The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Category: Prime Minister (1990-1997)

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Defence – 1 April 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on defence. It was issued on Wednesday 1st April 1992, reference 721/92.

    BRITAIN FIRST, SECURITY FIRST

    “No issue is more important than defence. It is a vital issue at this election,” the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, told a press conference at Conservative Central Office today.

    “It is an issue at every election.

    But it is an issue of the greatest importance when Opposition policies pose a threat to the security of our country.

    Year after year, our forces have kept the peace in Northern Ireland, manned the West’s front line in Germany and guarded our shores and our interests. Just over a year ago, British forces joined our Allies in expelling Iraqi invaders from Kuwait.

    The role of our forces is always changing; and always vital. They must be properly equipped for their dangerous task. The Government I lead will always maintain strong defences for Britain. The Labour Party would not. They would cut our defences to the bone. To the marrow.

    Today’s world is one of great opportunities; but also great dangers. We have all seen how fast the map of world politics can change. And how important it is that your government should act confidently, consistently and courageously in world affairs.

    That is why we took the lead in denouncing last August’s coup in the former Soviet Union – and in recognising Russia.

    We have strongly supported international assistance for Russian reform. Boris Yeltsin asked if Britain would represent Russia’s interests in negotiations with the IMF. We agreed. And I am delighted to be able to announce this morning that the IMF has reached agreement on the terms of Russia’s membership. I am very confident that the Group of Seven countries will now endorse the safety-net we have urged: a rouble stabilisation fund for Russia. This is a historic moment in Russia’s struggle to escape from socialism and join the western world of free markets and economic development.

    We must do everything we can to shore up the peace and stability of the republics of the former Soviet Union. But we must never drop our guard. New conflicts can break out as quickly as forest fires. The nuclear threat to Britain has not gone with the ending of the Cold War. The future of the nuclear weapons of the old Soviet Union is still uncertain. The danger of nuclear proliferation is as great as ever.

    Conservative governments have always shown that they can be trusted with Britain’s defences. Mr Kinnock’s Labour Party have made it abundantly clear they cannot. Today only a Conservative government can be trusted to defend Britain.

    For the Labour Party, defence policy has been about patching up their squabbles. Party first. Nation last.

    For Conservatives, defence policy has always been about the national interest. Britain first. Security first.

    The security of our country is the security of every family.”

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Families – 31 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on families. It was issued on Tuesday 31st March 1992, reference 689/92.

    THE BEST FUTURE FOR YOUR FAMILY

    “Today we are going to talk about family life. About people’s homes – and about what parents want for their children,” the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, told a press conference at Conservative Central Office today.

    “Our message is very simple.

    The Conservatives will help you to a better home – and we will make sure that your children get a better education.

    So what are we going to do?

    We’re going to make life easier for people buying their own home. Our policies will mean lower mortgage rates and a stronger housing market. We’re going to help young people get a foot on the home-owning ladder. We’re going to help council tenants improve their own homes – and buy their own homes more easily. We’re going to end the misery of people who find themselves living on run-down council estates.

    Labour has never been the home owners’ friend. It’s been the Conservatives who’ve had to fight for the right of council tenants to escape the tyranny of Labour councils. Now Labour’s plans for over-spending and over-taxing would hit millions of mortgage holders. Labour’s policies would destroy the housing market. And would condemn council tenants to the same old mismanagement which Labour councils have inflicted on them for decades.

    Conservatives believe in giving people the right to choose.

    We believe too in choice in education. We’re going to make it easier to choose your child’s school. If the school you want is over-subscribed, it will be able to expand to take in more children. We’ll make sure that there are new kinds of schools – specialising, for example, in technology. And we will go on winning the battle to get the basics right. By having a proper curriculum. By tests that will tell parents how much progress their child is making. And by giving parents the right to know what is going on in their child’s school.

    What about Labour? They have only one policy whatever the problem. To spend more of your money. They never ask – how can we do it better. Labour’s only policy is to make the taxpayer stump up more.

    Nothing makes me angrier about socialism than the way it has stopped so many families getting a better home and so many children getting a better education. Conservatives believe that families know best and that parents know best. So we’re taking power away from the State and from councils and giving it to families and parents.”

  • Mr Major’s Speech on Conservative Values – 30 March 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech on Conservative values, held in Birmingham on Monday 30th March 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Ladies and Gentlemen, let me come straight to the point. What is this Election about? It is about the future of our country. It is about the prospects we build for the next generation. Our security. Our place in the world. About the sort of society and the sort of values we want. About the unity of our United Kingdom. It is not about distorting the problems of one sick child for party political propaganda. It is about building the future of one healthy country – and who builds that future.

    Thirteen years ago, under Margaret Thatcher’s leadership, the British people dragged this country up from the floor. Why was it on the floor? Because that’s where the Labour Party and their trade union friends had left it. We don’t want to see that again. So we’re not going to let socialism slither in through the back door, when it’s being thrown out the front door all over the world. When they’re kicking out big brother everywhere else, we’re not going to let little brother come creeping back here.

    I know Socialism. Britain does not want it. Does not need it. Cannot afford it. It spreads envy; it creates division; it nourishes spite. It makes people feel uneasy about the things they’ve achieved for themselves. Are you successful? Then feel guilty. But you shouldn’t be guilty about being successful. You should be proud.

    Don’t fall for the Socialist con-trick. Don’t be bullied. Don’t be brainwashed. Socialism’s strictly for the dustbin. So go out and put it there.

    Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud of what our country has achieved under a Conservative Government. And you, the British people, can be proud of it, too. You have every right to be. It’s your achievement. You did it. You put pride back into our country – created more wealth, higher living standards and better public services than we’ve ever known in our long history. And under the next Conservative government I say to everyone – you will keep and increase the wealth your hard work has earned. Choice for the people. Ownership by the people. Power to the people – that’s our aim. Opening the doors that socialism holds shut. I want every man and woman in Britain to enjoy the Right to Own and the Power to Choose.

    The Conservative Future

    Why does this Election matter so much? Let me paint the sort of life I want for every family.

    Inflation heading towards zero; and prices steady. Taxes coming down again. More money in the pockets of the people. People with spare cash so they can sign with confidence the purchase of a new car. Growth well under way, so overtime and extra earnings are back in business. A strong pound that holds its value. The right to a postal ballot whenever and wherever union bosses try to call a strike. And never, ever, any threat from flying pickets at the factory gate.

    There will be good State schools, that get the basics right, testing and reporting on progress, bringing the best out of each and every child. Schools no longer controlled by the council, but run by the headteacher, governors and parents. For some it could be a place on the assisted places scheme. For others a place at the local grammar school. Either way, it will be up to parents to choose.

    Whenever illness strikes, there will be a modern expanding Health Service there behind you, with free care for all. More say for the GP in how the best care should be given. And more successful Trust Hospitals that are cutting waiting times and performing more operations than ever before.

    Many a family will have bought the house they live in from the council. If it’s a Labour Council, it will probably have tried to hinder them – but thanks to the Conservatives all who want it have the Right to Buy. Though there are difficulties and sacrifices, it will in the end be worth it. And we have new policies to make it easier still. If it is prudent to do so interest rates will be cut, and the monthly mortgage brought down. Strong recovery will mean a pick-up in the housing market. And there will once again be a strong demand for property on sale.

    Privatisation shares should grow in value once the threat of a Labour government is gone – and we will give more opportunities to invest in shares. More people will have cash in hand to spend on the house. And once the world recession is over, and business is prosperous again, companies large and small should be working flat out.

    We will help millions more people to personal pensions, so they know they will have that extra security when they retire. And what’s more, I want every family to be able to pass on what they have built up in a lifetime of work. Pass it onto their children without the taxman taking another swipe.

    Ladies and gentlemen, these policies touch the lives of everyone. They are what Conservative policies began to open up for millions in the 80s. They are our ambitions for every family in the 1990s.

    The Labour Alternative

    Now look at the alternative. What would the country be like under Labour? I’ll tell you.

    No control of inflation. No stable prices – indeed a target to raise inflation to the European average. For the first time ever a political party goes into an Election promising to put inflation up. But not only inflation would go up.

    There would be big tax increases instead of tax cuts. A Labour government would mean £38 billion of extra spending. That’s the equivalent of £1250 a year on average for everyone who pays income tax, on top of Mr Smith’s mock budget tax attack. What price then the new car, the holiday, the mortgage?

    Overtime no longer worth it because of Labour’s National Insurance increases. The economic recovery clobbered by huge tax hikes. Inward investment chased away and jobs destroyed. More strikes and flying pickets back on our streets. Mr Kinnock’s credit controls making it harder to buy a new car and harder to buy a new home. The pound right down and devaluation back on the agenda.

