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Tag: October 1974 Manifesto

  • General Election Manifestos : October 1974 Liberal Party

    General Election Manifestos : October 1974 Liberal Party

    The October 1974 Liberal Party manifesto.

    Why Britain Needs Liberal Government

    A Personal Message from The Rt. Hon. Jeremy Thorpe

    “This election will make or break Britain. It is already certain that the Government which takes office after the election will face the greatest peace-time crisis we have known since the dark days of 1931.

    The fact that we are committed to two elections in one year highlights the uncertainties and divisions of British politics. Mr. Heath called the first election back in February because his industrial and economic strategy had totally collapsed and he had no alternative. He lost, and relations between the Conservative Party and the Trade Union Movement will take many years to restore.

    Mr. Wilson has called the second election because he is not prepared to accept the disciplines of a minority Government. So long as a minority Government governs on behalf of the whole nation it can command a majority in Parliament. At the last election, the electorate clearly refused to give him a mandate for those divisive parts of his programme such as further nationalisation and clearly in calling for an election he has shown he is not prepared to accept that verdict.

    Liberals are unashamedly committed to breaking the two Party system in which the Party of Management alternates with the Party of Trade Unionism, each committed to the reversal of their predecessors’ policies. Both interest groups represent vital elements in our society. Neither should ever be allowed to dominate the thinking of the government of the day. Instant reversal has brought uncertainty over Europe, over pensions, in the future of industry and has undermined confidence and stability.

    As the leader of a national political party it is my duty to warn the nation of the consequences if we fail to overcome this crisis. It is also my duty clearly and firmly to point the way out of our desperate situation.

    The first priority must be to promote a sense of common endeavour and national purpose in government. We must persuade all people to lay aside the differences which divide and weaken us as a nation and to unite in pursuit. of a solution to our difficulties. We must persuade ourselves that the survival of Britain is far more important than the advancement of any single individual or party and that we have far more in common as British citizens than the artificial divisions which society inflicts on us.

    But this unity will not be enough unless we can also isolate and deal with the fundamental defects – economic, political and social – which have led us to the brink of disaster. The next Government will have, without prejudice or precondition, to set itself to reconstruct Britain on a much fairer basis. It will have to attack poverty at source, redistribute wealth and income so that the rewards of endeavour correspond more closely to the value of the effort involved. It will have to remove the class divisions inherent in our society, particularly in our industrial relations and in the way we allocate national resources between rich and poor.

    I do not claim that it can be done overnight but I do say that unless a start is made-and very soon-the new endeavour, which is needed to rescue us, will not be forthcoming.

    Now is the time to decide whether we are to continue the steady decline in our national life, or whether we are going to pull ourselves back from the brink. Only with the necessary political will coupled with the concerted efforts of us all can we rescue ourselves. In asking for your commitment to the Liberal cause at this election. I am inviting you to join 6 million voters who support a party untainted by failure in government and unprejudiced by vested interests The Liberal Party can attract the support of all people drawn from every spectrum of our society who want to see a fair and tolerant society in Britain. With 6 million voters on which to build, and 600 candidates in the field, the opportunities open to us are unlimited.

    The sort of policies which we are putting forward are fair-they are realistic-they are tough. I claim that they represent a programme which can unite Britain and can achieve the success which as a nation we have so long been denied.

    Our greatest asset is that we could become the first post war Government which owed nothing to any sectional group or interest. In the February election, 2 million traditional Liberals were joined by 2 million previous Tory and 2 million previous

    Labour voters giving us a total of 6 million votes. It only needs to do this again, and we have united the centre in British politics.

    In short, l believe that Liberals can become the catalyst to bind the country together in a new spirit of common endeavour and I ask for your support in this great undertaking.”

    Britain in Danger

    This country faces two immediate crises. The first is potential economic catastrophe caused partly by world events and partly because of our own stagnating economy. The second is a crisis of national disunity in which there is a distinct lack of faith in government at the very time when it is most needed.

    Unless the next Government deals immediately with these problems any long term aims for the future will be quite unattainable. This Manifesto unashamedly concentrates on the immediate situation and outlines policies to deal with it. We have deliberately refrained from restating our full programme of policies which were set out in last February’s Manifesto ‘Change the face of Britain’ and in the document ‘Forward with the Liberals’. Nevertheless they are an integral part of Liberal thinking and our aims and principles remain valid.

    The basic principle of Liberalism is a concern for the individual. We do not think in terms of bosses or masses or classes. We start with the individual men and women who make up these vast conglomerations of people.

    The great issue facing all nations in this century is how to combine the collective activity of the state, necessary for the welfare of the people with democratic freedoms and an opportunity for individual initiative in economic enterprise. The Liberal Party’s great claim is that it approaches this problem with no doctrinaire prejudices, no class inhibitions and no sectional interests.

    We seek to redistribute so that all may own and so that none may be impoverished. We seek to create an individual partnership between capital and labour. We seek to devolve power to Scotland, Wales and the regions of England. We seek to decentralise by ensuring that every act of government is carried out at the lowest level consistent with intelligent administration.

    Through participation we want to see ordinary men and women having a say in all that goes on around them. And just as we seek to break down concentrations of political power, we seek in the same way to break down monopolistic concentrations of economic power.

    In the world sphere we are essentially internationalist. We oppose narrow, self-interested policies by nations or power blocs. We welcome the opportunity to transform the European Economic Community into a Liberal, outward looking federation of free people with sovereignty, pooled in respect of vital political and economic tasks, but with equally clearly defined powers and responsibilities for the constituent states and regions.

    All these themes have one end. To serve the individual and to create the conditions in which he can develop his personality to the full. But these aims are endangered by the immediate problems which we now face.

    Unless the British people unite to overcome our common difficulties our future prosperity as a democracy will be in grave jeopardy. The remainder of this Manifesto examines the immediate crisis and outlines the Liberal solution.

    The Economic Crisis

    This Election is being fought against the threat of economic disaster, caused by stagnation and high inflation. The rapid upsurge in world commodity prices has resulted in balance of payments deficits for almost the entire Western World.

    Britain has been particularly hard hit. Our cost of living soared by 16 per cent. in 1973 alone and is currently rising at the rate of 20 per cent. a year, which means that our money will buy only four-fifths of what it could buy a year ago.

    Unemployment is again increasing rapidly. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every month-35,OO0 in August alone. If present trends continue, three-quarters of a million people could be out of work by the end of this year.

    We are borrowing astronomical sums of money abroad. This year alone, our balance of payments is in deficit by £4,500 million. Our share of world trade is steadily declining and no amount of North Sea Oil, or any other panacea, will repay these debts in the foreseeable future.

    In short, we are living beyond our means and this unpalatable truth must he communicated to the people, whatever the political consequences. As Jeremy Thorpe has said: ‘It is time for Britain to wake up and realise that only a total change of course in our politics, our economy and our national aspirations can save us from disaster’.

    The Political Crisis

    Before any Government can begin to get to grips with the economic situation, it must regain the confidence and respect of the electorate.

    Our present electoral system is a fraud. Far from ensuring representative government, it polarises power between two extremist parties representing opposed classes and prevents a proper representation of alternative view-points. At every Election less than half the voters get the candidate of their choice returned to Parliament.

    Many people are frustrated by the lack of success which is apparent, regardless of the party in office. The prospects for success are continually undermined by the fact that, once a party becomes the Government it feels obliged to cancel much of what its opponents had previously done in office. Time and time again it is ultimately obliged by events to readopt these policies. This constant vacillation causes the most devastating uncertainty in our political and economic life.

    The class war produces deep and irreconcilable differences between the Conservative and Labour Parties, but these differences stem, not from a substantial issue of principle, but from preconceived dogma which has no relevance today. Class-based parties, above all, are responsible for the partisan nature of British politics and the divisions in society between rich and poor, manager and worker, householder and tenant.

    It is impossible to conceive of a Labour Party dependent on the trade unions for 90 per cent. of its funds being able to operate an effective incomes policy, when its paymasters, the union leaders, object to wage control.

    Conversely, how can a Conservative Government take effective action to control prices and stamp out restrictive practices in industry when it is dependent on big business for over a million pounds a year?

    Yet these are precisely the policies we need at the moment if we are to overcome inflation.

    Nor will any policy achieve lasting progress without the consent of a large majority of the population. Since the war, neither of the other two parties has won the support of more than half of the electorate. Neither can achieve the necessary degree of unity because each is incapable of appealing to any significant number of the other’s traditional supporters. A Labour Government instinctively raises the suspicions of business; a Conservative Government immediately alienates the Trade Unions.

    The time has come for stability in Government and an end to class confrontation based on fear and mistrust. This country can no longer be ruled from the extremes of right and left, setting people against each other; it must be run by a Government whose integrity is not in doubt, whose policies are fair minded and whose politics are not governed by vested interests. It is the unique characteristic of the Liberal Party that it can provide such a Government because it is without doctrinaire prejudices, class inhibitions or sectional interests.

    Inflation – The immediate crisis

    The major single problem facing the next Government will be that of inflation. This Election wilt solve nothing unless we decide now that we are to make a conscious and concentrated effort to get on top of inflation. On the contrary, it will do positive harm if, as has happened so often in the past, the nation is left bitterly divided as a result.

    The next Government must he honest with the public and admit that in the present circumstances a statutory prices and incomes policy is absolutely necessary as an essential weapon against inflation.

    The Liberal Party has consistently advocated statutory controls; the other parties have studiously avoided them until forced into action by an adverse situation. When they have taken action both have pandered to vested interests to the detriment of the population as a whole. They have been fearful of embarking on long-term policies to control inflation for fear of denting the profits of the big corporations or the wage packets of the strongest unions. Their timid attempts at controlling inflation have been undercut by promises of an ultimate return to a free-for-all. As a result, their policies have failed because the nation was unprepared for such measures and the necessary restraint was not forthcoming.

    No policy will gain acceptance unless it is seen to be both effective in its operation and fair to all concerned. Inflation divides society; it punishes and deprives the weak and protects and rewards the strong. It encourages a situation where the rich get more and the poor go to the wall, where wealth is illusory but poverty is real. Therefore, it is dangerous to attack inflation without at the same time protecting those who are most vulnerable to its effects.

    The Liberal Party believes that this can only be done by means of a fundamental redistribution of wealth and resources. We understand the fear of inflation that motivates moderate-and not so moderate-men to press for higher and higher wages. We are prepared to resist these claims when we feel they are unjustified and against the national interest. But we also recognise that even the most efficient policy will be breached unless the causes of inequality are removed.

    We, therefore, advocate, as an essential prerequisite to the introduction of statutory prices and incomes control, a programme of social reform.

