
§ The Prime MinisterYes. There has been an increase in expenditure on patient services, and that is reflected in the increasing numbers of doctors, nurses, and professions ancillary to medicine in the NHS under this Government, over and above what happened under the Labour Government. So it is we who should boast about our record in the NHS, not they.
§ Mr. StoddartWill the right hon. Lady call in the Secretary of State for Defence this afternoon, reprimand him for his Goebbels-type party political broadcast yesterday, and remind him that this Government left us nearly defenceless against the Argentine attack by running down the Navy and proposing to sell Invincible? Will she bear mind that at the time of the Russian invasion of Hungary we did nothing because we were invading Egypt? Will the right hon. Lady also remind the right hon. 1053 Gentleman that this Government are committed to the non-proliferation treaty? Does her policy, which says that nuclear weapons will stop war in Europe, extend to all other countries?
§ The Prime MinisterThe answer to the hon. Gentleman is no, Sir. The Falklands war was fought with an excellent Navy and was won gloriously. It is a blot on the whole of the Western world that we stood by and 1054 allowed the invasion of Hungary. [Interruption.] With all due respect, the whole of the Western world was not fighting somewhere else and it is a blot on the United Nations and on the Western world. Has the hon. Gentleman forgotten what happened recently in Afghanistan? Why does he not condemn that? The truth is that my right hon. Friend's party political broadcast last night was excellent and it clearly drove home very hard indeed.