§ Q1. Mr. KilfedderTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March 1989.
§ The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, including one with the Hungarian Foreign Minister. In addition to my duties in the House I shall be having further meetings later today.
§ Mr. KilfedderWhen the Prime Minister met the Foreign Minister of the Republic of South Africa yesterday, did she receive a satisfactory reply when she urged the immediate release of the long-suffering Nelson Mandela and the abolition of the obnoxious Separate Amenities Act? Given Moscow's new approach to violence and the African National Congress, did she emphasise that now is the time for South Africa to reach a rapprochement with people inside and outside the republic?
§ The Prime MinisterAs the hon. Gentleman said, I repeated once again that we wish that the South African Government would release Nelson Mandela, as then the atmosphere would change completely and it would be possible to start negotiations between the Government of South Africa, the black South Africans and other coloured people in South Africa. A number of people in very high places in South Africa take the same view, but they have not yet been able to achieve that. However, I remain optimistic that before long they will be able to do so because it is vital that voluntary negotiations get started.
§ Mr. KinnockCan the Prime Minister tell us how increases in water charges of between 10 and 43 per cent. help Britain to proceed towards zero inflation?
§ The Prime MinisterAs the right hon. Gentleman is aware, we shall need increases in water charges, not for privatisation, as he will say, but to provide the capital to spend on the required increased quality. We have already spent far more than any previous Government and we have got rid of much of the previous backlog of things that needed to be done. It is totally unrealistic to suggest that we can have higher quality without extra expenditure.
§ Mr. KinnockIt is right to want higher quality and it is obvious that that will have to be paid for—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder.
§ Mr. KinnockHow is that desirable objective to be assisted by the creation of private monopolies?
§ The Prime MinisterBecause the private sector will have far greater access to investment and carries out far more research and development. It has been proved in France on many occasions that a privatised water supply is very much more efficient than a public organisation. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will remember that only yesterday he was complaining that prices of certain commodities were not going up.
§ Q2. Mr. David MartinTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. MartinWill my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the initiative of the South African Government to bring peace to Mozambique? Added to the agreements on Namibia and on the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angora, does that not show a constructive approach to solving the problems in southern Africa?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, I agree with my hon. Friend. The agreement on the United Nations resolution and the proposal to implement it and to have elections in Namibia in November, is very good news. It could not have been achieved without the overwhelming co-operation of South Africa; nor could the Cuban troop withdrawal have come about in Angola without that co-operation.
We are also very interested to learn of a proposal for helping Mozambique to overcome some of its internal problems, particularly the problems caused by the constant activities of Renamo, which upset so much of the good work that is done there. That all augurs well for the future of Southern Africa as a whole.
§ Mr. AshdownWhy is the Prime Minister's first reaction always to shoot the messenger rather than listen to the message?—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Interruptions take up a lot of time.
§ Mr. AshdownWhy is the right hon. Lady's first reaction always to shoot the messenger rather than listen to the message? When will she realise that it is not so much her eight Environment Ministers but the privatisation of water that is balderdash and bunkum?
§ The Prime MinisterI have very good messengers and they have a very good message. The privatisation of water is a very much better deal for the consumer. Twenty-five per cent. of it is already privatised. It is far better to have regulation and production separate. For the first time we shall have a National Rivers Authority and a Director-General of Water Services. We shall get much more investment, which will lead to much more research and technology. Of course, much depends on the latest technology when dealing with water. There will be a consumers' charter. It will be very much better for the environment. That is the message.
§ Mr. GowDoes my right hon. Friend recall the manifesto commitment of the Opposition that a new Labour Government would call a national economic—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Member's question must relate to the Prime Minister's responsibility.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. That is not good enough. The hon. Member must ask a question about the Prime Minister's responsibility.
§ Mr. GowHow is it that my right hon. Friend has achieved the Labour party's laudable target of reducing—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder.
§ Q3. Mr. CummingsTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. CummingsCan the Prime Minister explain to the House and the nation why a Government with a surplus of £14 billion cannot allocate the small sums of money that are necessary for the National Health Service to stop charging for eye tests, and to enable the right hon. Lady to fulfil her pledge on full pensions for pre-1973 war widows, whose husbands made the supreme sacrifice?
§ The Prime MinisterThe Government have allocated very much greater resources to the National Health Service than ever before—[Interruption.] In the lifetime of the previous Labour Government it was £8 billion a year; now it is £24 billion a year. [Interruption.] The latest Budget has given considerable relief on national insurance contributions, of some £3 a week on average, which people will have available for other purposes. We have been able to create the prosperity that the hon. Gentleman and his constituents enjoy through Conservative policies, which have led to a higher standard of living and a higher standard of social services than we have ever known before. All poor people on income support and family credit will get free NHS eye tests. [Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I ask the House to listen to the answers to questions.
§ Q4. Mr. GillTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. GillWill my right hon. Friend accept the congratulations of the House on her considerable personal achievement in exporting the principles of the market economy and the enterprise culture to Communist Russia, where independence, initiative and enterprise are now being propounded by President Gorbachev as the essential nutrients of Soviet agriculture?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, I think that the Soviet Union and some of the other satellite countries are learning. One cannot have the benefits of prosperity without a freer political system, backed up by economic freedom. Moreover, it is the only system that brings dignity. I wish that our friends on the Opposition Benches would also learn that lesson, for Socialism is but a pale shadow of Communism.
§ Q5. Mr. MallonTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. MallonDoes the Prime Minister agree with the maxim enunciated by Lord Denning:
Be you never so high, the law is above you"?If she does, how does she justify the squalid and murky attempts to hide the truth about the Stalker affair? Has she any appreciation whatever of the damage that has been done to confidence in the police, in the process of justice and, above all, in a Government who have shown how low standards can apply in high places?
§ The Prime MinisterThe events in the case to which the hon. Gentleman refers took place more than six years ago. They have been subject to a long, painstaking and thorough series of investigations. The decision not to prosecute was taken by the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General. It then became a matter of police disciplinary procedure and 19 officers have now been disciplined. I point out to the hon. Gentleman that the Royal Ulster Constabulary is a highly professional police force that is dedicated to serving equally all sections of the community, and everyone should extend to the force the unqualified support that it fully deserves.
§ Q6. Mr. WallerTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. WallerIs my right hon. Friend aware of the anger that many people, especially in the upland areas of the north of England, would feel if untreated green top milk were banned? Does my right hon. Friend fully appreciate than many who have drunk untreated milk throughout their lives would find it quite incomprehensible if pure, untreated milk were banned, despite the fact that they prefer it and that tobacco continues to be freely available?
§ The Prime MinisterI am aware of the strength of feeling on this issue. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has therefore issued a consultation document to enable all views to be aired, and I know that he will take them into account. We have to weigh those views against the 1,600 cases of food poisoning associated with untreated milk that have occurred in the past five years. My hon. Friend knows that there is a difference in treatment between England and Scotland, and we must take all factors into account after the consultation is complete.
§ Q10. Mr. William PowellTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 16 March.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. PowellMy right hon. Friend will be aware of the considerable anxiety in some parts of the country about the length of hospital waiting lists. Is my right hon. Friend 532 aware of the restart programme's considerable success in reducing unemployment? Will she make inquiries to see whether a restart equivalent could be applied to National Health Service waiting lists?
§ The Prime MinisterI thank my hon. Friend. As he knows, there were special programmes to reduce the waiting lists. In one year we allocated £25 million for that specific purpose, and had the beds to try to get the number of outstanding operations down. The following year the figure was some £30 million. The modest sums that will come in from things such as eye tests and dental examinations will help us to continue to provide other programmes to cut the waiting lists.