§ Q1. Mr. Brintonasked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 8 March.
§ 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. BrintonI thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Does she agree that there is a great future for the coal industry but that the taxpayer cannot for ever continue to pay for old and uneconomic pits through Government spending, which this year will exceed £1 billion? Does she share my hope that the miners' trade unions will eventually understand that the best hope for jobs for their members lies in new and profitable developments in new coalfields and not in support for the dying or the dead?
§ The Prime MinisterI agree with my hon. Friend that there is a great future for a productive, profitable and well-paid mining industry. The "Plan for Coal" and its revision consisted of three parts. The first was good investment for the industry. That has been honoured. Since 1979, through the taxpayer, the Government have provided about £2 million per day investment in coal mining. The second part was increased productivity'. Productivity was due to increase by about 4 per cent. per annum. That was 10 years ago and it has risen by only 4.7 per cent. over the whole period. The third part was the closure programme, which is also behind. If we concentrate on putting investment into the good pits and carry out the rest of the programme, there is a good future for the industry.
§ Mr. LofthouseIs the Prime Minister aware that, on the instruction of a former Secretary of State for Energy, the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, the British Gas Corporation is about to sell off the Wytch farm oilfield at a knockdown price of £180 million when its full economic value is £400 million? Does she agree that that is a scandal when the same Chancellor has instructed the gas and electricity industries to increase their prices by 2 per cent.? Bearing in mind that the Chancellor's instruction is questionable legally, will she put a stop to the sale until the House has had a chance to debate it?
§ The Prime MinisterNo, Sir. Nor do I accept the hon. Gentleman's figure for the economic value of the field. As for price increases, the electricity price increase to domestic consumers will be 2 per cent. over two years. Under the Labour Government, it was 2 per cent. every six weeks. Gas prices are bound to rise as the cheaper gas from the southern basin of the North sea runs out and has to be replaced by the more expensive gas, at five or six times the price, from the northern part of the North sea.
§ Q2. Mr. Traceyasked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 8 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. TraceyHas my right hon. Friend had the chance to read reports of a draft pamphlet entitled "Parliamentary Reform" written by the new right hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Benn), which includes, among other extreme ideas, a proposal to remove the royal prerogative? Does my right hon. Friend agree that that is the real face of the Labour party, or should we invite the Leader of the Opposition—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I do not think that the Prime Minister can answer questions on matters for which she has absolutely no responsibility.
§ Mr. KinnockIs the right hon. Lady aware that I and countless others warmly support the views expressed by the Prince of Wales this week, both about the insecurity' of the old and about criminal offences by a small 985 proportion of the young? Is the right hon. Lady further aware that we are appalled by the 30 per cent. increase in crime that has occurred while she has been Prime Minister? Will the right hon. Lady now confront these problems, not just with sufficient and effective policing, but through the provision of jobs, education and the strengthening of family life?
§ The Prime MinisterI warmly endorse the Prince of Wales's view that lack of respect for age is a factor in causing the apparent increase of attacks by young thugs on old people. With regard to his comments on unemployment and crime, I must point out to the right hon. Gentleman that a study has been carried out under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council, which concluded:
There is no significant association between increases in recorded crime and increases in unemployment.That is not, perhaps, wholly at odds with what his royal highness said. [interrruption.] Freedom of speech is the freedom to say what other people may disagree with, as well as the freedom to say anodyne things.I am afraid that increases in crime have persisted through periods of both low and high prosperity. The rapid increase in the number of police initiated by the Government—there are now 12,000 extra policemen—has, I believe, been a factor that has led in the past year to a slight reduction in the crime figures.
§ Mr. KinnockThere are colliding counsels from various research bodies on the relationship between crime and economic depression, but I tend to go in the same direction as the Prince of Wales—
§ Mr. KinnockI must say that we are hearing new sentiments of all kinds from the Government Benches today.
The Prime Minister's view that support for the police is essential is shared strongly by the Opposition. However, does she not realise that if the support is to have full effect she will have to do better than to ask the police to deal with problems that are substantially the product of her own economic and social policies? Even the Devil can find work for idle hands. When will the right hon. Lady start to do so?
§ The Prime MinisterIf the right hon. Gentleman studies the crime figures over the years he will probably come to the same conclusion as the SSRC, which said in the study I have in my hand::
There is no significant association between increases in recorded crime and increases in unemployment.The study also pointed out that it was unwise to taint the unemployed with blame for increased criminality. I am delighted with the right hon. Gentleman's conversion to our policy of taking on extra police, but he will know, as I do, that the police can carry out their task only if they have the full support of the civilian population.