    In effect, this would be an agreement between the people of this country and the Government of the day. In return for immediate measures to alleviate poverty and industrial uncertainty and unrest, the next Government could count on positive acceptance for a measure of restraint. Such a programme should contain four minimum proposals:

    First, a policy for creating and redistributing national wealth.

    Second, measures to encourage true competition and power-sharing in industry.

    Third, a review of our public expenditure programme with priority being given to maintaining and expanding social welfare provision.

    Fourth, the reform of our electoral and governmental structures to reflect more accurately the will of the electorate.

    Creating and Sharing Wealth

    Our primary task in the immediate aftermath of the Election will be to establish an agreed attitude towards managing the economy. This must include a statutory policy for prices and incomes, which will only allow personal wealth to expand at a rate which the nation can afford. At the same time it must effect a redistribution of incomes and a far greater degree of social justice. The present grossly inequitable distribution of incomes is starkly illustrated by the plight of those engaged in the health, social and public services, many of whom are women. The next Government should legislate immediately to introduce a statutory minimum earnings level, corresponding to two-thirds of the average wage, for a normal 40-hour working week. This would mean guaranteed earnings of £27, at current rates, for the 44 million working people who earn less than this amount, the figure automatically increasing with rises in average earnings. If phased in over a three year period it would add 3 per cent. per annum to the national wage bill, and would necessitate a corresponding cut-back in the expectation of above-average wage earners. Such people will have to be content with pay increases which cover only rises in the cost of living.

    At the same time the Government should undertake to implement in full the principle of parity with equivalent jobs in the private sector for those working in the nationalised industries and public services.

    A similar selective policy for prices must he evolved to protect the family from excessive price increases at a time of wage restraint. The present supervision of prices, dividends and profit margins should be continued and middle-sized companies should be obliged to submit applications for price increases in the same way as top companies. More positive efforts must be made to break up monopolies and price fixing and to recreate a genuinely competitive economy. The Monopoly and Mergers Commission should be given powers to investigate and regulate monopoly companies. The Government should stimulate competition where it can still be made to work, break up and control monopolies, prevent non-productive mergers and stamp out restrictive trade practices, so that profits are made fairly, in truly competitive circumstances.

    Industrial Development

    Our immediate aim is to restore confidence and stability in industry, to encourage an even flow of investment and to distribute wealth more widely. Policies for nationalisation are irrelevant to the problems of industry. As the Court Line disaster has shown, the merest hint of nationalisation is sufficient to drive away private investment, leaving the long-suffering general public to foot the bill. There is a role for private and public enterprise but a clear line of demarcation should be drawn between them. And both must change their mode of operation if confidence and stability in industry is to return.

    A national programme for industrial development ought therefore to contain four basic objectives, namely: The reform of Company Law to induce a far greater degree of public responsibility in industry and make the management of companies responsible to shareholders and employees on an equal basis. Then there must be a concentrated attack on monopolies on the lines of the American anti-trust laws. Nationalisation will not solve the problems of high prices or monopolies. As we have seen in so many nationalised industries, the public either has to suffer high prices or subsidise non-profit making industries. Either way the consumer pays more.

    Next, the Government should consult with industry to establish the prospects for investment. Where the economic advantages to the nation would be enhanced by investment in certain industries, the Government should also be prepared to underwrite the necessary finance for a limited period of time, if necessary. An essential prerequisite to this policy must be a commitment by Government to refrain from further nationalisation except where there is no other viable alternative, and liquidation would be detrimental to the nation, as, for example, in the case of Rolls-Royce.

    Finally, a phased introduction of worker-participation and co-partnership schemes at all levels of industry from the shop-floor upwards, should involve union and non-union workers in the exercise of power. We would require legislation to set up works councils in all industries above a certain size and to establish the principle of worker representation at board level. The introduction of approved profit-sharing schemes (or, in the case of the nationalised industries, a dividend for each industry, based on productivity) is also essential if the necessary co-operation is to be achieved at plant level.

    The key to a successful programme of industrial development lies in a continuous flow of investment capital, a stable and contented work force and a steady increase in output. These must be our objectives.

    Public Expenditure and Family Needs

    The most vital provisions any Government can make for its people are to ensure that they have a decent roof over their heads and an adequate income. In the immediate period of low or non-existent economic growth, we cannot assume that our expenditure on these programmes will be paid for by greater production and economic expansion. Therefore we must find the money from other sources. We must now learn to live within our means. Strict economies in non-essential expenditure must now be made if our public services are even to be maintained at their current standards, let alone expanded.

    The indexation of savings against inflation would protect those dependent on their savings and encourage greater investment. This should be accompanied by a far greater degree of austerity and care in the deployment of public money.

    At local level there must he a radical overhaul of the rating system as quickly as possible, so as to redistribute the burden fairly between ratepayers and to raise the finance necessary to ensure the continuation of essential services. Liberals would introduce site value rating to replace the current rating of property by a rate geared to the value of the land on which the building stands. This would redistribute the burden of rates more fairly between domestic and industrial rate payers.

    To reduce the burden on local authority expenditure, teachers’ salaries should be paid through the Exchequer, thereby saving local authorities £570 million a year. Local authorities should also be given limited scope for raising revenue independently through appropriate local taxes.

    Our priorities in the field of social welfare must be twofold; to reform and expand the provision of family welfare and to stabilise the chaotic system of housing finance. In general, the aim must be to recast existing programmes as far as possible rather than incurring further expenditure. In the case of the National Health Service, however, only a massive injection of capital can save it from imminent collapse and this will have to be done almost immediately.

    The other major exception to this rule must be old age pensioners. In spite of the recent increase, the basic State pension is still pitifully inadequate, and over two million pensioners are forced to draw Supplementary Benefit in order to exist. The next Government should give an immediate commitment to tie the pension to a stated percentage of national average earnings. This would provide an automatic index against inflation and ensure that pensioners are not left behind in the wage race. The target to be met, over a three-year period, ought to be 50 per cent. of average earnings for a married couple and a third for a single person. At present wage rates this would work out at £21 and £14 respectively. The total cost would be £1,400 million, which can be raised by transforming the present contributory National Insurance system into a fully graduated Social Security Tax. This would be paid by employer and employee on a ratio of two-thirds to one-third, and would be much fairer on the low paid and self-employed. At present they pay a higher percentage of their earnings in National Insurance contributions than the above average wage earner. In addition Liberals will take the initiative in seeking all-party agreement on the creation of a second pension structure for all those in full-time employment. This would end the uncertainty and instability in the Occupational Pensions field caused by the changes in policy of successive governments.

    In the field of housing, we must accept that we cannot continue indefinitely to subsidise the Building Societies in a vain attempt to keep interest rates down. If subsidies are necessary, they should be paid to individuals on the basis of need. In the short-term, our immediate priority should be to enable those who wish to buy their homes to overcome the twin barriers of inflated house prices and high interest rates.

    In ten years the price of an average new house has risen three times, the cost of a mortgage has risen five times whilst the proportion of an average family’s income spent on mortgage repayments has increased from 25 per cent. to 50 per cent. The average price of a new house at over £10,900 is well beyond the reach of over half the population and unless steps are taken soon to alleviate the situation, home ownership will become a thing of the past.

    This problem can be overcome without any extra governmental expenditure by the introduction of flexible mortgage schemes for all those buying their own home.

    The Liberal proposals were discussed with the Building Societies prior to being incorporated in a recent pamphlet, and provide for three new schemes:

    For those whose earnings are linked to the cost of living, through, for example, threshold agreements, an index linked mortgage would be appropriate. Under this scheme repayments begin at a lower initial value but rise automatically with increases in the cost of living index.

    For those who are near retirement and wish to buy their first, and probably their last, home, the equity mortgage scheme would enable them to do so. Here the Building Society would buy a share of the house by contributing an interest-free grant, thus reducing the cost of the mortgage, in return for a share of the capital value when the house is sold. These schemes have already been discussed with representatives of the Building Societies and there is no practical reason why an enterprising Government could not introduce them immediately.

    We must make far better use of existing accommodation. Wherever possible local authorities should purchase unsold properties for use as council houses, rather than leaving them to lie empty. If builders could be sure of selling their houses, there would be much greater incentive to press ahead with new contracts. Our proposals would achieve this at minimal cost to the Government.

    In making adequate provision for low income families the next Government ought to take steps to ensure that financial aid goes to those in need and is not wasted. This can be achieved in two ways. Firstly, the wasteful and indiscriminate food subsidies should be scrapped and the £700 million thus saved spent on increasing family allowances and extending them to the first child. This would cost £340 million in a full year and would be far more effective than reducing the millionaire’s loaf of bread by 2p. The remainder of the money saved could be put towards implementing the Finer Committee’s recommendation, that an adequate allowance should be available to single parents with families to support, and assisting the disabled and other needy people.

    Secondly, the first steps should be taken towards overhauling the entire Social Security system, eliminating most of the 44 means tests and replacing the unnecessary duplication between the Inland Revenue and the Department of Health and Social Security. Liberals would introduce a full scale tax-credit scheme which would encompass all existing allowances and welfare benefits. It would also replace all tax reliefs on mortgages, rent allowances and rent rebates by a single housing allowance paid to tenants and house buyers alike. The essence of the scheme is simple and was set out in our Manifesto last February. A Government commitment to phase in such a scheme over a five-year period is essential if the necessary agreement from those on low pay for a statutory prices and incomes policy is to emerge.

    Implicit in all our objectives in the field of social policy is a commitment to ensure full and equal rights for women in every sphere. Liberals were the first to initiate legislation against sex-discrimination and there will be no let up in our campaign for equality between the sexes.

    Controlling Inflation

    Once a minimum programme of social reform is agreed, we believe that any Government has the moral authority to ask the nation to exercise restraint in its economic aspirations in order to control inflation. But experience has shown that voluntary restraint is inadequate; there are always those who will break the rules either through force of habit or because they have the economic power to get what they want. Therefore, a statutory policy with tough sanctions on those who break it is essential. Liberals would control inflation through a combination of industrial reconstruction and a prices and incomes policy enforced by penalties on those whose actions cause inflation. We propose that prices and average earnings within a company should be limited to an agreed annual rate of increase. Any company which increased prices faster than that rate would suffer an extra surcharge on its Corporation Tax payments equivalent to the amount by which its prices had exceeded the agreed norm.

    If average earnings per person (including fringe benefits) within a company rose faster than the agreed annual rate, then both the employer and the employees concerned would have to pay an extra surcharge on their graduated National Insurance Contributions, again on a sliding scale according to the amount by which earnings had exceeded the norm.