    No self-managed schools. They’re gone. Fewer rights for parents. They’re not on offer. No assisted places scheme. That’s scrapped. Grammar schools closed. They give what too many parents want. Trust hospitals gone, along with all the reforms that had cut waiting lists and boosted operations.

    No cut in mortgage rates. Up they would go. And, far from house prices picking up, down they would plunge. No work for small trades – and with their policies few small traders at all, because the families that employ them would be paying their savings in tax.

    Personal pensions deliberately wrecked. Shares in privatised companies renationalised or their value driven down. And, at the end of their lives, inheritance tax waiting to grab the fruits of a lifetime’s work. No big legacy for the children. Just one last cheque for the State.

    In other words – a Nightmare on Kinnock Street. Every detail of everyone’s lives and everyone’s future will be affected by the decision you take on April 9th 1992. Don’t believe for a second that it doesn’t matter who wins. It matters desperately. It matters to Britain. And it matters to you.

    Don’t be fooled

    So don’t be fooled. Here’s the Labour Leader, nodding and winking and grinning, a foot-in-the-door salesman, trying to sell you a gentle, harmless semi-demi-socialism. Don’t buy that line. There’s no such thing. As a Polish politician who came to see us once said – and heaven knows the Poles should know from bitter experience – “socialism can’t be improved. It has to removed.” So remember: everything seemingly safe and secure can be reversed almost overnight. And with Labour in power it would be back to yesterday with a vengeance.

    Right Voice in the World

    Ladies and gentlemen, the world is moving fast. Shifting under our feet. We have won the Cold War. Just think about that. The Cold War has been won – by the West.

    Socialism in its most extreme form has been defeated. There are opportunities for freedom to grow, for partnership between nations, for the rebirth of a new Europe, for a new generation.

    But we have to take the right decisions, give the right leadership. So – under whose leadership do we go from here? Let us remind people:

    – Who won back for Britain the respect in which we are now held abroad? We did.

    – Who came to the defence of freedom in the Falklands and again in Kuwait? We did.

    – Who stood firm beside the United States in leading the NATO alliance? We did.

    – Who safeguards Britain’s security by keeping our nuclear deterrent up to date? We do.

    – Who first held out a hand to the new Russia and to Eastern Europe’s new democracies? We did.

    – Who reached an agreement at Maastricht which pointed the way to a wider, stronger Europe, whilst protecting Britain’s basic national interests? Yes. You’re right. We did.

    In short, whom can you trust to defend Britain and keep her safe? Whom can you trust to speak for Britain in Europe, the Commonwealth, and the United Nations as we build a new world? You can trust a Conservative Government – this one, the next one, and every one.

    But what of Mr Kinnock, with Mr Kaufman walking half a step behind? What of him?

    – Who campaigned for CND when the Cold War was at its height, and then let his membership ‘lapse’ when others had won it? He did.

    – Who fought NATO’s policy of standing up to the Soviet Union and opposed putting in Cruise Missiles when they had nuclear weapons targeted on us? He did. Yet it was because we stationed cruise missiles pointing to the East that today we have far fewer missiles pointing at us.

    – Who called our closest ally – the United States, the bastion of the free world – a threat equal to the Soviet Union? He did.

    – Who stood for office on a policy of giving away our nuclear deterrent and taking to the hills? He did.

    – Who refuses to give a commitment to build the fourth Trident that our armed forces say is essential for Britain? He does.

    – Who would have kept our troops sitting in the desert waiting for sanctions to dislodge Saddam Hussein? He would.

    – Who has changed policy on Europe six times – so far – ‘wanted out’ at one Election and wants surrender to Brussels at another? He has.

    – Who at Maastricht would have signed up to anything, any deal – at any price? He would.

    That’s the Kinnock and Kaufman line. Of course it may change. If we can’t make out what the two Ks believe in – and we speak English – what on earth would the rest of the world make of it all?

    Ladies and gentlemen, to safeguard the interests of Britain you need a clear head and a cool hand. Consistency. Coherence. Conviction.

    These serious issues need experience, judgement, a firm line, and a sure stand. The stakes are too high in this dangerous world for Britain to put its trust in Labour at home or overseas. They don’t know what they are doing on foreign policy or defence. They don’t know. We don’t know. Nobody knows.

    The challenge and the opportunities in Europe

    Ladies and gentlemen, what kind of world are we to build for our children?

    When you come to cast your vote, that is in every sense the heart of the matter.

    Before everything Britain must be secure. We must take no risks with defence. And no Conservative Government ever will. But we don’t want a negative Britain, a tentative Britain. We want a country with the courage to stand up for what it believes.

    That ‘s what we did at Maastricht. We are right to be at the heart of Europe, but let’s not be starry-eyed about it. Of course, we believe in it. We are part of Europe. It’s our community, our continent, too.

    But we must ask ourselves what kind of Europe we want.

    I want to complete that single market in Europe on which this Party has taken the lead. We need those open spaces for free enterprise to breathe and grow.

    But the greatest virtue of the European Community is not economic. Twice in this century a European war has brought the whole world to the brink of ruin. The bonds we have formed in Western Europe make it inconceivable that such a disaster could ever again begin here. That’s why I want to extend the Community wider until it reaches the far borders of Russia itself. Then we can bring to the countries of the East that gift of peace that we in the West enjoy. It may not happen in our political lifetime – but it will happen. And a secure life for our children will be the certain result.

    Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the positive side of Europe. That’s what we aim to develop. But there’s another side, too. And we’re not planning to jump in blindly as Labour would. There’s the scandal of countries that sign up for European directives and then do nothing about them. There is unnecessary interference by bureaucracy and red tape. And there’s the fatuous pursuit of conformity for the sake of conformity. Seeking to scrap the rules on quarantine that defend us against rabies. Pushing us to make illegal use of pounds and ounces. We’ve made it clear that we will have nothing to do with nonsense like that.

    And we’re not going to change our stand either on the Social Chapter we rejected at Maastricht. It would increase trade union power, push up industrial costs, destroy jobs and deter foreign investment. Hand over to Brussels decisions that are best made in Britain. All things bad for Britain – no wonder our opponents just can’t wait to sign up.

    Most important of all, if anyone but us had been there at Maastricht, Britain would now be signed up to full European Monetary Union; irrespective of whether it was right.

    That was the demand that was put to me at Maastricht. It was a demand that I wasn’t prepared to accept. We worked to negotiate a better deal for Britain. Labour called it a betrayal. But I believe you can be a good European and still say ‘No’. Indeed, to be a good European, you sometimes have to say ‘no’.

    Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to a crunch at a summit, you’re alone in there. Alone with other countries’ leaders arguing the case for Britain. There’s nobody else to help you. Nobody to protect you. No minders. You’re on your own. That’s when experience counts. You’ve got to know your case. Got to master the details. One slip – one careless word – one stroke of temper – one gaffe – and you’ve sold Britain short. You can’t go back into the conference chamber and say: “Sorry, boyo, I got it wrong.”

    Safeguarding the Union

    But there is another crucial constitutional issue at the very heart of this Election. The unity of the United Kingdom. It is, quite literally, the national issue. I do not believe that many people understand what is at stake in this Election. Our political opponents now advocate a course which could lead to the break-up of Britain itself.

    The Labour and Liberal parties are proposing a separate tax-raising parliament for Scotland. It is a policy that would cause the very bedrock of our constitution to quake. It would have profound consequences for Parliament at Westminster. You cannot deny English, Welsh, and Northern Irish MPs the right to vote on health or education or industry in Scotland and then keep full rights for Scottish Members at Westminster to vote on these matters for the West Midlands.

    It simply cannot be done. It wouldn’t wash with the people of the other parts of Britain. They wouldn’t see it as reasonable or fair. And it wouldn’t be reasonable or fair. But once diminish the voting rights of Scotland’s MPs at Westminster, and you would cause new bitterness. Once create a new Parliament in Scotland, and you would create a focus for every grievance – imagined or real – that one part of this Kingdom had against another.

    It is with these dangers that our opponents are now playing. Devolution is at the top of a slope that leads down into the disaster of separation. Once start on that slide – and it would be perilously difficult to stop. The demon of division would be abroad in the land.

    Ladies and gentlemen, the future of the United Kingdom is not something to be toyed and trifled with for short-term Party advantage. But that is what our opponents are doing.

    Labour and Liberal policy would weaken us all. It could lead to a Disunited Kingdom in a United States of Europe. No issue at this election is more far-reaching, more fundamental. A little Scotland and a lesser Union. It would be an unimaginable disaster. Are we, in our generation, perhaps without even realising, to toss away the Union, the rock on which Britain’s greatness rests?

