HC Deb 14 March 1972 vol 833 cc84-5W
Sir G. Nabarro

Q18 and Q26. asked the Prime Minister (1) whether he will now repeat, in enlarged and widened form, his attenuated ministerial television broadcast of Sunday, 27th February, 1972, which could not be viewed by large numbers of electors, due to blackout and erratic electric power supplies;

(2) whether he will now, in supplement of his ministerial television broadcast on 27th February, 1972, deliver a nationwide television broadcast on the juxtaposition of unemployment, inflation, and the balance of payments to fill in all omissions on these matters from his first broadcast.

The Prime Minister

No. My ministerial broadcast was put out by the British Broadcasting Corporation at 6.15 p.m. and by the Independent Television Authority at 10.15 p.m. on 27th February. These timings were published in advance both on television and in the Press and no one should have been prevented from seeing the broadcast by a rot a cut.

The full text of the broadcast was reproduced the following day in several newspapers.

The broadcast was concerned with the aftermath of the miners' strike and I believe that it covered the main economic issues arising out of the dispute.

Q25. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a copy of the text of the ministerial broadcast he made on Sunday, 27th February.

The Prime Minister

As I indicated in the reply I gave last Friday to a Question from my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr. Onslow), I did so on 28th February.—[Vol. 832, c. 403.]