    Of course, there must be provision for appeal if confrontation with those who have a special case is to be avoided. This would be best achieved by the compilation of ad hoc reports on earnings levels and pricing policies in particular industries, along the lines of the old National Board for Prices and Incomes. Such reports would also cover changes in relativities and wage differentials, which will have to be narrowed considerably, and Parliamentary consent would have to be obtained before reports could be implemented. The Relativities Board would be retained for this purpose. Thus instead of countering inflation by increasing everybody’s taxes, as Mr. Powell and the Labour Party advocate, our policy would tax only those who cause inflation and control the supply of money into the economy without having to resort to the blunt instrument of brutal cuts in expenditure on social services which, once again, hit the poor hardest of all.

    A great merit of this policy is that it would enable wage bargaining to take place without direct government intervention and inevitable accusations of partisanship. Yet it would still enable the Government to maintain overall control of the economy.

    The next Government must face up to the problem of domestic inflation immediately on assuming office if we are to avoid the perils of bankruptcy, poverty and unemployment. We believe that this programme is the minimum that will generate the necessary consent for a tough anti-inflation policy.

    The need for agricultural expansion

    As long as our agriculture industry is allowed to decline we shall become increasingly dependent on the vicissitudes of the world market. Therefore we must become more self sufficient through greater domestic food production.

    Farmers have had a raw deal recently and badly need an injection of confidence. The next government should undertake to introduce a temporary guaranteed price for beef and an increase in the milk subsidy. The pig subsidy should also be extended through the winter.

    The Government should also seek a radical change in the Common Agriculture Policy of the Common Market in order to secure a reasonable return for the farmer and more stable prices for the consumer. This can only he done from within the community by a government committed to our continued membership. World food prices now exceed those pertaining in Europe and it would he totally against our economic interests to withdraw, regardless of the political considerations involved.

    There remains the political crisis; this must also be faced now if our democracy is to survive and our government to is regain the confidence of the electorate.

    Power to the people

    The two-party system began to crumble at the last Election. Alienation and cynicism with conventional politics is particularly felt in Scotland and Wales where the Westminster Parliament is a distant and inadequate form of representation.

    Two major reforms must be introduced by the next Government. First it must replace the present antiquated electoral system, in which 19 million people have no influence on the choice of government. Liberals favour a fully proportional system using the single transferable vote in multi-member constituencies. Second, there must be a substantial devolution of power from Westminster, initially to Parliaments in Scotland and Wales, along the lines advocated by the Kilbrandon Commission on the Constitution. These Parliaments should have substantial legislative and budgetary powers-nothing less will satisfy the aspirations of the people of Scotland and Wales for full self-government, which Liberals support. Ultimately, Liberals want a Federal system of Government in Britain with Assemblies established in the regions of England.

    Unless these reforms are carried out very soon the process of alienation from Government will become so deep seated as to he beyond redress.

    A similar feeling of antipathy will soon be felt towards the European Communities unless there are direct elections to the European Parliament. This has been part of Liberal policy for a very long time and a government led initiative would help restore confidence in the European idea as well as being an indication of continued faith in our membership of the Community.

    The above measures constitute the minimum social, economic and political programme which can save this country from the immediate crisis. We cannot afford another five year period in which major problems are swept under the carpet while politicians pretend that inflation does not exist. The next Government must be prepared to implement substantial radical changes in policy which will lay the groundwork for future economic prosperity. In doing so it must have regard for the long term, as well as the immediate, future. For only if we build on the foundations laid will we reap the rewards that economic self-restraint can produce.

    The Liberal Challenge

    The Liberal Party challenges the people of this country at this Election to break away from the class-based politics of the past in favour of a party without vested interests to consider, which is free to act on behalf of the individual person. Politics should be about people in their own communities but, in spite of so many elections in recent years, ordinary people feel that government is too distant and no longer heeds what they say. The re-organisation of Local Government and the restructuring of our health and social services has resulted in larger, more distant units of administration. The Liberal Party believes in self-government at every level, so that ordinary people can take and use power to influence their daily lives. All our policies, from the reform of government, and co-partnership in industry, to democracy in education, are designed to ensure that the individual viewpoint can be expressed effectively. Without the active participation of the great majority of people, our ability to overcome the economic problems which we face will he greatly impaired.

    Only a new political alignment can provide the momentum for economic stability. At the last Election, 6 million people supported the Liberal Party as the vehicle for this new momentum. Many others stood on the brink but their traditional allegiances and the understandable fear of breaking with the past prevented them from committing themselves fully. Yet the seeds have been sown, and after the election a strong Liberal Party in Parliament could break up the confrontation of the two class parties and create the conditions for a broad based radical alliance led by Liberals. Over 47 per cent. of the electorate would like to see a Liberal Government. If this support is translated into votes there will be a Liberal Government.

  • General Election Manifestos : October 1974 Labour Party

    General Election Manifestos : October 1974 Labour Party

    The October 1974 Labour Party manifesto.

    BRITAIN WILL WIN WITH LABOUR

    Foreword
    by

    The Rt. Hon. Harold Wilson, OBE, FRS, MP

    In February we put before the British people our Manifesto, ‘Labour’s Way out of the Crisis’.

    It was a programme for getting Britain back to work, for overcoming what was universally acknowledged to be the gravest economic crisis Britain had faced since the war. A programme to be carried out by a Government of all the people working together.

    Labour formed the Government, got Britain back to work and showed our determination to fulfil the programme which we had put before the people. No post war British Government has achieved more in six months.

    But at every turn we have found ourselves faced in Parliament by a majority which could, and did, coalesce to frustrate the policies we had put before the nation. What is still more serious has been the widespread expectation of an inevitable and early General Election, which created uncertainty in industry and the other institutions of our British society.

    Soon the people must decide on the Government to whom they want to entrust the future of themselves and their families for the next five years.

    They will judge each Party on its record in office, when it had the responsibility: on its record in honouring the pledges it had made to the country. On its willingness to undertake measures which would enlist the support and enthusiasm of our people in fighting the economic crisis.

    They will judge on the policies which each Party puts forward, asking themselves which Party can best be trusted to make a reality of those policies.

    They will judge not only on policies and records, but on the calibre and experience of the men and women who will be responsible for carrying out those policies. On their compassion and the understanding of the problems of ordinary families: on their determination to govern for, and with the sanction of, all of the people.

    In February the country rejected, as we had urged, policies of confrontation and conflict and ‘fight to a finish’ philosophies. We put before the country the policy of the Social Contract.

    We have shown that as a Government we are prepared to take the decisions that are needed to achieve economic and social justice without which this country can never unite.

    The policies we have followed over the past six months, the policies which the next Labour Government will follow, are policies to strengthen the Social Contract.

    It is not simply, or narrowly, an understanding about wages. It is about justice, equality, about concern for and protection of the lower paid, the needy, the pensioner and the handicapped in our society.

    It is about fairness between one man and another, and between men and women. It is about economic justice between individuals and between regions. It is about co-operation and conciliation, not conflict and confrontation.

    But more than that. What we as democratic socialists maintain is that when the going is toughest it is more than ever necessary to base our policies on social justice, to protect the weak, the poor, the disabled, to help those least able to help themselves, and to maintain and improve their living standards.

    Other Parties which do not believe in fair shares deny themselves the right to call for equal sacrifices.

    Injustice is the enemy of national unity.

    The crisis we are facing demands a still greater emphasis on social justice, as well as economic justice, than at any time in this generation.

    That is the inspiration underlying the policies set out in this Manifesto.

    It carries forward the programme we set out in February. It builds on our achievements in fulfilling, in six months, so much of that programme. It sets out in much more detail the policies we then announced, proposals which have now been firmly rooted in our experience in government, and responsibly costed against the resources which as a nation we can afford.

    This Manifesto, which is inspired by the idealism which has created our Movement, is now put before the country on the basis of the realism deriving from experience. It sets out what in our view is the only way to enable Britain to win through the crisis we now all face, and to share together, as one people, the fruits of the success we are determined to achieve.

    Harold Wilson

    Britain faces its most dangerous crisis since the war. The Labour Party makes no attempt to disguise this. On the contrary, at the time of the February election, we took the British people into our confidence and shared the realities of our daunting problems. We inherited a three-day week, unlit streets, unheated homes and work-places. And worst of all, a wounded national economy, made all the more serious by the socially divisive policies of the previous Conservative Government, with its deliberate confrontation with the organised working people of our country. The Conservatives created a society in which people who made money were more honoured than men and women who earned their wages.

    This crisis for our country was all the more desperate because it was set in the context of a continuing world upheaval. Most of the world is still staggering from the enormous increases in the price of oil – the most important basic commodity in modern industrial and agricultural society.

    We come with confidence before the public to ask for a strong mandate for the policies drawn from ‘Labour’s Programme for Britain’ set out in our February manifesto, some of which have been spelled out in greater detail in White Papers published by the Government. No Government can get Britain moving by itself. A democratic Government must reflect the views of the people. And the people who vote for the Government must give their share of endeavour and concern – as well as their votes. But a Government can only ask these efforts from the men and women of this country if they can confidently see a vision of a fair and just society. Why should a coal miner dig extra coal for a few pounds more while he has seen property speculators grow wealthy looking at empty office blocks? A strong new Labour Government, with the agreement and co-operation of the British people, can make constructive, but not painless progress towards building a fair society.

    This election is inevitable since no clear majority emerged in February. Despite its minority position the Labour Government have made a good start. Now we ask for the return of a Labour Government, with a working majority, so that we can continue to tackle the great problems facing Britain. We have to come to the men and women of our country and ask for their mandate for industrial and social reconstruction. We need national support for a steady will for a new society. In fact we are asking your help to carry through policies which will work for international peace and co-operation and at the same time create at home effective measures of economic and social reconstruction.

    It is only with a sense of unity that we shall win through. But we cannot expect this from a Conservative Government – nor from any Conservative-Liberal coalition. The Tory Party is, by its own statements, deeply divided about what policies to put before the electorate. Neither the Tories nor a Conservative-Liberal coalition can bring a united and decisive programme of solution to contemporary problems.

    Why can’t we accept the idea of a coalition to meet the nation’s crisis? Because what our country needs in this crisis is a government with a clear-cut understanding of the nation’s problems and the ability to decide quickly and effectively how to deal with them. A coalition government, by its very nature, tends to trim its policies and fudge its decisions, and in present circumstances that just won’t do. If we believe, as we must, in our own independent political philosophies, there is no meeting point between us and those with quite different philosophies, and it would be a cruel farce to suggest that the future of the country would be helped by shuffling, compromising administration.

    We want to be frank with you. The regeneration of our economy isn’t going to be easy, even with a Labour Government. The next two or three years are going to be difficult for us all. There will be no easy times and no easy pickings for anyone.

    We put forward in this manifesto a list of improvements we want to make in society. We put them forward in good faith; but many of them cost money, and we understand perfectly well – and we believe you will, too – that the timing of them will depend on how quickly and how completely we get on top of the economic problems.