    Ladies and gentlemen, I say ‘No’. The Conservative Party says ‘No’. We must rouse the people to this danger. Warn them. So that they rise and reject with scorn the policies of those foolish men who would have our country surrender in Europe and separate at home. Never, never, never, must the people of Britain go down that road.

    Changing Britain: the reforms of the 1980s

    Ladies and gentlemen, I want a country for our children that is proud and confident, dynamic and prosperous.

    During the 1980s we Conservatives introduced the fundamental reforms needed to create a successful and thriving economy.

    We reduced tax and restored incentives.

    We reformed trade union law and changed industrial attitudes.

    We returned to the people two thirds of the companies owned by the State.

    And we created a culture in which risk-taking and enterprise became attractive again.

    As a result we transformed the British economy. Strikes fell to the lowest levels ever recorded. Investment and productivity soared. And living standards were raised to record levels. And for the first time in a generation our share in world trade began to grow.

    Over the 1980s manufacturing output and manufacturing productivity grew by leaps and bounds. I am sick and tired of hearing British manufacturing industry run down by our Labour opponents. In the West Midlands you know – as I do – how crucial manufacturing is for our children’s future. Manufacturing success is vital for Britain. I will do all in my power to make it secure. But I will tell you what would wreck it. Higher taxes would wreck it. Higher inflation would wreck it. Higher costs would wreck it. Bad industrial relations would wreck it. A Labour government would wreck it.

    Only Labour can stop recovery

    Our economic reforms of the 1980s are still in place. We’ve got the fundamentals right. Inflation is falling. Interest rates have come down. And the exchange rate is stable. It all means Britain is poised for a strong recovery. All it needs is the confidence a Conservative victory will bring. Then we’ll see the Midlands hum again.

    Success for our opponents would stop that recovery dead in its tracks. That’s not just our view; it’s the view of business. One quarter of all businessmen say they would cut investment if Labour won. And why? Because Labour would reverse every one of the Conservative measures on which recovery depends.

    Where we have lowered income tax, Labour would raise it.

    Where we have privatised, Labour would nationalise.

    Where we have taken Government off industry’s back, Labour would put industry on its back.

    And where we have curbed the power of the militants, Labour would unleash them again. It’s one thing seeing them at Bolton and Luton. But I am not going to let them back in Downing Street again.

    Ladies and gentlemen, under Labour, the recovery that lies ahead would be turned into slump.

    When will they ever learn? You can’t tax people into a national recovery. You can’t build national recovery on a philosophy that has emptied the shelves in every supermarket of the Eastern block. The selfsame socialism that, last time they were in office, reduced Britain to the indignity of Mr Roy Hattersley – he of the ‘dream ticket’, remember, administering a third-world subsidy on the price of bread? Not, I imagine, that Mr Hattersley dines principally on bread.

    Homeowners under Labour

    Ladies and gentlemen, there’s one thing about Britain in the 1980s that you won’t hear about from Labour. It is what Conservative policies of the Right to Buy and the Right to Own have given to families who never dreamed they would have anything to leave to their children. 6 million households have bought their homes since 1979. Four and a half million people have personal pensions. 10 million people now own shares – 6 million in the State companies we sold to the people.

    On all these issues Labour fought us all the way. They wanted to stop the British people becoming owners. No-one out there who gained in the 1980s should ever forget it. Dare you trust your home, your shares, your pension to the very people who battled to stop you having them? Who in this hall would ever do that?

    The return of a Labour government would undermine all that you have worked to build. Not by accident. Not by oversight. But by policy, deliberately. For socialism is the doctrine of common ownership, State ownership, not personal ownership. When it comes to ownership they don’t begin to understand – and they don’t begin to care.

    Health

    Ladies and gentlemen, a word about our National Health Service. It is our National Health Service. It doesn’t belong to the Labour Party. We have cherished it, built it, modernised it. And now we’re reforming it to make it even more successful, treating even more patients than ever before.

    They’re working, those reforms, really working. Strengthening the Health Service. Extending wider, ever wider, the frontiers of free, modern patient care. It’s time somebody took the gloves off about the Health Service. Well, mine are coming off now – and staying off. I want you all to shout from the rooftops the miracles that our doctors, nurses, and hospitals have achieved.

    We have given the Health Service the strongest support it has ever had from any Government. Over 13 years, year after year after year, we’ve put more money into the Health Service than even the rashest Labour opposition ever dared promise. And why? Because we know how to run a free market economy, how to create the resources that, through thick and thin, help our Health Service grow.

    Labour couldn’t do that with their now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t promises. The last Labour government really did cut the Health Service. Really did cut hospital building. Really did cut nurses’ pay. And pushed the waiting lists up to an all-time high – the most shameful record even in their barren history. And these are the people who dare to lecture us.

    I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, their exploitation of the Health Service shows up the real face of Labour. Shallow. Cynical. Negative. Desperate for power. These are people ready to fabricate every imaginable fiction about our great national institution if it ‘serves their purpose’.

    I give the people of Britain this promise. Any government I lead will make the National Health Service, ever better, ever stronger, ever more able to tackle the huge challenges of modern health care. It’s not our Health Service. It’s your Health Service, yours – the people’s. And we will protect it – and we will build it up.

    Education

    Ladies and gentlemen, there’s another great service about which I feel passionately – the education service. So here’s another pair of gloves coming off. I will fight for a good start in life for every child. I will fight for the rights of parents, for variety in education, and for a return to basics in the classroom. Our children have only one chance for a proper grounding in life. And I am simply not prepared to see their future blighted by destructive theories. I want them to concentrate on the basics in education. To read. To write. To add up. That’s where they must start. And it’s on that we must build.

    Too many of our children have been victims of Labour’s fetish for levelling-down. Vital props for life, like spelling, tables and dates banished from the classroom. Children of different abilities made to learn at the same speed. Tests resisted – in case they showed how little had been learned. Parents denied information, results, reports – in case awkward questions were asked.

    Where’s the logic in setting out deliberately to close down good schools and undermine quality in those that remain? But that’s what the Left did, right here in Britain. And that’s what Labour still plan, right here in the West Midlands. Nine people out of ten in Birmingham support its grammar schools. But Labour would shut them – and every other grammar school in Britain. What a pointless, negative policy it is. And what a degrading spectacle. Grammar school men and women picking on grammar school girls and boys.

    I make no distinction between any school, any parent, any child. In our Manifesto we have set out 39 steps to a better education for all. So be in no doubt. After April 9 we will press on with our reforms in education, extend parents’ rights, and let more schools go free of council control, wherever the parents so wish. My belief is easily expressed. The best for every child – the best from every child. That’s what I will fight for in this Election and after it. That’s what our children deserve. Nothing but the best. And they shall have it. For they are our tomorrow.

    Conclusion

    Ladies and gentlemen, the day of decision is coming nearer. It’s the day when Britain will decide whether to go on leading the world towards a future based on choice, personal ownership and private enterprise. Or to slide back almost alone into the mire of socialism.

    Go out and tell the people what’s at stake. Go out and open their eyes to the threat that Labour and Liberals present to their lives. Go out and tell them what the Nightmare on Kinnock Street would mean for us all.

    And go out and tell them of the new wealth, the new opportunities a Conservative Government will bring. For our pledge to Britain is a better future for all. A future where every individual counts. Power to the people. And pride in the world. That’s our battlecry.

    What I want is a country of real opportunity, where everyone of our people is free to choose. A country with a head. And a country with a heart. Wealth and welfare hand in hand.

    If that’s what you care for, if that’s what you fight for. Then go out with me on April 9 – and win for Britain, win for our children, win for freedom, and win for all our futures.

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Taxation – 30 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on taxation. It was issued on Monday 30th March 1992, reference 665/92.

    LOWER TAXES AND RECOVERY

    Let me start by telling you something of our plans for this week. We are going to highlight some issues crucial to this election: the economic recovery; defence; international affairs; education; housing and mortgages; law and order; jobs and prices. We’ll be setting out how we intend to carry our reforms forward – and the challenges we face in Europe,” the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, told a press conference at Conservative Central Office today.

    I intend to concentrate on the sort of society I want to build at home, and how we intend to build up our influence abroad.

    This morning we are going to focus on the two faces of tax. High Labour taxes – low Conservative taxes.

    Low taxes are essential to a fair society and a successful economy.

    Low taxes give people incentive. They leave people more to spend for themselves and their families. So they work harder. They get more satisfaction from what they do.

    And what they do is to earn more for this country. More for themselves – more for others.

    Low taxes encourage Britain’s talent to stay here and work here -and they encourage businesses to create jobs here. We want that enterprise.