§ Mrs. McCurleyWill my right hon. Friend acknowledge that the impending sale of the Scott Lithgow yard to Trafalgar House and Howard Doris is due in part to the efforts and energies of Ministers and is an endorsement of the view that the lower Clyde is a potential world-beater in offshore oil technology? Does she further agree that the deal enhances the prospects of recovery in the Scottish economy?
§ The Prime MinisterYes. I join my hon. Friend in welcoming the deal between Trafalgar House and Howard Doris, which have made a joint bid for Scott Lithgow. I believe that it will augur well for the yard and give it a chance to re-establish its reputation and performance. I hope that it will gain orders for new exploration.
§ Dr. OwenWhy has the Prime Minister not referred to the threat to shipping in the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf itself? As, at Question Time, the Prime Minister refused to exclude the use of the British Navy, will she admit that it would be far better to take this issue to the United Nations and mount a United Nations maritime peace-keeping force as, if that had been done in 1967 with regard to the Straits of Teheran the Arab-Israeli war might have been prevented?
§ The Prime MinisterIt would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the United Nations to mount a maritime peacekeeping force. The contingency arrangements of the United States—we might one day have to add our ships although they are not there yet—are the best way in which to try to keep open the Straits of Hormuz. With regard to a statement about the vessel Charming in the port of Bandar-Khomeini, my hon. Friend the Minster of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, will be making a statement after Question Time.
§ Q3. Mr. Evansasked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 8 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. EvansHas the Prime Minister been made aware of the petition that I handed in to No. 11 Downing street last week on behalf of the National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs, which was signed by many thousands of working people, protesting at the suggested nonsense that the tax on beer should be increased by 7p a pint to bring it into line with the tax on wine? Will the Prime Minister make it clear to Ministers and the Common Market bureaucrats that this harmonisation nonsense will not apply in this country?
§ The Prime MinisterI am not aware of the petition that the hon. Gentleman handed in to No. 11 Downing street. I do not live there, but I am sure that the occupant knows about it.
§ Mr. SayeedHas my right hon. Friend had time today to study the press report that members of the National Union of Journalists who are in dispute with the Libyan Jamahiriya news agency in London have had their lives threatened by an official of that agency, to wit a Mr. Omar Faraht? Will she confirm that if those allegations are proved to be correct she will ask the Foreign Secretary to lodge the strongest protests with the Libyan Government?
§ The Prime MinisterIf what my hon. Friend says is correct, perhaps he will take it up vigorously with my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary. Anyone in Britain who is threatened can expect to get the maximum police protection that is as good as we can possibly make it.
§ Mr. GoldingWill the forecast increase in prescription charges apply to terminal cancer patients? If so, how on earth can the right hon. Lady justify that?
§ The Prime MinisterThe order for prescription and other charges increases will be laid before the House 987 today. The exempt groups—children, old people, expectant and nursing mothers, certain of the long-term sick and those on low incomes—are unchanged. Moreover, 72 per cent. of prescriptions are free and another 6 per cent. are purchased by low-cost season tickets. The increases in charges will mean that, as a percentage of the total cost of the National Health Service [Interruption.] Those who would be expected to have the benefit of long-term low-cost season tickets will have them. In other words, the existing arrangements are not changed. Charges are only 3.2 per cent. of the total cost of the National Health Service, compared with 5.4 per cent. 20 years ago.
§ Mr. FauldsSt. Francis, St. Francis.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman must contain himself.
§ Q4. Mr. Ashdownasked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 8 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. AshdownDoes the Prime Minister agree that the Trident missile system will increase from 64 to 900 the number of targets in the Soviet Union that Britain can independently hit? In the light of those figures, how can she justify the continued exclusion of British nuclear weapons from the Geneva disarmament talks?
§ The Prime MinisterFirst, the precise numbers depend on the number of missiles that we decide to put on each submarine, and no decision has been taken about that yet. It will, in any event, increase the present numbers. With regard to the second part of the question, it is an independent nuclear deterrent for use in the last resort. To include it in those talks as part of the United States' strategic missile system would mean that the United States could no longer have parity with the Soviet Union and that their numbers would be determined by the numbers that Britain and France had.