    But Labour doesn’t go along with the prophets of doom and gloom. We have great confidence in the British people. If you give us your full backing over the difficult two or three years ahead we shall weather the storm and get back on the right course.

    Promises and Priorities

    The Labour Government has kept the promises made at the election in February. From the day we took office we acted. We increased pensions to £10 and £16. We froze rents. We gave security to people who live in furnished tenancies. We repealed the divisive Industrial Relations Act and we replaced confrontation by conciliation. We restrained the rise in the cost of living by our subsidies on essential foods and price controls. We gave loans to the building societies to help house-buyers – who would otherwise have faced mortgage rates of 13%. We allocated more money to local councils to build or buy homes.

    The Government have published plans for the public owner ship of development land which will get rid of the major inflationary element in the cost of building; for public control and participation in North Sea oil; for greater accountability and the extension of public ownership in industry; for beginning the redistribution of wealth by new taxation on the better-off – while at the other end of the scale a million and a half people have been taken out of liability to any income tax. We have published radical and detailed proposals for pensions and for bringing help as of right to the disabled. New rights for women and our determination to implement equal pay have been announced. And we have begun in earnest the promised renegotiation of the Conservatives’ disadvantageous terms of entry to the Common Market.

    As at the last election, we are not making any promises which we cannot keep. We do not believe in electoral bribes – these are an insult to the intelligence and realism of the public. The priorities we set out here are part of a programme for a five year term of office. Much of what we want to do will take longer because of all the heavy spade-work which has to be done to create the economic strength on which all else depends.

    The Social Contract

    At the heart of this manifesto and our programme to save the nation lies the Social Contract between the Labour Government and the trade unions, an idea derided by our enemies, but certain to become widely accepted by those who genuinely believe in government by consent – that is, in the democratic process itself as opposed to the authoritarian and bureaucratic system of wage control imposed by the Heath Government and removed by Labour.

    The Social Contract is no mere paper agreement approved by politicians and trade unions. It is not concerned solely or even primarily with wages. It covers the whole range of national policies. It is the agreed basis upon which the Labour Party and the trade unions define their common purpose.

    Labour describes – as we did in our February manifesto at the time of the last election and as we do again at this one – the firm and detailed commitments which will be fulfilled in the field of social policy, in the fairer sharing of the nation’s wealth, in the determination to restore and sustain full employment. The unions in response confirm how they will seek to exercise the newly restored right of free collective bargaining. Naturally the trade unions see their clearest loyalty to their own members. But the Social Contract is their free acknowledgement that they have other loyalties – to the members of other unions too, to pensioners, to the lower-paid, to invalids, to the community as a whole.

    It is these wide-ranging hopes and obligations which the General Council of the TUC described in its declaration of June 26 and which were overwhelmingly approved by the Congress on September 4. This is the Social Contract which can re-establish faith in the working of Britain’ 5 democracy in the years ahead.

    INFLATION

    The first priority must be a determined attack on inflation and the appalling overseas deficit which We inherited. Inflation is a World-Wide problem and there are no easy answers, but for us the crisis was made worse than it need have been because of the financial disasters Labour inherited from the Tory Government.

    Inflation is one of the greatest economic perils we face. It afflicts all the countries of the world. From Japan to France, from the United States to Britain, prices are rising at between 15% and 25% a year. Oil, the lifeblood of industry and transport, costs four times what it did a year ago; wheat, feedgrains, sugar and other imported foodstuffs, nearly double. These powerful inflationary forces cannot be wholly mastered by any single government acting alone. It will require international co-operation both to curb inflation and to avoid a slump.

    But there are things the Government can – and must – do. We were elected last February to govern a Britain that had been greatly weakened by the policies of the Conservatives. The Heath Government allowed a huge deficit to accumulate on our balance of payments, even before the oil price rises hit us. It borrowed and printed hundreds of millions of pounds at home, fuelling the fires of inflation; it let our scarce resources go into office blocks, luxury flats and property speculation, at a time that Britain badly needed investment in industry and in housing for rent. Britain, in February 1974, was in bad shape to withstand the economic hurricane.

    We reject entirely the policy put forward by some Tories of fighting inflation by throwing millions of people out of work.

    We are doing everything within our power to curb inflation. And where rising prices are outside our control, as with imports of oil and raw materials, we have sought to protect the least well-off, the pensioner and the low-paid, for whom inflation is not just a worry but a nightmare.

    We have:

    • Stopped printing money to finance unnecessary expenditure;
    • Cut VAT from 10% to 8%;
    • Reduced gross profit margins by 10% and agreed with the food trade to concentrate profit cuts on essential foods;
    • Frozen rents and stabilised mortgage rates;
    • Subsidised basic foods – bread, flour, butter, cheese, milk and tea- in a way that gives most benefit to the least well-off;
    • Taken powers to set maximum prices for subsidised foods; laid down a minimum of three months between price rises, and stopped’ the ‘sticky label’ trick;
    • Set up a National Consumer Agency, backed by a net work of local consumer advice centres.

    We shall:

    • Provide detailed information to shoppers on where to get value for money;
    • renegotiate the Common Agricultural Policy of the Common Market to make sure shoppers get secure supplies of food at fair prices;
    • Introduce unit pricing for meat, fish, fruit and vegetables;
    • Put teeth into nationalised industry consumer councils and finance them independently.

    OIL CRISIS

    We shall continue to give high priority to our overseas trade. We have to. At the centre of our national and international crisis is the enormous increase in oil prices which is costing this country an extra £2,500 million this year.

    We must get rid of the non-oil deficit we inherited from the previous Tory Government, while tackling in co-operation with other countries also affected, the balance of payments and currency problems created by the fourfold increase in the price of oil.

    Agriculture

    Labour will encourage the maximum economic production of food by the farming and fishing industries. We inherited from the Tories an extremely grave crisis in the agricultural industry – with extremely high feed costs, and the cereals sector succeeding at the expense of the livestock sector.

    A Tory Government negotiated entry into the EEC and removed the long-term guarantees to the livestock industry. The Intervention System of the Common Agricultural Policy has not worked. Labour insists that there must be a new approach, with a clear emphasis on national aids, and that we must be able to provide suitable guarantees to our farmers.

    We have already taken urgent action:-

    • A special subsidy on pigs, representing an injection of £30 million to the UK pig industry;
    • The near doubling of the calf subsidy, providing an extra £35 million a year.
    • A new beef premium, an arrangement which gives another £40 million to the producers;
    • The restoration of the lime subsidy which was abolished by the Tories – worth £5 million a year.
    • A temporary subsidy on the oil used for heating glass- houses – which injects a further £7 million into the horticultural industry.

    We will, in addition, introduce in the very near future, considerable help to the dairy industry.

    Our long-term objective is to secure the expansion of the industry. We intend to continue our discussions with the

    Farmers’ Unions – and the agricultural workers – with the dual objective of drawing up a meaningful longer term expansion and of determining the means whereby this can be achieved.

    EMPLOYMENT AND EXPANSION

    In the long run, a nation, like a family, can only live on what it earns. If we want to maintain our standard of living and protect people’s jobs and give a boost to our deprived regions, we must get industry to produce more and export more.

    This is going to demand some radical changes. The Tories and their Aims of Industry friends say we ought to leave things as they are. But things as they are consist of lower productivity, less competitiveness and much lower investment than other countries. If we leave things as they are we shall go on, as we have done for years, slipping behind other nations. The industrial sector of our economy is suffering from grave and chronic debilitation and that sort of illness cannot be cured with a couple of aspirin tablets. We need a new deal.

    The present Labour Government has made a start on this task. It has stemmed the runaway rise in interest rates. It has doubled the Regional Employment Premium and listed new development and special development areas for extra help. Our exports are doing well, and outside the inflated oil bill, we are paying for more of our imports with exports.

    But there is still a long way to go. In our February manifesto we put forward proposals for an extension of the public sector where it is most needed, and for a new relationship between the Government and the large privately-owned companies which will do much to regenerate British industry.

    We stand firmly by those proposals. The Government has published a White Paper describing how they will work:-

    1 A new and urgent Industry Act will provide for a system of Planning Agreements between the Government and key companies to ensure that the plans of those companies are in harmony with national needs and objectives and that Government financial assistance is deployed where it will be most effectively used. Wherever we give direct aid to a company out of public funds we shall reserve the right to take a proportionate share of the ownership of the company; and wherever possible this public support will be channelled through the Planning Agreements System.

    2 In addition to our plans for taking into common ownership the land required for development, we shall substantially extend public enterprise by taking over mineral rights. We shall also take ports, ship-building, ship-repairing and marine engineering, and the aircraft industries into public ownership and control. We shall not confine the extension of the public sector to loss-making and subsidised industries. We shall set up a National Enterprise Board to administer publicly-owned share-holdings: to extend public ownership into profitable manufacturing industry by acquisitions, partly or wholly, of individual firms; to stimulate investment; to create employment in areas of high unemployment; to encourage industrial democracy; to promote industrial efficiency; to increase exports and reduce our dependence on imports; to combat private monopoly; and to prevent British industries from passing into unacceptable foreign control.

    We do not accept the negative policies adopted by the previous Tory Government towards the nationalised industries. We shall restore to our public enterprises the assets and licences which the Tory Government took away from them, and will encourage and help them diversify into new industries. We shall bring forward early proposals to ensure that banking and insurance make a better contribution to the national economy.

    Regional development will be further encouraged by new public enterprise, by assistance to private industry on a selective basis, and new Regional Planning Machinery, along the lines set out in ‘Labour’s Programme 1973’. We will set up Scottish and Welsh Development Agencies. Moreover, the revenues from the North Sea and Celtic Sea oil will help us to improve employment in Scotland, Wales and the English regions in need of development.

    We shall transform the existing Manpower Services Commission into a powerful body, responsible for the development and execution of a comprehensive manpower policy. Redundant workers must have an automatic right to retraining, with redundancy leading not to unemployment, but to retraining and job changing.

    ENERGY

    The discovery of oil off our shores dramatically changes not only the country’s energy prospects, but our whole economic future. Because its importance cannot be over-estimated it is essential that its development should be under public control in the interests of the whole community, and with regard to the future. The Labour Government will:-

    Take majority participation in all future oil licences and negotiate to achieve majority state participation in existing licences.

    Set up a British National Oil Corporation to. enable the Government to exercise participation rights; to play an active role in the future development, exploration and exploitation of offshore oil; and to engage in the refining and the distribution of oil. Its headquarters will be in Scotland.

    Impose a substantial extra tax on the oil companies’ profits from the North Sea – and plug the loopholes in existing taxation.