    We want those jobs.

    Never has low tax been so vital to the health of the economy. Never would it be so wrong to increase tax.

    Over the past 13 years, we’ve cut the top rate of tax – and we’ve got Britain’s basic rate down to 25p. That’s good. But we’ve got to do better.

    We’ve got to bring the basic rate down further.

    We’ve already started bringing it down to 20p. And we’ve done it in a new way – introducing tax cuts from the bottom up. Every taxpayer will benefit from the new 20p band. But taxpayers with the lowest incomes will benefit most.

    That’s the way we mean to go on. Taking more and more taxpayers out of 25p tax by widening the band. This way, we can make progress – year by year – towards a 20p basic rate for all.

    We’ll use some of the fruits of growth to finance extra public spending – as we have done this year, and are committed to do in the future. But we’ll let people enjoy that growth too. That’s the way to give everybody a better life in a richer country.

    That is a balanced approach. That is my approach – the approach my Government will follow right through the next Parliament.”

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Foreign Policy – 27 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on foreign policy. It was issued on Friday 27th March 1992, reference 650/92.

    A WORLD BASED ON OUR VALUES

    Extract from a speech by the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party at Pontypridd, today.

    “The world is as dangerous today as it has been for two generations. We have won the Cold War. Reflect on that. Won the Cold War.

    Socialism in its extremist form has been defeated. There are opportunities for freedom to grow, for partnership between nations, for the rebirth of a new Europe. Five hundred years after Columbus discovered the New World of America, we have it in our power to create a new world for our children. 1992 could be a year as significant in world history as 1492.

    We can do that. But we have to take the right decisions, give the right leadership. That means we must have a Conservative government.

    Let me illustrate this for you by posing a few questions:

    – Who has won back for Britain the respect in which we are held abroad?
    – Who came to the defence of freedom in the Falklands and Kuwait?
    – Who has always stood firm beside the United States in leading the NATO alliance?
    – Who has always safeguarded Britain’s security with our independent nuclear deterrent?
    – Who has taken the lead in holding out a hand to the new Russia and to Eastern Europe’s new democracies?
    – Who reached an agreement at Maastricht which pointed the way to a wider, stronger Europe, but safeguarded Britain’s basic national interests?

    In short, you must ask yourself this question: whom can you trust to defend the nation’s interests and keep Britain safe? Whom can you trust to lead Europe, the Commonwealth, and the United Nations towards this new world?

    I believe the answer is this Conservative Party – and only this Party.

    Labour have been wrong on all the critical issues of foreign and defence policy in our time. Sometimes they have made not one – but several – mistakes on the same issue. A case of – if at first you make a blunder, then blunder and blunder and blunder again.

    I believe that these serious issues need proven judgement, a cool head, and a sure stand. The stakes are too high in this difficult world for Britain to put its trust in Labour’s team.

    I say again. In 1992 a new world is being formed. It is a world based on our values, free market values. It is a world which has rejected socialism. People are turning to us in Britain – for a firm lead and the right policies. A socialist Britain would be sidelined and scorned. That would be a disaster for Britain – but it would also be a blow against our hopes for the new world. In 1492 Columbus ignored the flat-earth fainthearts. Five hundred years later, we cannot let the failed, flat-earth theory of Socialism rob our children of the prize of a new world today.”

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Conservative Principles – 27 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on Conservative principles. It was issued on Friday 27th March 1992, reference 631/92.

    POWER TO THE PEOPLE

    “Since this election campaign began, I have been using these morning press conferences to make very clear the principles for which the Conservative party stands,” the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, said at a press conference at Conservative Central Office, today.

    I want to bring those principles together for you this morning.

    We are fighting for low taxation – and for the voter’s right to know what the cost of Labour’s fantasy promises would be.

    We are fighting for individual freedom – and for government free from trade union control.

    We are fighting for the secure defence of this country, for Britain’s interests in Europe – and a respected place in the world.

    We are fighting for opportunity and choice, for good public services, which respond to what people want – against the power of the state, for the power of the people.

    I want to lead a government that helps people build their own lives, a government that gives people a good start, and a better life.

    I want to give people what is rightfully theirs:

    – their own money – as we drive down the rate of tax;
    – their stake in this country, as we encourage ownership of homes – shares and pensions;
    – their sense of responsibility – at work and at home with their families;
    – their sense of pride – as the quality of public service is driven up by the new enthusiasm of a Citizen’s Charter that puts people first;
    – their hope for the future – secured by economic recovery, industrial success abroad and good jobs at home.

    That’s what I want for this country.

    That’s what I’m going to fight for between now and 9 April.

    And that’s why we will win.”

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Trade and Industry Policy – 26 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on trade and industry policy. It was issued on Thursday 26th March 1992, reference 614/92.

    LABOUR IN, EVERYBODY OUT

    “Labour in, everybody out. For years that was the refrain that wrecked British industry”, the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, told a press conference at Conservative Central Office, today.

    But last year Britain achieved a record level of industrial peace. Fewer days were lost through strikes than at any time since records began a century ago.

    That is a triumph for good sense in industry – and for the reforming work of a Conservative Government.

    It has brought this country huge dividends: inward investment, higher productivity and higher wages – and a new reputation for reliability.

    ‘Made in Britain’ is a proud label again – not a warning that the spare parts are rotting on the dockside.

    Strife and disruption used to dominate our national life. Flying pickets. Wildcat strikes. Power cuts. Intimidation. Confrontation. Lost orders. Cancelled deliveries. Roaring inflation.

    Those were the features of a country out of the control of its Labour government – and under the control of its unions.

    The threat, I am afraid, is still there. Union militants are hoping – desperately – for a Labour government.

    Then organised disruption would be back. Labour are already committed to undo some of our key reforms. Secondary pickets would be back on our streets.

    The truth is, the unions still have a stranglehold on the Labour party.

    They are keeping pretty quiet in this election. But Kenneth Clarke is going to remind you how they pull the strings – and Michael Howard is going to spell out the consequences.”

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Scotland – 25 March 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech made in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Wednesday 25th March 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It’s good to be back in Scotland for my seventh visit as PM – and after April 9 I shall be back again – as Prime Minister.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, the choice at this Election is stark – as stark as it has ever been. It is a choice between socialism and opportunity, between high tax or low, between rising prices or falling prices, between trade union power and freedom at work. It’s between yesterday’s rhetoric and today’s reality, between a failed and humiliating past and a better future for us all.

    Let me not mince words. This Election is far too important for that. Labour would wreck Britain. No one should enter any polling booth without a clear picture of what Labour stand for and the calamity that would befall our country if they should become its Government.

    I will tell you what Labour are. Labour are destroyers. Their only political programme is to destroy everything the British people have been building these last few years.

    Low taxes? They would reverse them.

    Personal pensions? They would ruin them.

    Personal savings? They would devalue them.

    Good schools? They would close them.

    Union reforms? They would scrap them.

    Wherever Labour found a spark of innovation a shred of independence, or the spirit of enterprise they would pick it up and snuff it out. For all our futures, they must not be allowed to do it. And we will not let them do it.

    They would turn the flights of television fiction into dismal reality. Imagine it. These are the voyages of the Starship ‘Lack of Enterprise’. It’s five-year mission to seek out and destroy new choices and new opportunities. To boldly tax where no man has taxed before.

    Right back to stardate 1974-79; well, that’s one old repeat Britain can surely do without.

    Ladies and gentlemen, there are two things you need to remember about tax. Labour are tax addicts. Conservatives have an allergy to tax. We want to bring tax down. They want to put tax up. A Labour Government would mean the biggest increase in personal tax since the war – not just for the better-off, but for everyone.

    Do you remember the last Labour Government when tax levels soared to 98%? When the basic rate of tax for every worker was 35 pence in the pound. Well, now we know where John Smith gets his ideas from – he sat in that Labour Cabinet. He supported those high taxes.

    Labour are still ducking the issue of our costing of their tax and spending plans. They don’t tell the truth about our policies, and they won’t tell the truth about their own.

    Mr Cook has confirmed that all their promises would be implemented within five years. The cost of that would be £38 billion. I repeat £38 billion – £1,250 a year in extra tax for every taxpayer. The working families of Britain would be devastated; it would be the worst tax assault they had ever suffered. They need to know – and know now – whether Labour will impose the tax to pay for their promises or drop the fraudulent promises they cannot afford. So which is it to be? They should tell the people – and tell them now.

    Mr Kinnock’s Shadow Cabinet and his minders cannot protect him for ever from answering these questions. The country expects the answers. It has a right to have them. So let’s hear them – now.

