Engagements (Hansard, 17 July 1990)

§ Q1. Mrs. Margaret Ewing
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 17 July.

§ The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House I shall be having further meetings later today. This evening I hope to have an audience of Her Majesty the Queen.

§ Mrs. Ewing
Is the Prime Minister aware that when I read the memorandum from the Chequers seminar and saw the words "angst", "aggressiveness", "assertiveness" and "bullying"—[Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Will the hon. Lady proceed with her question please? [Interruption.] Order. These pauses take a lot of time.

§ Mrs. Ewing
—I believed that the Prime Minister was painting a self-portrait. Does she realise that, through her failure to sack the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and her association with that memorandum and the attack on the German people, she is now tarred with the Ridley brush and is no more fit to lead than he was?

§ The Prime Minister
No, Mr. Speaker. At one time, I am accused of being isolated and of not consulting anyone; at another time, I am accused of having consultations with those who have something interesting to say. People must make up their minds which they are criticising. The hon. Lady could have read the constructive result in a speech at the Koenigswinter conference some five days later. That constructive speech concerned all our relationships in the Community, particularly with Chancellor Kohl, who shows much more understanding of these matters than does the hon. Lady.

§ Mr. Wiggin
Given the now general acquiescence about the reunification of Germany, does my right hon. Friend agree that the first act of a newly reunified Germany should be the signing of a full and unqualified peace treaty with the former allies? Will she take steps to ensure that that happens?

§ The Prime Minister
After unification, I think that Germany and Poland will wish to sign a treaty confirming Poland's existing borders. That will be one of the most 857 important international measures. I do not think that a unified Germany would wish to have a full peace treaty, for obvious reasons. We might have arrangements that lead to a peace settlement.

§ Mr. Hattersley
Is the Prime Minister aware that four of the six academic experts who attended her Chequers seminar on Germany have said that Mr. Charles Powell's minute of that meeting gave a slanted—that is, anti-German—account of the discussion? Does the Prime Minister agree?

§ The Prime Minister
No, Mr. Speaker.

§ Mr. Hattersley
The whole House, and people in many places and chanceries throughout the world, will be astonished that the Prime Minister has not taken this opportunity to repudiate the more offensive sections of the minute. Four of the experts at the seminar say that the minute was slanted against the Federal German Republic. Everyone in the world now believes that the Prime Minister's private secretary was reflecting not so much the opinions of the experts as the prejudices of the Prime Minister. Why does not she take this opportunity to refute them?

§ The Prime Minister
I am amazed that the deputy leader of the Labour party chooses his opportunity to question me to use it—[Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order.

§ The Prime Minister
—chooses to use his opportunity for questioning to attack a civil servant who cannot reply and who has served all Governments with equal integrity. His conclusion on that meeting was highly constructive, as was the meeting itself. There used to be more honour in the House than that.

§ Mr. Hattersley
The Prime Minister's reputation is far too tarnished for her to maintain this haughty stand any longer. Does not she understand that there is a problem with Anglo-German relations and that that problem is the Prime Minister? What we want—and, I believe, what the majority of people want—is an honest statement of the Prime Minister's opinion. Has she the courage to make such a statement to the House and to face cross-examination?

§ The Prime Minister
Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will read the many speeches and consider the many actions in which we have been staunch allies of Germany in NATO and in which the Germans have been staunch allies of ours in NATO and in the EEC. Germany joined us in stationing cruise and Pershing at a critical time. We could not say that the Opposition supported that.

§ Sir Peter Blaker
Is my right hon. Friend aware that every other Government in the world regularly make assessments of the British character and of Britain's performance, and that they all admire and respect her quality of leadership much more than they respect the inane posturing of the Leader of the Opposition?

§ The Prime Minister
Had this country followed the policies of the Leader of the Opposition on defence, we should never have seen the remarkable changes that we are seeing now.

§ Q2. Mr. Andrew Smith
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 17 July.