    Take new powers to control the pace of depletion, pipelines, exploration and development – and to protect the environment; and nationalise the land needed for the oil platform construction sites.

    Set up new Development Agencies in Scotland and in Wales – financed by the United Kingdom exchequer – with extra funds to reflect the revenue from offshore oil.

    After years of Tory indecision Labour has – within a few months – laid the foundation for a coherent energy policy involving coal, gas, nuclear power and electricity as well as oil. We have agreed an additional investment of £600 million for the coal mines. We have backed British technology with a programme of British reactors for the next generation of our power stations.

    INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

    We promised to repeal the Tory Industrial Relations Act and this promise has been fulfilled. The last minute amendments inserted into our Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, by the coalition of Tories, Liberals and the Lords, will be removed in the first session of the new Parliament.

    But the repeal of the Tory Act was only the first step. Our aim is to make industry democratic – to develop joint control and action by management and workers across the whole range of industry, commerce and the public services.

    This objective involves strong trade union organisation and widening the scope of collective bargaining. In addition, however, it will mean the provision of new rights for workers through changes in company law.

    First, we will introduce an Employment Protection Bill – to provide extensive new rights for workers covering such issues as union membership, apprentices’ training and conditions, the guaranteed week, maternity leave, safeguards on redundancy and employers’ bankruptcy, to give new rights to unions in collective bargaining, including new safeguards for peaceful picketing, to reform the Wages Councils and establish a key role for the new Conciliation and Arbitration Service in helping to get rid of low pay.

    Second, we will introduce new legislation to help forward our plans for a radical extension of industrial democracy in both the private and public sectors. This will involve major changes in company law and in the statutes which govern the nationalised industries and the public services.

    Measures will also be taken to tackle the evils created by private employment agencies and to deal with abuses of labour-only contracting.

    SOCIAL JUSTICE

    We believe that men and women will respond to difficult challenges if there is a sense of underlying fairness in society.

    Labour believes, for instance, that taxation must be used to achieve a major redistribution of both wealth and income. The March Budget took 1½ million men and women out of income tax altogether and concentrated tax increases on the better off. It also blocked dozens of tax loopholes and announced that a new Capital Transfers Tax would operate from the date of the Budget.

    The next Labour Government will introduce an annual tax on wealth above £100,000. We will also legislate for the introduction of the Capital Transfers Tax – which will, for the first time this century, make the Estate Duty an effective tax on inherited wealth. Labour will also offer retired people and young couples saving for a home a form of National Savings the value of which will be guaranteed against inflation.

    Social Security

    The Labour Government’s first step was to increase pensions to £10 for a single person and £16 for a married couple: a record increase in record time. Corresponding increases for widows, invalids and others on supplementary benefit have been enacted. This is a real increase which more than compensates for the rise in prices.

    The Labour Government has already committed itself by law to maintain and improve the real gain for existing pensioners by reviewing pensions and other benefits regularly and by linking future increases to the rise in wages and not just prices.

    The Labour Government will:

    Pay another £10 Christmas bonus this year to those who have retired and this time will include invalidity pensioners and those receiving attendance allowances, unemployability supplements or widows’ benefits.

    Replace the unjust Tory pension scheme with our recently announced long-term plan for adequate earnings-related pensions for everyone, fully protected against inflation. This will free future pensioners from the need for means-tested assistance; give equality of treatment to women; include invalidity pensioners; and give special help to the older workers and the low-paid.

    Attack family poverty, by increasing family allowances and extending them to the first child through a new scheme of child credits payable to the mother. We are also examining other ways of helping one-parent families.

    Help disabled people who are outside the National Insurance scheme through a new non-contributory benefit for those of working age and for disabled housewives. We shall introduce an Invalid Care Allowance for those who give up their jobs to look after a severely disabled relative and a new mobility allowance for severely disabled people Whether or not they can drive a car.

    The National Health Service

    Labour created the National Health Service and is deter mined to defend it. Immense damage has been done to it by Tory cuts in public expenditure, by the Tory Government’s policy or rigid pay control and by the upheaval of Tory reorganisation on undemocratic lines. Labour has already injected more money into the Service; published proposals for greater democratic participation in its running and above all, taken steps to end the exploitation of nurses and other workers in the Service and to see that at last they receive the rewards they so richly deserve.

    Labour has already relieved women over 60 and children under 16 from prescription charges and strengthened provision for dental care under the National Health Service by freezing the level of dental charges for patients while increasing dentists’ fees. Labour has reversed the Tory proposal to impose charges on Family Planning.

    It has started its attack on queue-jumping by increasing the charge for private pay beds in National Health Service hospitals and is now working out a scheme for phasing private beds out of these hospitals.

    The Labour Government will reduce regional inequality of standards; put the emphasis on prevention and primary care and give a clear priority to spending on services for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped. It will continue the progressive elimination of prescription charges and phase out private pay beds from National Health Service hospitals.

    The Right to Education

    The Labour Party believes that full opportunities for the education of our children, our young people and students of all ages are an essential part of a fair society and indispensable to the social contract. We have already asked local authorities to submit plans for comprehensive education by the end of the year, increased provision for nursery education and raised students’ grants by 25%. The Labour Government realises the problems of many of our teachers and an independent inquiry has been set up into their pay. We have made an additional £11.8 million available to supplement teachers’ pay in difficult areas and increased the school building programme we inherited. We have provided funds for new classes for adults who cannot read.

    As in all our plans, economic restraints are bound to influence timing. But the next Labour Government will:

    • End the II plus and other forms of selection for secondary education. Continue to give priority to nursery school and day care provision, full-time and part-time.
    • Stop the present system of Direct Grant Schools and withdraw tax relief and charitable status from Public Schools, as a first step towards our long-term aim of phasing out fee paying in schools.
    • Continue to move towards a fairer system of student grants.
    • Provide increased opportunities for further education and training, including compulsory paid day release, especially for young people who leave school early.
    • Legislate for an annual review and an annual report to Parliament on youth services.

    Labour appointed the first ever Minister of Sport and Recreation and the first ever Minister for the Arts. We removed the museum charges introduced by the Tory Government, and we allocated greater resources to the Arts Council than ever before. We shall bring forward proposals to make the Arts Council more democratic and representative of people in the arts and in entertainment. We will continue to develop and improve the facilities for sport and leisure for all our citizens.

    We will support the further development of the Open University, which was founded by a Labour Government and which has enriched the lives of thousands of people of all ages.

    OUR HOMES, OUR LAND, OUR ENVIRONMENT

    Everybody is entitled to a decent home at a price they can afford. This cannot be achieved in a free-for-all market, which has resulted in homelessness, over-crowding and squalor for thousands of our people. We have in a few months:

    • given an extra £350m for councils to build more new houses and buy existing housing;
    • given a £500m loan to Building Societies to keep mortgage rates down, and to make more mortgages available;
    • introduced a rent freeze for both council and private tenants;
    • passed a Rent Act to give security of tenure to furnished tenants of absentee landlords;
    • legislated for the creation of Housing Action Areas and against the abuse of improvement grants;
    • introduced a Bill to demolish the Tory Housing Finance Act.

    The Labour Government will take into public ownership land required for development, redevelopment and improvement. These proposals do not apply to owner-occupiers, whose homes and gardens will be safeguarded. But the public ownership by local authorities of necessary land is essential to sensible and comprehensive planning both in our towns and in the countryside. The land will be paid for at existing use value and the expensive disgrace of land speculation will be ended.

    The next Labour Government will:

    • help home-buyers through a new National Housing Finance Agency to assist first-time buyers and to stabilise mortgage lending. Local councils’ lending will be expanded so that they can play a major part in helping house purchasers and keep down costs by supplying unified services for estate agency, surveying, conveyancing and mortgages;
    • restore to local authorities the right to fix rents which do not make profits out of their tenants;
    • protect council tenants by giving them security of tenure;
    • ensure that rent increases in the private sector will be limited by Government action and that houses without basic amenities will not be taken out of control;
    • encourage the public ownership of rented property, except where an owner-occupier shares his home with a tenant;
    • help conserve homes and areas that can be improved with the aid of grants rather than demolish them;
    • reverse the disastrous fall in house-building, which will include measures to tackle the ‘lump’ and other proposals which must be worked out by both sides of the construction industry to attack the system of casual labour in the industry and create a stable, permanent work force;
    • abolish the agricultural tied cottage system;
    • transfer housing management and allocation to elected authorities in the New Towns nearing completion.

    Rates

    Everybody realises that the increasing responsibilities of local authorities must lead to reconsideration of the whole question of local government finance. The last Tory Government consistently rejected any alternatives to the rating system. And it bequeathed to Labour this year’s massive rate rise. This record proves that their new proposals are vote-buying moonshine.

    By contrast, the present Labour Government – like the last Labour Government – has taken swift action to help rate-payers. This year we are giving £150m of special help to those hardest hit by this year’s rate increases, and rates have been kept down in hard-pressed inner city areas. And we have set up a high powered independent inquiry to try to find a workable alternative to the rating system as a matter of urgency.

    We appreciate the anxieties of rate-payers and this is why we have set up this inquiry into local finance. But everybody has to face the fact that demands for better local services have to be paid for. And these have to be reconciled with demands for more local autonomy and less central direction. Public services have to be paid for by the public – the only argument is about how to share the costs, not how to avoid them.

    Environment

    Our home may be our most immediate environment. But our wider surroundings, whether at work or at leisure, demand much greater concern with the environment. We have published a Green Paper ‘The Politics of Environment’ which discusses many ideas about our changing world.

    It was a Labour Government which in 1970 set up the permanent Royal Commission on the Environment and first appointed a Minister with overall responsibility for the environment. Within a few months the present Government put on the statute book the Control of Pollution Act. We scrapped the Maplin Airport project.

    There is an increasing awareness of the need to treat the natural environment with more respect. The oil crisis was but one sharp reminder that finite natural resources cannot be taken for granted. We live in a wasteful society at a time of economic stringency. The Labour Government wants to reverse this trend and has already set up a Waste Management Advisory Council, appointed a responsible Minister, and published a Discussion Paper on the recycling of waste.

    All our policies touch at some point or other on the living, working or recreational environment of our people. We will continue to work with the United Nations Council on Environment Problems, because these concern the whole world.

    Transport

    The energy crisis has underlined our objectives to move as much traffic as possible from road to rail and to water; and to develop public transport to make us less dependent upon the private car.

    Labour’s Railway Act 1974 provides for a general subsidy to passenger services and grants for the provision of new private sidings and .other freight facilities. Many proposed rail closures have been stopped.

    Expenditure on new roads has been reviewed and priority given to the creation of a comprehensive heavy lorry network to divert the lorries now thundering through towns and villages. We shall continue to discourage the building of urban motorways.