    Then there’s inflation – Labour’s hidden tax. Labour like inflation. That’s fortunate – because they always produce it. John Smith says he’s ‘happy’ about higher inflation. He is happy to push prices up. Do you remember what it was like under Labour when you went into a shop and found one price sticker stuck on top of another as prices soared week by week? Do you remember trying to peel them off to see what the price had been the week before. That’s what inflation means. That’s what inflation does. I’ll tell you what I want. I want stable prices. I want prices to be printed on the side of the packet. I want prices you can trust.

    What would Labour’s price rises do to the peace of mind of every pensioner? What would they do to savings, to pensions annuities, to the low-paid and those on benefit, all those whose income is fixed?

    I’ll tell you what they would do. Hit where it hurts most. Hit the vulnerable. Hit the weak. Hit the elderly. In fact the only target a Labour government would hit would be the pockets of the people.

    But it wouldn’t just be people. It would be business. Every percentage point on inflation would cost industry £5 billion a year. What would that do to investment? What would that do to jobs? What would that do to help recovery and get Britain competing in the world?

    Labour are following their instincts – punching out with a left, and a left, and a left. First, higher tax. Next, higher prices. Then, just as the taxpayer reels, comes another typical socialist blow – credit controls. That’s what Mr Kinnock wants. Unbelievable. Homebuyers queuing for loans. State decisions on whether you can take out the HP for a new car or new television. Labour taking away your choice. Grabbing it for themselves.

    Well, our priorities are different. For us, the battle against inflation is the acid test. This month, for the first time since before man walked on the moon, British inflation rates are lower than those in Germany. It seemed impossible. It seemed unachievable. But this Government did it. And now, I promise you, we will go on – until we achieve stable prices for Britain. That is our aim. That is what we will do.

    Ladies and gentlemen, wherever you go in the world – and in the last sixteen months I’ve seen a lot of it – one thing people always comment on is the end of the British disease. The British disease? Do you remember when they all used to say it? We were the champions of the world – for strikes. We were the playthings of trade union power. A national humiliation. It was a national disgrace.

    This Government has changed all that. We have been keeping strike records for over a century. And last year the number of days lost to strikes was the lowest ever since records began. That’s good for Britain. Good for our name. Good for our exports. Good to encourage inward investment. And good for jobs.

    Reforming the trade unions is one of our proudest achievements. The public have supported it. Union members have supported it. So who could believe that anyone would want to reverse it? But they do. Labour do. We must tell the people. We must stop them. We must make sure that the union barons never again hold sway in this land in the way that once they did.

    I just don’t believe that people want to reverse our union reforms. I think they want to take them further. And so do I. And so we will.

    That’s why in the next Parliament we will give individuals greater freedom in joining the union of their choice. We will see to it that no strike is held without a full postal ballot. We will make sure that unions give at least seven days’ notice of a strike. And we will allow any member of the public to take legal action to stop the disruption of their public services by wildcat strikes. That’s the way to give power to the people and to keep everyone within the law.

    That’s our agenda. So what is Labour’s? To allow secondary strikes. To stop employers obtaining an immediate court order to stop an unlawful strike. To take away from individual union members the right not to join industrial action. To restrict severely the right of the courts to take away a union’s assets when it breaks the law.

    Back to flying pickets. Back to wildcat strikes. Be the law ever so mighty, the trade unions would be above it. That’s Labour’s policy. It would be a calamity – and the British people must never let it happen again.

    Back to the past with a vengeance. Labour Ministers and trade union leaders carving up the British economy, and the British people left with the scraps. In 1979 we said goodbye to all that. On April 9 we must bury it for good.

    I want you to tell the country how we cherish the National Health Service. And by the way, it is the National Health Service; it does not belong to the Labour Party. I will never forget what I owe to the Health Service. I will do everything I can to strengthen and develop it. So long as I am Prime Minister the resources we give it will grow year by year.

    There will be many people in Britain – not just Conservatives – but people who support other Parties, and who care for the Health Service, who will have been distressed and shocked by the face the Labour Party has now revealed. By the glee with which they have swooped on human error and personal suffering to serve their Party’s ends. The British people are not naive. They will have noted with what relish Labour spokesmen have crowded forward to blacken the name of the Health Service and the doctors and nurses who work in it.

    No regard for the truth. No regard for the feelings and emotions of the families they use. Nothing but concern for their own self-seeking propaganda. None of that simple decency which the British people expect. I tell you this. This attitude tells you more about the people who lead the Labour Party than it does about the Health Service. Such men are unfit to govern.

    Such men must never govern.

    Ladies and Gentleman, twice during our period of office, we have had to go to war – against the dictator of Argentina and against the dictator of Iraq. On both occasions the world knew where Britain stood. There were no doubts. No question marks. There was no uncertainty. Britain was steadfast.

    The world needs to know where Britain stands. We cannot afford a Labour Party which doesn’t know from one year to the next where they stand. For the Labour Party, defence is not a responsibility – it is an embarrassment.

    Labour is led by a man who – when the West faced a military build-up by the Soviet dictators – was proud to proclaim himself a disarmer. The brutal question has to be asked – is that man worthy or capable to be in charge of Britain’s defences?

    Ladies and gentlemen, Britain needs strong defences and there is only one way to guarantee that – by electing a Conservative Government.

    Britain’s authority in the world is a vital concern to everyone in this election. There is a stark choice between the parties. These are the questions which everyone should ask.

    – Who won back for Britain the respect in which we are held abroad?

    – Who came to the defence of freedom in the Falklands and in Kuwait?

    – Who has stood firm beside the United States in leading the NATO Alliance?

    – Who has safeguarded Britain’s security with our independent nuclear deterrent?

    – Who has held out a hand to Russia and Eastern Europe, leading them back into the free world?

    – Who has fought for Britain’s interests in Europe – consistently and constructively?

    In short, you must ask yourself this question: whom can you trust to defend the nation’s interests and keep Britain safe?

    I believe the answer is clear. This Government and this Party.

    Now let me put some other questions to you.

    – Who campaigned for years for CND, and then let his membership ‘lapse’?

    – Who opposed NATO’s policy of standing up to the Soviet Union?

    – Who called our closest ally – the United States – a threat equal to that of the Soviet Union?

    – Who would have given away our nuclear deterrent and based our defence on taking to the hills?

    – Who would have kept our troops sitting in the desert while they waited for sanctions to dislodge Saddam Hussein?

    – Who would have thrown away our membership of the European Community?

    – And who, at Maastricht, would have signed up to anything, any deal – at any price?

    The answer to all these questions is of course…..but I don’t have to tell you, do I? There is only one Party in the western world which has been so wrong, so often on the critical questions of our time. Never were so many mistakes of judgment made on so many subjects by so few.

    Every day, Douglas Hurd and I have to take crucial decisions for Britain. Our record is there for all to see. It’s tried; it’s tested. Unlike the Labour Party’s. This is a flawed, flakey – and dangerous record. How could the British people trust themselves to Labour.

    What would those emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, reaching out to freedom, make of a Labour government? What would they think? They have endured the pain and the privation of socialism for decades, and thrown it off after much grief and suffering. So what does Labour propose to send them – Gerald Kaufman? Who is Gerald Kaufman? Where is Gerald? Has anyone here seen Gerald Kaufman? A good question, that, in the context of this campaign. Who is Gerald Kaufman? Do you remember him before he disappeared, locked away by the image makers? I personally think that’s rather unfair. I rather like seeing him on television. What I say is – set Gerald free. Let us see more of the man who praised the ‘magnificent achievements’ of the Marxist regime in Nicaragua – shortly before the Nicaraguans voted to consign it to the dustbin of history.

    Ladies and gentlemen, almost twenty years ago, it was a Conservative Government which took Britain into Europe. We in this Party have never wavered in our commitment to membership or to the Community’s fundamental principles.

    But what makes a good European? Always agreeing with our partners doesn’t make a good European. Always agreeing with the Commission doesn’t make a good European. Sometimes a good European has to say ‘no’. He has to say no if he sees Europe moving in the wrong direction. He has to say no if he sees Britain’s interests threatened. That is why, when necessary, we have rejected the proposals of the Commission. Insisted on greater financial discipline. And we have got it. When we demanded a fairer contribution from Britain to the Community Budget – we got it. When we called for the completion of the Single Market. We got that too.

    And last December, at Maastricht, I negotiated on behalf of our country an agreement which advances British interests and strengthens the Community. It provides us with a superb platform for the British Presidency of the Council of Ministers, which will culminate in the historic summit that I will bring to Edinburgh later this year.