§ The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

§ Mr. Smith
As the Prime Minister chose in the exchange of resignation letters to refer to the policies we both believe in so deeply", does not she owe it to the House and the country—she was the person who mentioned the word "honour"—to say whether she repudiates the view that her former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry expressed in his resignation letter which was that the proposal by the European Commission for economic and monetary union in the Community would be a disaster? Does she repudiate him, or does she agree with him that it would be a disaster?

§ The Prime Minister
The policies on which the former Secretary of State and I agree are the policies that have transformed Britain from the state in which Labour left it and which it would recreate. The hon. Gentleman cannot have listened to what I said last week—that my right hon. Friend's views were not those of the British Government. I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would have known that.
On the resignation letter, my right hon. Friend condemned the move to a single currency. Does Labour now support that?

§ Mr. Paice
Will my right hon. Friend reflect on the policies that she has just mentioned which have brought eight years of successive economic growth, improvements in productivity and record levels of employment? Is not it her determination to pursue those policies which will ensure that the British economy is the best counter-balance to any other economy in Europe?

§ The Prime Minister
Yes, Sir. Our policies have been very successful. We now have the fastest growth in manufacturing productivity in the G7. In the 1960s and 1970s we had the lowest growth in productivity in the G7. We now have the second largest growth of output in the EEC. In the 1960s and 1970s we had the lowest growth of output in the EEC. We now have the second fastest growth in business investment after Japan. I am delighted to have a chance to say how bad it was in Labour times and how good it is now.

§ Q3. Mr. Carr
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 17 July.

§ The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

§ Mr. Carr
Given the announcement last Friday that the retail prices index has now reached 9.8 per cent., the continuing balance of payments deficit running at over £1 billion a month and the continuation of interest rates at 15 per cent., causing record numbers of bankruptcies, does the Prime Minister agree that the economy is in a mess and that the responsibility for it lies squarely with her and her Government?

§ The Prime Minister
I am amazed that the hon. Gentleman calls it a mess. We have the highest-ever standard of living, more people in work than ever and the highest standard of investment. In fact, 28 of the 50 top performing European companies are British.

§ Mrs. Currie
May I say to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister—[Interruption.]—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. This is the first opportunity that the hon. Lady has had to put a question and I ask her to do it.

§ Mrs. Currie
May I say that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is looking jolly nice today? Does she agree that is is a time of great celebration? As she has observed, it is the end of the cold war. Does she also agree that while we celebrate we should not be complacent about the peace?

§ The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend and return her compliment. I said in November 1988 that we had reached the end of the cold war provided that Mr. Gorbachev went on as he has done. That was when I first said it, but others have come rather later.

Q4. Mr. Ted Garrett
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 17 July.

§ The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Garrett
Does the hon. Lady recognise that there are not only splits in her party, but different views in ours? Does she also recognise that they are legitimate differences? Stripped of the hysteria and counter-charges of the past few days, we have to think as a nation about the balance of power, especially in a free, open and democratic Europe. My generation—there are many hon. Members of my generation—should consider the part we played to return the balance of power. Our parents and grandparents did the same. The last three centuries have taught us lessons. Those who did not experience the 860 1939–45 war or the post-war period should read the history of Europe over the past three centuries. Some of the pro-Europeans should also re-read their history.

§ The Prime Minister
I thank the hon. Gentleman for those words which I think he has truly spoken. I point out that I said—

§ Mr. Skinner
He should have been at the seminar. [Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. I am anxious to call as many hon. Members as possible.

§ The Prime Minister
May I point out—because I think that the hon. Gentleman will agree—that when I said in November 1988, The cold war is already at an end", I went on with the words that were very much in keeping with his sentiments:
Now, that does not mean to say a strong defence is at an end—far from it. I think that the hon. Gentleman would firmly agree with that: we always have to keep up a strong defence to safeguard peace.
I note what the hon. Gentleman said about learning from history. I was interested to see what Chancellor Kohl said at a press conference today. He said that he understood the concern—especially on the part of the British—whose entire national existence had been at stake in the fight against Hitler. He went on to say that he had not taken my right hon. Friend's comments amiss The man has been punished enough. I think that the hon. Gentleman, Chancellor Kohl and I would very much agree on the wisdom of learning from history.