    Proposals have been issued to bring all commercial ports and cargo-handling into public ownership and control with a radical extension of worker participation in the industry.

    Further measures will be introduced to:

    • co-ordinate and integrate our transport services;
    • improve public transport, especially in rural areas;
    • extend public ownership of road haulage;
    • expand the system of free and concessionary fares for old people, the blind and disabled;
    • improve road safety.

    SCOTLAND, WALES AND THE REGIONS

    The next Labour Government will create elected assemblies in Scotland and Wales. It will also consult with the local authorities and other interested parties about the democratisation of those regional bodies which are at present non-accountable. A separate statement setting out more detailed proposals has already been published by the Labour Party and the Government’s proposals are set out in the White Paper. Separate manifestos are being published for Scotland and Wales.

    NORTHERN IRELAND

    The Labour Party is working for a political solution in Northern Ireland, but no political initiative can succeed without the end of bombing and shooting in an area which has suffered over 1,000 dead and more than ten times as many injured.

    Any political solution must enable Catholics and Protestants to work together. As a first step in our policy we have provided for the election of a Constitutional Convention to consider future government in Northern Ireland. It will be a Convention of Northern Irish people elected by Northern Irish people.

    The Labour Government has spelt out certain realities which the Convention must take into account before it makes its report to Parliament at Westminster:

    ‘There must be some form of power-sharing and partnership because no political system will survive, or be sup ported, unless there is widespread acceptance of it within the community. There must be genuine participation by both communities in the direction of affairs.

    ‘Secondly, any pattern of government must be acceptable to the people of the United Kingdom as a whole and to Parliament at Westminster.

    ‘Thirdly, Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, shares a common land frontier and a special relationship with another country, the Republic of Ireland. Any political arrangements must recognise and provide for this special relationship. There is an Irish dimension.’

    When a Labour Government first sent troops into Northern Ireland it was on a temporary basis and their task was to stop sectarian violence. The Army cannot replace the police and it will be the aim of the Labour Government to encourage the whole community to support the police service which would enable the Army to make a planned, orderly and progressive reduction in its present commitment.

    Britain has a responsibility in Northern Ireland and the Labour Party rejects the view that the troops should be pulled out in advance of a political solution. A sudden withdrawal in advance of any political settlement would leave a vacuum which would certainly be filled by para-military groups, with a grave possibility of civil war.

    The Labour Government reaffirms its intention to phase out detention for all sections of the community in Northern Ireland when, but only when, the security situation permits. As an earnest of this intention, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has begun a programme of releases, in addition to those ordered by the Commissioners as part of the normal review procedure. More and more cases are being tried in the courts. Meanwhile, the Labour Government has established the Gardiner Committee to make a comprehensive review of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1974.

    Our appeal is to all the people of Northern Ireland. It is our desire to harness the new awareness among many Catholics and Protestants of their social and economic interests and to enable them to fulfil their aspirations through political means. Labour’s policy offers a new opportunity to achieve this.

    INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE COMMUNITY

    It is part of the very purpose of the Labour Party’s existence to protect and extend the processes of democracy at all levels. It was a Labour Government which introduced the law which allows a citizen to sue Government itself; established the Parliamentary Commissioner; and legislated against racial discrimination and to enforce equal pay. Now we want to give a much bigger say to citizens in all their various capacities – as tenants, shoppers, patients, voters. Or as residents or workers in areas where development proposals make them feel more planned against than planned for.

    Labour believes that respect for the law must be firmly based on the rights of the citizen and on his or her obligations to the whole community. We share the view of those who are alarmed at the growth of violence in our society, particularly among young people. Labour believes that law-abiding citizens are entitled to full protection. We will strengthen and uphold the police in the exercise of their proper functions. We reject entirely the view that law enforcement should ever be a matter for self appointed and politically motivated private armies.

    Labour respects the rule of law; it does not respect those who want to be unofficial enforcement officers or their own special version of it. We shall also vigorously pursue policies for the elimination of areas of deprivation which are the most dangerous breeding grounds of juvenile and other crime. A Labour Government set up the Law Commission machinery to overhaul the whole body of our laws, some of which are out of date and irrelevant. In the interests of a wider, more just and effective democracy we shall seek to:

    • give real equality to women;
    • strengthen legislation protecting minorities;
    • reform the law of nationality and citizenship;
    • introduce an independent element into complaints against the police;
    • make legal advice more accessible to those most in need of help;
    • extend legal aid to certain tribunal hearings;
    • encourage local authorities in a diversity of neighbourhood or community consultation;
    • work with the co-operative movement to develop its role through the creation of a Co-operative Development Agency and in other ways.

    Labour believes that the process of government should be more open to the public. We shall:

    • replace the Official Secrets Act by a measure to put the burden on the public authorities to justify withholding information;
    • establish compulsory registers of interest for all MPs, councillors, peers, senior civil servants, senior council officials, and others in the upper reaches of the public service;
    • protect the citizen from unwarranted and mischievous intrusion into the citizen’s private affairs.

    A CHARTER FOR WOMEN

    Changes in our society over recent years have emphasised the importance of providing practical equal opportunities for women rather than making polite noises about equality. We have already made a start towards equal citizenship by giving British women, married to foreign husbands, the same rights as British men with foreign wives.

    The Labour Government’s decisions provide a new deal for women. We will:

    • ensure that by the end of 1975 Labour’s Equal Pay Act will be fully effective throughout the land;
    • introduce a comprehensive free family planning service;
    • legislate for equality of treatment in social security;
    • make provision for maternity leave;
    • introduce a new child cash allowance to be paid (including the first child) usually to mothers;
    • extend nursery education and day care facilities;
    • bring a fairer system of family law with new family courts;
    • reform housing law, to strengthen the rights of mothers on the break-up of marriage: and introduce other reforms proposed by the Finer Committee on One Parent Families;
    • increase educational opportunities for girls, including further education, training and compulsory day release.

    We also intend to legislate directly on new rights for women, through a Sex Discrimination Bill as set out in our White Paper. The proposals cover: employment, training, education, housing and the provision of goods, facilities and services (including mortgages and H.P., etc.) There will also be new machinery to ensure the enforcement of these measures.

    But of course all our proposals – about prices and consumer protection and homes and education and full employment – will help to improve life for all the women of our country.

    And we are determined to see more of them from all walks of life – in Parliament, on local councils and other public bodies – including political parties and trade union committees.

    THE COMMON MARKET

    Our genuine concern for democratic rights is in sharp contrast to the Tory attitude. In the greatest single peacetime decision of this century – Britain’s membership of the Common Market – the British people were not given a chance to say whether or not they agreed to the terms accepted by the Tory Government. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have refused to endorse the rights of our people to make their own decision. Only the Labour Party is committed to the right of the men and women of this country to make this unique decision.

    The Labour Government pledges that within twelve months of this election we will give the British people the final say, which will be binding on the Government – through the ballot box – on whether we accept the terms and stay in or reject the terms and come out.

    Labour is an internationalist party and Britain is a European nation. But if the Common Market were to mean the creation of a new protectionist bloc, or if British membership threatened to impoverish our working people or to destroy the authority of Parliament, then Labour could not agree.

    Within one month of coming into office the Labour Government started the negotiations promised in our February manifesto on the basis set out in that manifesto. It is as yet too early to judge the likely results of the tough negotiations which are taking place. But whatever the outcome in Brussels, the decision will be taken here by the British people.

    POLICY FOR PEACE – INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION AND SECURITY

    The nations of the world are becoming ever more economically and politically interdependent. The energy crisis of last winter could not be solved by any individual country acting on its own – international co-operation was required. The same is true if the world is to succeed in solving the problems of inflation, of poverty, of economic growth and full employment. We are more than ever one world. Labour’s foreign policy is, therefore, dedicated to strengthening international institutions and to world co-operation in all fields, including trade and currency.

    A Labour Government which excluded from its foreign policy the ideals of morality, equality and justice, which are at the heart of our domestic policy, would soon lose such ideals at home. The Labour Government will, therefore, continue its policy of strengthening international organisations and particularly the United Nations, dedicated to the peaceful settlement of disputes, to the promotion of human rights, to the rule of law and to the improvement of living standards throughout the world.

    We shall continue to work for a peaceful and just settlement of the disputes in the Middle East and in Cyprus in the light of the declarations of the United Nations and our own responsibilities.

    The Labour Government has placed great emphasis on the need for closer relations with Commonwealth countries and we shall use every means of strengthening our ties with them. The Government has accepted the United Nations target of 0.7% of the Gross National Product for financial aid to developing countries in need throughout the world and will seek to move towards it as fast as possible. We have provided special help for the developing countries hardest hit by the crisis in oil prices and for areas of famine and disaster, and we have set up a Disaster Unit to speed our response to emergencies. We shall direct our aid towards the poorest countries and to the poorest people and give emphasis to rural development. In recent negotiations between the European Economic Community and the African, Pacific and Caribbean countries we have sought, with some success, to establish a more generous and liberal trading pattern to meet their needs.

    We oppose all forms of racial discrimination and colonialism. We will continue to support the liberation movements of Southern Africa. By a decision of the Government arms are no longer being supplied to South Africa. The Labour Government will seek to end the unlawful South African occupation of Namibia. The policy of sanctions against Rhodesia has been intensified and we will agree to no settlement which does not have the agreement of the African people of that country.

    The policy of détente between East and West has brought a relaxation of tension in Europe as in other parts of the world. It is the objective of the Labour Government to bring the current negotiations in the Geneva Conference on European Security and Co-operation to a successful conclusion.

    The Labour Government is conducting the widest ranging defence review to be carried out in peacetime; and we shall, in consultation with our Allies, press forward with our plans to reduce the proportion of the nation’s resources devoted to defence so that the burden we bear will be brought into line with that carried by our main European allies. Such a realignment would, at present levels of defence spending, mean achieving annual savings over a period on defence expenditure by Britain of several hundred million pounds. If in time this entails closure of or cutting back on defence establishments, alternative sources of employment will be sought, where possible by taking on major contract work and research for outside industry.

    Starting from the basis of the multilateral disarmament negotiations, we will seek the removal of American Polaris bases from Britain. We have renounced any intention of moving towards a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons.

    The Labour Government will maintain its support for NATO as an instrument of détente, no less than of defence. The ultimate objective of the movement towards a satisfactory relationship in Europe must be the mutual and concurrent phasing out of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Government will continue to work for the success of détente by playing an active role in the multilateral disarmament negotiations now taking place in Vienna and will back this diplomacy by improving bilateral relations with the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe up to the limit that the situation in each case allows.

    We shall continue to improve relations between Britain and China.