    Those negotiations were tough. They were gruelling. Let me tell you something. When you are negotiating in Europe with your fellow Presidents and fellow Prime Ministers, there is nobody else with you. You’re on your own. You’ve got to have your wits about you. You’ve got to be clear about what you want to achieve. You have to understand the detail. One mistake – one slip of the tongue – one careless word – one moment of indecision – one gaffe – and you’ve sold Britain down the river.

    Let me tell you what I believe are the principles and objectives that are right for all of us in Europe.

    First, we want to see a community of nation states, not a United States of Europe. When our national interests and our partners’ interests coincide, then common action makes commonsense. But we must never give up the right, our national right, to take the crucial decisions about our security, our foreign policy and our defence.

    Elsewhere, responsibility should not be given to the Community when it can be discharged at national or local level. That is a principle that I insisted on at Maastricht. It is a principle to which the Conservative Party will hold fast.

    Second, we must ensure that the Single Market is a genuine free market, open for business right across the Community. It must have common rules – and those rules must be obeyed. Britain has an outstanding record in implementing Community Directives, once they are agreed. Some of our partners are keener on making new rules than keeping them. We will not take lectures on being a good European from partners that drag their feet.

    Third, we want to see a wider, more open and outward looking Europe – a Europe which brings into the fold, as and when they are ready, the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. A wider Europe will be a better Europe. A safer Europe. A more secure Europe. The right Europe to hand on to the next generation.

    Labour’s approach to Europe puts Labour’s needs first, Britain’s needs – someway behind.

    Labour have changed their policy on the principle of Community membership. Not once, not twice, not three times… not four times… not five times. Six times.

    Not long ago, they wanted to pull Britain out of Europe. Now they can’t wait to accept – uncritically – every proposal advanced by Brussels, whatever the damage to our national interests, no matter how great. When we defended Britain’s interests, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman had a special word for it. He called it a betrayal. One wonders what manner of word he would find to cover their own craven position.

    Labour sees the Brussels bureaucracy as a raft on which to build a socialist superstate. They want to turn the Community – and I use their own words – into the ‘ally of Socialism in Britain’.

    They want to accept the Social Chapter which we rejected at Maastricht – a Social Chapter which would increase trade union power, push up industrial costs, and hand to Brussels on a plate decisions that should be made in Britain.

    More important still, if Labour, not the Conservatives – if Mr Kinnock and Mr Kaufman, not Douglas Hurd and I – had been at Maastricht, Britain would now be signed up to full European Monetary Union; regardless of whether it was right for Britain.

    I was not prepared to do that. I repeat – you can be a good European and still say ‘no’. Indeed, to be a good European sometimes you must say no.

    Ladies and gentlemen, there is one other great issue of which I must speak tonight. When I came to Scotland, just a few weeks ago, I said that this issue transcended the Election. It does. For it concerns the future of our United Kingdom.

    Everyone in Scotland knows what I feel about this. I have made – I will make – no attempt to tack or trim. I want to see our Kingdom stay stay a United Kingdom. The United Kingdom, whose name is respected in every corner of the world.

    I believe the vast majority of people in Scotland share my view. They remember – as I remember – that together, across nearly three centuries of our history, the peoples of these islands have shaped the destiny of the world.

    No-one asked in those years whether the statesmen, the administrators, the men and women of industry and the arts, the writers and the lawgivers who came from these shores were Scottish, English, Irish or Welsh. It was enough that they came from this United Kingdom.

    It was enough that they carried our language, our law, our principles, our civilisation. Together our nations have been far, far greater than the sum of their parts. Separate, we could never have changed the face of half the world. But together we did.

    And, although we achieved this together, no-one, once they set foot on these islands, could doubt that the identity of each of our nations persisted and thrived. The Act of Union left Scotland free to develop its own code of law, its own education system, its own church, its own banks. Scotland retains her own unique responsibilities and distinctive traditions – with all the influence in the world that the Union brings. What is so different in Scotland today, that some in this generation should conspire to destroy the balance that has served us all so well?

    I speak to you as an Englishman, not a Scot. But I also speak to you as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The future of Scotland is your decision. If after all the arguments have been carefully weighed, the people of Scotland want to break the bonds that bind us, then it can be done. No nation can be held within a union against its will.

    Yes, we can break up the United Kingdom. But it would be an unimaginable disaster. But we can do it – and, whether we intend to or not, if we take the wrong decisions, we will break up the United Kingdom.

    But as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I have a duty to rise above the heat and fire of an Election campaign. I have a responsibility to point out to the whole country – to every part of this Kingdom – the true nature of the issues at stake and the dangers we face. Any significant change in the constitutional arrangements between us will inevitably throw every aspect of those relationships into the melting-pot.

    It is not Party advantage that leads me to this. There are others in Scotland who pursue the short-term course, the populist course, the self-serving course. I speak as I do because I believe – and believe with a passion – that we must fight for what is right. It would be all too easy, fatally easy, to conclude that the best interests of the Conservative Party would be served by separation for Scotland. We would be unbeatable at Westminster if that were the case. But that is not the nature of this Party. And it is not the nature of this Prime Minister. We are the Unionist Party. And we will fight for the Union.

    Ladies and gentlemen, I will waste no time on the narrow nationalist case. It is a negative case, a socialist case, a separatist case. It is the fast route to the divorce of two great nations. The exchange of Great Britain for a little Scotland and a lesser Union. Our enemies and rivals would think we were mad.

    But it is with that very madness that the Labour Party and the Liberal Party – the advocates of a tax-raising parliament – now foolishly play. Set aside that the combination of Labour Government in Westminster and a tax-raising parliament here in Edinburgh would make Scotland the most expensive place in Europe in which to invest.

    The truth is this. It is what others have called the West Lothian question. It is what I call the Robin Cook reply. If there were to be in Scotland a tax-raising parliament with responsibility for health, education, or industry, then it would inevitably raise other questions. People in England and Wales and Northern Ireland would certainly question the rights of Scottish MPs to decide on these matters at Westminster for them. It would mean the creation of two-tier MPs, with Scotland’s MPs in the second rank. It could also mean that the level of Scotland’s representation at Westminster might be seen elsewhere as too high. In all this we see the very bedrock of our constitution beginning to quake.

    I do not want these things to happen. I want to avoid, not to promote, the bitterness and conflict that would be the certain result. A new tax-raising parliament cannot be seen as a simple bolt-on extra to the constitution. It might start there. But it would never end there. Labour, in their self-seeking way, are playing thoughtlessly upon grievances in Scotland. For short-term advantage they are prepared to do long-term damage. They portray as a panacea what is a Pandora’s Box. Open that box – and the demon of separation would be let loose. We should not see it caged again so easily.

    Scotland leads in this debate – but the current arrangements rest on the consent of everyone involved. To break our Union would be to diminish our influence for good in the world, just at the time when it was needed most. To break our Union would be to diminish our place in Europe – a separate Scotland would never be at its heart, but at best on its fringe. Labour policy would weaken us all. It would mean a Disunited Kingdom in a United States of Europe. And this Party will have none of it.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot hide from you how profoundly I feel about this issue. It is easy in an Election campaign for people to lose sight of the fundamentals. Among these the greatest is the very standing and security of our country – at home, in Europe and in the wider world.

    The first duty of the Conservative Party when we came back to office in 1979 was to restore our pride and authority in the world. That we have triumphantly done. People across the world now look to Britain. We are giving a lead to others in crises and difficulties in every part of the globe. Standing for partnership in a wider Europe – but never afraid to pitch in there fighting for our country’s interests.

    The Union is, I believe, the rock on which this Kingdom’s authority rests. Standing together, we have moulded the history of much of the world. Separating or separated we would be tossed on its tides.

    I appeal to people in every part of our Kingdom to reflect on that. To reject with scorn the short-sighted policies of those who would surrender in Europe and separate at home.

    Let us stand together. Stand for what we believe. Stand for what we can yet achieve. Together. United. Proud of Scotland, yes. And proud of the Union, too. Let us go out from this hall and tell the world. In this Party we will fight – and go on fighting to defend the interests of our country and that rock of Union on which its greatness rests.

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Foreign Policy – 24 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on foreign policy. It was issued on Tuesday 24th March 1992, reference 575/92.

    THE BEST TEAM FOR A DANGEROUS WORLD

    “Some people regard foreign affairs as an optional extra in a British General Election. But, in truth, they are not,” the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, told a press conference at Conservative Central Office, today.

    The last year has been dominated by overseas concerns: the Gulf War, the Maastricht agreement, the future of Hong Kong and its relationship with China, South Africa, human rights, the renaissance of the Commonwealth and the immense turmoil in the former Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe.