    TIME FOR DECISION

    We have not tried in this manifesto to pretend that there is some simple, easy way out of the crisis which confronts us. But we have tried to set out the kind of programme needed to unite the nation against the dangers ahead; a programme designed to create a fairer, more democratic and more socially just society.

    We have made no easy promises. Our programme has been fully costed. And we have weighed those costs carefully. But we have set our aims high. We are a democratic socialist party and our objective is to bring about a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people and their families.

    Now it is for the voters of our nation to make their decision. The Government is pledged to the service of the nation. But only the nation, working with the right leadership, can solve its problems. We believe it will. Britain will win with Labour.

  • General Election Manifestos : October 1974 Conservative Party

    General Election Manifestos : October 1974 Conservative Party

    The October 1974 Conservative Party manifesto.

    Putting Britain First

    A national policy

    The dangers now facing Britain are greater than any we have seen since the last war. These dangers are both economic and political.

    Over recent months prices have been rising at an annual rate of over 20 per cent, and on present policies they will rise as much next year. This means that in two years the pound will be worth only 55p. Unemployment is rising rapidly, and the deficit in our balance of payments this year will be £4,000 million. By the end of the 1970s, on present forecasts, we are likely to owe £15,000 million for oil alone.

    At the same time the rule of law is threatened, and there are conflicts within the nation.

    If we do not solve our economic problems, our political difficulties will be made worse. And if we do not tackle our political problems, our economic problems will be insoluble.

    Our main aim therefore is to safeguard the existence of our free society.

    For inflation at its present pace threatens not only the standard of living of everybody in the country, but also the survival of our free and democratic institutions. No major democracy has ever survived such a catastrophic rise in the cost of living. We cannot be sure that we would be the exception.

    In any case inflation and rising prices tear society apart. They destroy the confidence of people in one another and the future; they distort the existing relationships within our country; they poison the social environment; they wipe out people’s savings; they imperil our economic system; they lead in the end to high unemployment and to widespread, if not national, bankruptcy; and they bring particular hardship and misery to the most vulnerable people in the land.

    And that is not all. Another consequence of inflation is that financial manipulations often provide much greater scope for gain than solid hard work. This in itself breeds disillusionment and frustration. Lack of confidence in the currency leads to lessening respect for the law: hence sectional groups are starting to take the law into their own hands and to pursue their ends with a ruthless disregard for the interests of others.

    Finally, inflation weakens international confidence in sterling and intensifies the balance of payments crisis. In a few years time North Sea oil should give us an advantage over many of our competitors. But if we rely too much on borrowing from abroad to finance our payments deficit, our gains from North Sea oil will be mortgaged for many years ahead, and our hopes for prosperity based upon that oil will be dashed.

    Inflation is therefore a moral and political evil as well as a social and economic evil. Everything else is secondary to the battle against inflation and to helping those who have been wounded in it.

    There is no quick or simple way of defeating inflation. We do not claim to have any easy solution. Indeed no government can beat inflation by itself.

    The only way the battle can be won is by the Government and the people of this country uniting on a national policy. In the interest of national unity we will not re-introduce the Industrial Relations Act. Equally, no government should pursue a policy of wholesale nationalisation for party ends nor seek to further the interests of only a section or a class of the population. And certainly our economic condition is far too grave for our country to be subjected to a divisive and dogmatic attack upon the private enterprise sector of our economy.

    Inflation has dogged Britain since the war because as a country we have too often paid ourselves more than we earn. Lately this chronic inflation has been made acute by the explosion in the world price of food and raw materials.

    We need to bring back confidence in our currency; we need to stop paying ourselves more than we produce; and we need to produce more than we have produced in the past.

    To restore confidence in our currency we propose a comprehensive price stabilisation programme. This will use every tolerable means available to fight inflation. We will rigorously control public spending and the money supply and there must be restraint in prices and incomes.

    Because of the economic crisis there is no room for any early improvement in living standards. But our aim is to protect people’s real income as far as it is possible to do so – by increasing pensions and other long-term benefits every six months, by developing new forms of savings protected against inflation, and by pay arrangements which take account of rises in the cost of living.

    This is a far better way of protecting the interests of people at work than the excessive increases in some wage settlements over the last few months. These merely feed inflation and lead eventually to heavy unemployment. We believe that our attempt to protect the real value of wages, combined with the responsible self-interest of trade unions, should make a voluntary policy on pay and prices effective. But no government could honestly say that it will never be necessary to use the law in the national interest to support an effective policy for fighting inflation. In the absence of a viable prices and incomes policy any government would have to take harsher financial and economic measures than would otherwise be needed.

    Restraint and restriction are only palliatives. The best way of solving Britain’s economic problems is by increasing our productivity and expanding British agriculture. It is only by producing more wealth that we can significantly help those who need help: the poor, the sick and the old. There is enormous scope for improving productivity, and our taxation and industrial policies will be directed towards this objective.

    Yet only part of our troubles are economic, and inflation is not the only threat to our free way of life. Modern industrial society is fragile. It is vulnerable to the terrorist and the anarchist. But at present an even greater danger is the short-sighted selfishness of some powerful groups. The great technological advances of this century have closely integrated our economy and the whole organisation of national life. This integration has brought immense material advantages, but by laying society open to disruption it has brought weakness as well. The whole is at the mercy of a part to an extent unimagined even a few years ago.

    Nevertheless no part of the nation can exist by itself. Disruption may bring temporary advantage to a few, but all are hurt in the end. The nation is diminished and impoverished by it.

    Trade unions are an important estate of the realm. We shall co-operate closely with them, and we hope that our proposals for industrial partnership will lead to close and effective co-operation both with employees and management. But we shall not be dominated by the trade unions. They are not the government of the country.

    We believe that the survival of a mixed economy is vital to national prosperity. If all economic power were in the hands of politicians and civil servants, if all economic and industrial decisions were taken in Whitehall, Britain would become a dictatorship. An all-powerful government is the end of freedom.

    A mixed economy ensures the diffusion of power. That is the only way we can prevent the abuse of power. Hence, the destruction of the mixed economy would entail the destruction of our democratic liberties, and the end of our parliamentary democracy.

    Obviously the struggle against inflation and the gravity of Britain’s economic predicament prevent us from doing immediately all the things we should like to do. Like everyone else, governments must practise restraint.

    In the present economic emergency it would be irresponsible for any government to pretend that there can be general increases in public spending in real terms. This means having to postpone many of the things we would like to do straightaway. Only as we overcome our economic difficulties will it be possible to carry through the proposals in the second part of this Manifesto which involve expenditure. These proposals therefore are all subject to this important qualification.

    But we will act now in three areas which have been particularly hard hit by inflation and which in one way or another affect the basic livelihood of every family in the country – pensions, housing and food production. Our plans for these, which are set out later, will cost money; and in order to prevent inflationary consequences, it may be necessary to make cuts in public spending or increases in taxation. But as Britain’s economic position improves, our general objective will be to reduce the burden of taxation.

    Our policies will lead to a united nation. We shall uphold the law and the authority of Parliament. It is in Parliament, not in the streets, that national policies must be worked out and disputes resolved.

    Our nation still possesses great moral reserves. Our patriotism, our knowledge that what unites us is far more significant than what divides us, our pride in our way of life and in our institutions, our sense of history, our idealism, our wish to make our country better and to improve the lot of our fellow citizens – all these feelings and beliefs remain strong in Britain. But they can only be properly summoned to the service of our nation by a government that commands the confidence of the country because it puts the country first.

    The Conservative Party, free from dogma and free from dependence upon any single interest, is broadly based throughout the nation. It is our objective to win a clear majority in the House of Commons in this election. But we will use that majority above all to unite the nation. We will not govern in a narrow partisan spirit. After the election we will consult and confer with the leaders of other parties and with the leaders of the great interests in the nation, in order to secure for the government’s policies the consent and support of all men and women of good will. We will invite people from outside the ranks of our party to join with us in overcoming Britain’s difficulties. The nation’s crisis should transcend party differences.

    In any event, as a national Party we will pursue a national policy in the interests of the nation as a whole. We will lead a national effort. In normal times the party struggle is the safeguard of freedom. But the times are far from normal. In a crisis like this, it is the national interest which must prevail. We will ensure that it does.

    For all the people

    THE CHALLENGE

    We believe that, working together as a nation, we can solve our problems. It will not be easy. It will demand restraint and sacrifice. It will mean postponing some of our plans and recognising that we shall only be able to do all the things we want if our economic and industrial policies succeed. That should not prevent us planning for the future; and in this second part of the manifesto we set out some of our longer term and more ambitious aims in addition to our immediate proposals for tackling the crisis.

    PAYING FOR OUR PROGRAMME

    If we are going to make further advances in both individual prosperity and social provision, then we need first to set our economic house in order. But there are some things – housing, pensions and food production – which we believe have to be done now. In order to pay for these extra commitments immediately we may have either to make public spending cuts elsewhere or to raise taxes to meet the cost. But our general objective for taxes is simple we aim to lower them. We are happy for this promise to be matched against our record. Nevertheless, we give warning that in the present economic climate it might prove necessary to raise some taxes in order to pay for immediate objectives.

    POLITICS IS ABOUT PEOPLE

    Our plans are firmly rooted in our belief that government and politics are about people. As Conservatives, we have always acted on the principle that government has a clear responsibility to help and protect those who cannot look after themselves. At the same time, we believe that the strength and value of any society lies in individual freedom, effort and achievement. These complementary themes are more relevant than ever today.

    People feel increasingly frustrated and even oppressed by the impact on their lives of remote bureaucracy, and of events which seem to be entirely beyond their control or that of our democratic institutions. What is more, there is a serious political challenge from the Left to that fine balance between economic freedom and social provision which has made this country such a civilised place to live in: the balance between giving everyone the chance to achieve and excel and looking after those who cannot look after themselves.

    We do not believe that the great majority of people want revolutionary change in society, or for that matter that the future happiness of our society depends on completely altering it. There is no majority for a massive extension of nationalisation. There is no majority for the continued harrying of private enterprise. There is no majority for penalising those who save, own property or make profits. People are not clamouring for Whitehall to seize even greater control over their lives. They want more choice and diversity, not less.

    People want to be helped to achieve, not encouraged to envy. They want a decent home – and most of them want to own it themselves. They want security for their families. They want to be fairly rewarded for hard and responsible and useful work. They want to be protected from the ravages of inflation. They want decent schools for their children and a say in how they are taught. They want to be able to retire in comfort, free from financial worries. They want to live in a society where excellence and compassion go hand in hand, and where the rules and the laws are made and upheld by the free Parliament of a free people. The achievement of such a society will be the aim of the next Conservative government.

    People and prices

    THE FIRST PRIORITY

    The first priority for any government must be to defend the value of the currency and to bring inflation down from the present ruinous rates. This cannot be done overnight; it cannot be done by using only one weapon; and it cannot be done without united effort. If it is not done, the effects on every family will be calamitous.