    In these events the United Kingdom has played a leading role. We fought as America’s main ally in the Gulf – and successfully. We won an agreement at Maastricht against expectations – and against the opposition of some of our partners.

    We safeguarded the future of Hong Kong, secured the building of the airport and sought better human rights in China and Tibet.

    We promoted South Africa’s position in world talks and supported the peace talks with both President De Klerk and Mr Mandela.

    And we led the way in supporting reform throughout the Russian coup, backed Russia’s application to the IMF, demanded tangible aid for the Russians and signed the first accord with them for nearly 200 years.

    The future will be equally crowded. We must come to terms with the new security situation in Europe and the rest of the world.

    We must fight our corner in the European Community over the Common Agricultural Policy, future financing, the Single Market, and enlargement of the EC. And we must do so as President of the Community.

    We must continue to bind the Commonwealth together and encourage good government.

    We must give a lead at the Rio summit.

    We must retain strong defences, commission the fourth Trident submarine and command the Rapid Reaction Corps in the newly modernised NATO forces.

    These are immense tasks for the immediate future. The question at this Election is a stark one. Whom can you trust to defend our interests and keep Britain safe?”

  • Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on the Conservative Vision – 23 March 1992

    Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on the Conservative Party’s vision for the future. It was issued on Monday 23rd March 1992, reference 567/92.

    Speech by the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, speaking at Sheffield, today.

    “Ladies and Gentlemen, here in this great city of Sheffield, let me begin by saying – the knives are out for Labour. And where better to sharpen them?

    In recent days I’m told that Labour have been calling our campaign negative. Good. That means our attacks are getting home. That means they don’t like it. The only negative thing in this campaign are their policies for Britain. We Tories will continue to ring the warning bell about the effect Labour’s policies will have on the living standards of everyone in Britain. The people have a right to know. And we will tell them.

    Labour’s facade is starting to crack under pressure:

    – John Smith sets Labour’s official target for inflation – to take it upwards.

    – John Prescott admits that Labour’s minimum wage would destroy jobs.

    – Roy Hattersley implies that John Smith’s higher tax rates could go even higher.

    – And Neil Kinnock? Well Mr Kinnock says he still believes in Clause IV – the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.

    And just this morning Mr Kinnock committed the Labour Party to re-introduce credit controls. A typical Socialist answer. Form a queue. Wait for the state to tell you when you can buy a home. Wait for the state to tell you when you can sell your house to someone who wants to buy it. That’s no way to get the housing market going. That’s no way to help young people onto the housing ladder. It’s a way to dish people’s prospects and dash their hopes. It’s a policy to destroy the housing market – a policy to destroy the recovery.

    Once again Labour have provided the wrong answer at the wrong time.

    Last week he said that Britain would have been a better place if Labour had won on their programme in 1983. A better place? With unilateral disarmament? Withdrawal from Europe? And the biggest nationalisation programme ever known?

    Ladies and Gentlemen, by their gaffes ye shall know them. Labour’s policies are falling apart. We are going to see to it that their vast experience of Opposition will continue indefinitely.

    The Conservative Vision

    Ladies and Gentlemen, what’s at stake in this Election is the future of Britain. The decision we take on 9 April will be critical for the prospects of everyone who lives in our country – wherever they come from.

    Let me tell you why I came into politics. First and foremost, because there were things I wanted to change. Where I grew up, in Lambeth, we were told that decisions were best left to the State or the council – never to the family, never to the individual. That’s not my kind of society. I want a country in which everyone is able to develop their talents to the full. Where they are free to choose. And where effort and hard-work is rewarded.

    Never forget the people who live on the wrong side of the tracks. They want to live on the right side. I want the sort of country that will let them do so. Ladies and Gentlemen, no Government that I lead – certainly not the Conservative Government that I will form after 9 April – will forget them. In the 1990s I want to take the Conservative Party into those places in Britain where its message has not yet been heard.

    Some people, I know, hang back from our Party for reasons of ancient loyalties. Let me say this to them. Our modern Tory Party is for each and every person in Britain. We want to banish for ever the artificial divisions in our society. And it is Conservatism – not Socialism – that will break those barriers down. Let us carry a message to everyone in the country. Join us. Help us to continue our campaign to change the face of Britain.

    I say to those who want a better Health Service, join us. Join the Party that has committed more resources than every before to the Health Service; that’s giving local doctors and hospitals control over the decisions that are best for local patients; and which has seen the biggest explosion in modern high quality patient care this country has every known.

    I say to those who want a better deal for tenants in housing. Join us. You won’t get that better deal from the Labour Party with its mangy municipal socialism. It was our Party that gave you the Right to Buy. Our Party that has a Charter to guarantee new rights to tenants. Our Party that offers new ways into ownership. And our Party, and our Party alone that will crack down on arrogant Labour Housing Departments that neglect their tenants. Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve seen too much of that sort of attitude from Labour local authorities. They’re a disgrace to local government.

    I say to those who want a better future, join us. Our vision is that every family should have the personal prosperity that comes from low taxes, from their own savings, their own pensions, their own home, their own endeavour. That every family should have their own piece of Britain – and in due time should be able to pass it on to their children.

    Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes – it matters as much on the shopfloor as well as in the boardroom. Let’s show people that we understand these things and are with them. People want to get on. To do well for their families. To give their children a good start in life. That’s right. It’s natural. These are the deepest instincts of a free people.

    A free and responsible people must have – deserve to have – choice and opportunity. Grand words, maybe, but they go to the heart of everyday life. Choice over how to spend the money you earn. Choice in education and schools. Choice in housing. Choice over the future shape of local government. And the new citizen’s rights enshrined in our Citizen’s Charter. Those are the choices we offer – and no-one else will give them.

    Privatisation of choice

    Ladies and Gentlemen, our Party is in the business of the privatisation of choice – giving choice back to the individual, the family. Choice is the quiet privatisation. It has changed lives by the millions. In the last 10 years it has improved the life of every family in Britain. In the whole proud catalogue of privatisation it’s the most successful of all.

    But Labour – wouldn’t you know it – want to renationalise choice. They want to lead a march of the big battalions back into the private lives of every citizen. The scales that we’ve worked so hard to tip against the power of the state, Labour would load down with red tape, regulation, and tax and tip them yet again back against the individual. We must never give them the chance to do that – and we won’t.

    Tax

    Ladies and Gentlemen, during this Election we’re going to say a great deal about Labour’s proposals on spending and tax. I know they won’t like it. But we’re still going to do it. We have costed their makeshift manifesto. Thirty-one billion pounds on top of John Smith’s earlier promises. To pay for that, on average, every person would have to fork out an extra £1,250 every year. That’s the price of Labour – and it’s not just for people on middle incomes. It’s for everyone.

    Yesterday I challenged Labour to tell the people the truth. Take all their pledges, one by one. Accept our costing – or refute it. Stand by their promises – or withdraw them. And what answer has so far come from Mr Kinnock – a silence as profound as it is unusual. So tonight I repeat the challenge.

    The issue of tax is fundamental to the Election. Because Labour’s tax and spending plans would change the lives of millions upon millions of families for the worse.

    Whatever the Socialists say, one thing we know. On their own admission, Labour will impose the biggest increase in tax since the War. It would be a disaster for Britain – and it wouldn’t just be middle income families crashing in ruin. Millions of others would be caught up in their fall.

    It would mean holidays deferred; cars sold; homes in jeopardy. The housing market would go through the floor.

    Labour invoke the great names of fairness and justice, while denying their substance at every important point. What is fair about a society that denies those with ability the means to advance? What is just about a society that confiscates from the hard-working the fruits of their labours? Where is the fairness in undermining the value of the shares, the pensions or the houses which people bought to give their children a better start than they had themselves? Where is the justice in hitting those who do extra work or who earn promotion with penal tax?

    To meet John Smith’s tax bills, banks and building society accounts would be plundered. And a whole new generation of shareholders would see their shares go down, and stay down. So much for Labour’s claim of an investment-led recovery. It would be an investment-lost disaster.

    Economic Recovery

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that people are looking ahead to economic recovery. I know also that many businesses and families have been feeling the pressures. Those concerns will never be brushed aside by us, they will always be heard.

    But they should not blind us to the underlying changes which have taken place in the British economy over the last decade – changes which are fundamental, changes which have transformed our long term economic prospects.

    There’s a new spirit of enterprise – with management and workforce working as one to take on the competition and win. Quality, design, service are once more at the forefront. British companies are pushing forward the boundaries of innovation – in pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, electronics and right across manufacturing industry. Productivity has risen by leaps and bounds.

    We’ve been keeping strike records for 100 years. Last year, the number of days lost was the lowest ever. Why? Because we’ve changed industrial relations law and changed industrial relation attitudes. Don’t let Labour change them back.

    It’s hardly surprising that Britain has become a magnet for overseas investment. We have as much investment from Japan as the rest of the Community put together. We are now a net exporter of television sets and video recorders. And the British motor industry is now known for exports and not for strikes. Do you think all this would have happened under a Labour government? Do you think the confidence the Conservative Government has built up would continue under Labour? You know it wouldn’t.

    On top of all this, interest rates have come down, inflation has come down and Britain’s rate of inflation is below Germany’s – the first time this has happened for nearly quarter of a century.

    Now, after a generation of striving to achieve that very goal, within two days of its being achieved, Labour’s John Smith says he’d be happy to see inflation rise again. He dismisses stable prices as an ‘unnecessary virtue’. Those are the words of a shallow ‘chancellor’ – shallow and blind to what matters to every housewife and pensioner in the country.

    Labour talk of recovery. But inflation is the enemy of recovery. It destroys profits. It destroys companies. So how is higher inflation going to help investment? How is it going to help jobs?

    The foundations for recovery are in place. Let business speak for itself. Fifteen times more businessmen would increase investment under the Conservatives than they would under Labour. In fact, under Labour one in four businessmen have said they would cut investment.

    I believe the 1990s will usher in a new era for prosperity and for jobs. The once impossible are within reach:

    – stable prices

    – sustained industrial peace

    – free enterprise given free rein.

    Only one thing could stop it.

    The Labour Party – pledged to tax; pledged to nationalise; pledged to give power back to the unions. That would knock recovery on the head – for this year, next year, every year.

    Labour would turn recovery into slump.

    I am not prepared to see that happen – it’s not going to happen. Britain is on the brink of a breakthrough to a great future. Is the dull, dead hand of Socialism to be allowed to strangle that future? Not if I can help it. And I can. And with your help, I will.

    Back to Union Power

    Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the Conservatives’ most popular achievements has been the reform of trade union legislation. The benefits have been enormous.

    We want more of those successful policies. So after the Election we have more changes to make. We will give individuals greater freedom in choosing a union. We will require all pre-strike ballots to be postal. And we will see that unions give at least seven days notice of a strike. We will give every member of the public the right to take legal action to stop the disruption of public services by illegal wild cat strikes.

    Labour would reverse all that. Give power back to the unions. Allow secondary strikes. Prevent employers from obtaining an immediate court order to stop an unlawful strike. Take away from individual union members the right not to take part in industrial action. Severely restrict the right of the courts to take away a union’s assets when it breaks the law.

    It would be back to wild cat strikes. Back to the flying pickets. Sheer madness. Can you imagine anything more calamitous for our country? That wouldn’t bring recovery. That would bring industrial euthanasia to our country.

    Law and Order

    Ladies and Gentlemen, when I think of the rights of individuals I place at the top of my list the freedom to walk the streets and to open the front door without fear. Crime is a corrupting evil. There are those, like Mr Hattersley, who blame greed and affluence one year and poverty and unemployment the next. He rings the changes and contradicts himself – when he’s not contradicting his colleagues – to suit the mood of the hour. He and his Socialist friends always blame crime on the Government – never the criminal.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I understand about hard times. I understand about unemployment. But I also understand about personal responsibility, about the decency that is the very bedrock of British character. In whatever place, in whatever station of life, the vast majority of British people detest crime. They want an end to it. And they know it’s the criminal, no-one else, who is to blame.

    So let’s have no more of Labour’s posturings. No more excuses about society being always to blame. I accept no excuses for the criminal conduct. And nor should anyone who seeks high office in Britain.

    Since 1979 we have put 16,000 more police into the fight against crime. The next Conservative Government will keep up the battle. Back our police. And bring in new methods of policing to keep more of them out on the beat among people they know. That is what the public want. And it’s the best way to stop crime and catch the criminal.

    In the growth of crime, there is one statistic that should make us all stop and think. It is the growth of crime against property by juveniles. I think sometime we have been so tolerant in understand crime at an early age that we seem to have accepted it. I believe we should be more severe in our condemnation of crime at an early stage so that the young criminal knows we won’t accept it. That is a job for the Government. That is a job for schools. That is a job for families. It is a job for each and everyone of us if we are to nip crime at the roots and prevent it from growing. But not only that. We also owe it to our young people to let them know what is acceptable and what is not. And it we don’t do it we let them down.

    A word about Labour’s attitude to terrorism. Year after year, for 10 years in succession, they have voted against the Prevention of Terrorism Act – and they are pledged to repeal it. Don’t tell me this is a brand new Labour Party.

    Socialism represents the past

    The decade gone by, the 1980s, was one of the most historic decades of the century. It saw a battle raging between socialism and the people – nowhere more clearly than in Eastern Europe. Socialism lost, the people won.

    That battle took place in Britain, too. And in the 1980s, here, Socialism lost, the people won.

    How could it be otherwise? Socialism is over. It belongs to the past. It failed – totally. And it deserved to. In Eastern Europe, in its most brutal form, it suppressed human rights and dignity. In Britain, whenever Labour formed a government, it ended in incompetence, frustration and chaos.

    Now Labour would have us believe that their latest brand of socialism is a much watered down variety, that their views have changed. Don’t you believe it. What has changed is the coloured wrapping, the decoration. Mr Kinnock has tinkered with Labour policy not because he wanted to, not because his views had changed, but because his pollsters told him Labour’s face wouldn’t do, they needed a new one if the Party was ever to win again. That is the litmus test of Labour’s convictions. Anything to win.

    Let me remind you what Mr Tony Benn said – only last autumn – about Labour policy. I quote: “We’ve changed our mind to win, we could change our mind when we’ve won … there’s nothing pre-set about the policies of the present Labour Party”.

    Roll that around in your mind: “we’ve changed our mind to win, we could change our mind when we’ve won”. No-one can say they haven’t been warned.

    Do you know what I think of Labour? Labour are like Sunday converts. They come to church on the Sabbath – but boil the missionaries the rest of the week.

    Leadership

    The Labour Party have been wrong on all the great issues in recent years. When we stationed cruise missiles in Europe, where were the Labour Party? Opposing us. Yet by stationing those missiles we made the world a much safer place. They wouldn’t station missiles facing the old Soviet Union. But because we did, today there are far fewer missiles facing us.

    Let me give you another example and take you back a few years. To the days of Soviet dictatorship and tyranny, when military might controlled the nations of Eastern Europe.

    Every voice in the West speaking up for freedom was heard by those brave men and women struggling for freedom. It gave them hope. It strengthened their resolve.

    And when all this was going on, where were Labour? Were they alongside the Conservative Party in speaking up for human rights in the Soviet Union? They were not. They saved their breath for attacking the values of the Western democracies, rather than the evils of the Soviet dictators.

    Nothing was more repellent than to see those Left-wingers in the Labour Party parade their conscience and bleat about human rights – not in the Soviet Union, but in their own country. How loath to criticise the Soviet Union. But how ready they were to attack the United States.

    I am not talking about obscure Left-wingers. I’m talking about the people who now lead the Labour Party. It was their leader himself who said that there was an equality of threat between the United States and the Soviet Union – one of the most gloriously naive statements ever made by the leader of any national party – except perhaps the Monster Raving Loonies.

    On every important issue, the Labour Party has been swerving all over the place – up and down, backwards and forwards, from side to side. On Europe. On defence. On one-sided disarmament. How can anyone trust such a Party?

    They always have a policy for the day. But that’s the trouble – it’s just for the day.

    Overseas governments don’t know where they stand. We don’t know where they stand. Even they don’t know where they stand. And they say they want to form the next government. That is not going to happen. One Party – and one Party only – stands foursquare in their way, stands for tomorrow’s world instead of back to yesterday. That is our Party – the Conservative and Unionist Party. The present and future Government of this country.

    Peroration

    What is it that we offer? A strong Britain, confident of its position; secure in its defence; firm in its respect for the law. A strong economy, set on the road to stable prices – in which taxes can fall, savings can grow, and independence is assured.

    For every family, the right to have and to hold their own private corner of life; their own home, their own savings, their own growing piece of Britain for the future – and for their children’s future.

    We Conservatives are building a country in which every family has the power to choose and the right to own, in which everyone has a fair share in Britain.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, in this Election there is a clear and straightforward choice to be make. Is enterprise to be crushed or encouraged? Is choice to be reduced or widened? Is income tax to go up or come down? Is our defence to be weak or strong? Is the United Kingdom to be broken up or is it to be upheld?

    This Election is about the kind of country we want to live in. I know the answer. You know the answer. And I believe the British people know the answer. That is why on 9 April they will give us a resounding victory.”