    CONTROLLING PUBLIC SPENDING

    We will bring in a comprehensive price stabilisation programme which will use every tolerable means available to fight inflation. There must be restraint in prices and incomes and we will rigorously control public spending and the money supply, which is a vital, though not the only, part of our counter-inflation armoury. We will look hard at local government expenditure which has rocketed in the last few years.

    THE PRICE COMMISSION

    We will continue the work of the Price Commission, which we set up, but we will review the Price Code to make it more flexible, to stimulate investment and to help provide jobs. In a time of roaring inflation, price controls are necessary. But if they are too rigid, the money needed by companies to stimulate investment and to help provide jobs dries up. More efficient industrial effort is to the long-term advantage of the consumer. We will also encourage competition between companies and will build on the reforms introduced by our Fair Trading Act.

    INCOMES

    Every reasonable person knows that if we pay ourselves higher wages than we can afford, sooner or later we shall have to pay higher bills than we can afford. There is the very real danger of a worsening wages explosion this autumn and winter at precisely the time when world prices are starting to ease. At the moment when we might stand a chance of getting on top of inflation, it would be madness to give another twist to the inflationary spiral. We must therefore as a matter of urgency, work out with the trade unions and the employers a fair and effective policy for prices and incomes. We believe that the great majority of the trade union movement will be prepared to work with the democratically elected government of the country for the public good. If after all our efforts we fail to get a comprehensive voluntary policy we shall need to support the voluntary restraint that is achieved with the back-up of the law. It would be irresponsible and dishonest totally to rule this out, but the various methods no less than the principle would need to be widely discussed. In the absence of an effective prices and incomes policy any Government would have to take harsher financial and economic measures than would otherwise be necessary.

    A BETTER INDUSTRIAL FORUM

    To build a more responsible partnership between government, the unions and the employers, we must strengthen the existing National Economic Development Council as a better industrial forum. One of its main tasks will be to discuss how much of the nation’s resources are available for pay, for investment, for exports and for public spending.

    FAIRER REWARDS FOR HARD WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY

    We would also try to reach an agreement on a new, fair and sensible system for adjusting the relative rates of pay between different groups without adding to inflation. There is a widespread acceptance that those who do particularly demanding work should enjoy an improvement in their relative pay. Yet without some national, independent body on pay relativities, this kind of improvement will prove difficult if not impossible.

    INCOME PROTECTION

    For our price stabilisation programme to succeed, it must enjoy the consent of the British people. This means offering them some assurance of income protection so that, as far as possible, incomes keep pace with the cost of living to help safeguard real living standards. Our programme involves:

    • Moving from an annual to a six-monthly increase in retirement pensions, public service pensions and other long-term benefits.
    • Seeking new forms of saving schemes for the small saver protected as far as possible against inflation. We will extend the principle of special indexed and inflation-proofed savings.
    • Pay arrangements for wage and salary earners to take account of increases in the cost of living.

    This is the only fair and honest approach at a time when there is no immediate prospect of an increase in living standards. It protects the interests of pensioners, trade unionists and employees. We have considered taking our income proposals much further and introducing full-scale indexation, which has a growing number of advocates. We do not believe that this would be the best way of protecting people from inflation if all it did was to help us to live with inflation rather than cutting back the rate of inflation itself. Nevertheless, while we are tackling the crisis it is right to take some practical steps to help protect living standards and savings, and this we propose to do.

    FOOD PRICES

    Food prices make up a large part of every family’s budget, and we know that the rise in the cost of food over the last few years largely caused by events outside the control of this country or outside the Common Market has hit many people hard. The present Government’s answer has been essentially political and cosmetic. Their food subsidies have proved wasteful. Only £1 out of every £4 has gone to those in real need and the subsidies are being paid for by taxes on a whole range of goods and services which figure in the budget of every ordinary family. It would have been better to help the less well-off families direct. With the urgent. need to stabilise prices we accept that it will be necessary to retain these subsidies for the time being.

    MORE HOME-GROWN FOOD

    In the longer term, if we want more stable food prices in the shops and a healthier balance of payments the answer must be a considerable expansion of British agriculture. Given the right lead and help from government, our farmers and farm-workers are capable of making an even greater contribution to our economy than ever before. In today’s unpredictable world, it is vital that they should. What British agriculture needs above all is reassurance and confidence about the future.

    After 1970, British agriculture enjoyed a remarkable resurgence of confidence. The result was a healthy increase in the supply of home-grown food for the consumer. But in recent months the industry has suffered severely as a result of the uncertainty over Europe caused by the present Government and their failure to take action to deal with the grain crisis and inflation.

    Our farmers must be given the necessary confidence as rapidly as possible to expand their industry once again. To do this, a Conservative government will undertake an immediate review of agriculture, both nationally and on a Community basis, followed by a cash injection as in 1970. We shall have thorough consultations with the industry over the serious problems caused by the rise in feeding stuff costs, and restore a guarantee for beef producers. We will work out with the industry a more efficient system of marketing. We will continue to press for improvements in the European Common Agricultural Policy and work to safeguard the interests of horticulturalists and other specialist producers. We shall remove the immensely damaging threat of Labour’s wealth tax proposals to the family farm. Our aim is to ensure that at a time of uncertainty over world food supplies, the British housewife can enjoy the benefits of more home-grown food that those who work on the land are certainly capable of producing.

    The Restrictive Trade Practices legislation has led to some unexpected difficulties for agricultural cooperatives. We shall introduce amendments to ensure that such organisations are able to carry out the sensible purposes for which they exist.

    THE FISHING INDUSTRY

    It is also in the national interest, and in the interest of every housewife, to safeguard our fishing industry. The overriding need here is to conserve stocks. We support the move towards internationally agreed limits of 200 miles. In order to protect our waters and our fishing industry from over-fishing by foreign boats, we made special arrangements to protect the interests of inshore fishermen during our negotiations for entry into the European Community. When these arrangements come up for review in 1982, we will make sure that the special interests of the inshore industry continue to be protected.

    People and industry

    ENCOURAGING EFFICIENT PRODUCTION

    The most positive element in our price stabilisation programme will be measures to encourage efficient production. There are no short cuts to building a new prosperity. There is no alternative to improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased production. No government, whatever its colour, can simply switch on economic growth by itself. It depends on the hard work, skills and enterprise of the British people.

    Our taxation and industrial policies will therefore be designed to encourage firms to invest more money in new plant and machinery in our factories. It is here that we have fallen behind other industrial countries. In the last few months, investment and industrial confidence have received a terrible and deliberate battering. Taxation has clawed back much of the cash which industry needs. Threats of nationalisation have destroyed confidence. It is time to call a halt to these immensely damaging policies. Above all, we must recognise that in a mixed economy like ours, economic success depends very largely on private enterprise. One of the most valuable things we could do for industry would be to assure it that for several years ahead, there would be no threat of new nationalisation or more state direction.

    We will introduce a major reform of company law as proposed during the period of our last administration.

    HELP FOR THE REGIONS

    We want a partnership with industry based on trust, not a relationship of hostility and compulsion. One important ingredient of that partnership must be continuity of policy; when policies are endlessly chopped and changed, investment plans are damaged. That is why, for example, we intend to continue the regional policies which we pursued in office. In less than two years these provided or safeguarded over 50,000 jobs in schemes which received selective assistance under our Industry Act. We will seek to rebuild confidence in the regions, offering to industry continuity of assistance in order to achieve a real break-through in solving long term problems. The now threatened rise in unemployment will be especially heavy if we do not succeed in restraining inflationary wage demands. This makes sensible policies for helping the regions more vital than ever.

    SMALL BUSINESSES

    We want also to help the small, often family-owned businesses which form the backbone of British enterprise. They employ a third of workers in the private sector and are immensely important to the economic life of Britain and to future industrial growth. The last Conservative government recognised their importance by appointing, for the first time, a Minister with specific responsibility for small businesses and by implementing many of the recommendations of the Bolton Committee on Small Businesses. In the recent Parliament, the Conservative Opposition won improved tax relief for small businesses which the Labour government opposed. A new Conservative government will keep under review the profit levels under which small firms are entitled to relief on corporation tax.

    THE IMPACT OF WEALTH AND GIFTS TAXES

    Small businesses often face the problem of long-term finance. We will therefore set up an enquiry, to report within twelve months, into the availability and adequacy of long-term finance for small firms. Small businesses are also vulnerable to capital taxation and estate duty. The present government’s proposed wealth tax and gifts tax could lead to the break-up of many small firms and a loss of jobs for those employed in them. In our overall reform of capital taxation, we will seek to find ways of shielding small businesses from taxes that might otherwise cripple them, destroy jobs and harm the economy.

    Too many small businesses are being squeezed out of city-centres in redevelopments. To help prevent this, we will ask all planning authorities to take into account the social contribution of small shopkeepers and other small concerns when considering city-centre redevelopments.

    INFLATION ACCOUNTING

    There are other areas where we would seek early co-operation with industry. Inflation at the present rate has a seriously distorting effect on company profitability, given the methods of accounting generally employed in Britain today. As a result, companies are finding themselves paying taxes on profits which are to a considerable extent paper profits and do not reflect real values. This is damaging to the economy since it means a further drain on funds for investment. The last Conservative government set up the Sandilands Committee to report and make recommendations on methods of inflation-accounting. We hope that this Committee will be able to produce its Report very soon and we will encourage it to do so. As soon as it reports, we will enter into immediate discussions with industry and the accounting profession on a changeover to methods of accounting which more accurately reflect company profitability.

    INCENTIVES FOR GREATER PRODUCTIVITY

    We also want to consider with industry ways of improving productivity. There is enormous scope in Britain for doing this, and the impact on our national prosperity and on that of every family would be considerable. We shall therefore examine straightaway the possibility of introducing in this country the sort of national scheme which operates in France for giving a fair share of the increased profits made by individual firms to those whose efforts produce improved performance and to those who make their contribution by investing their savings in new factories and new machinery.

    SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN ENERGY

    The energy industries are specially vital to our economic performance, as events over the last year have shown. The days of cheap and abundant energy have gone for good. But Britain is more fortunate than most other industrial countries in having substantial natural reserves of coal, oil and gas. There are two clear lessons to be learned from last year’s energy crisis: first, the urgent need to make Britain as self-sufficient in energy as possible; secondly, to make sure that Britain is able to depend on a variety of different sources of energy.

    COAL

    We support the general strategy for coal agreed during 1974 with the industry. Our aim will be to make the industry viable so that it can provide an assured and prosperous future for all those who work in it. An important element will be the establishment of a productivity scheme.

    NORTH SEA OIL

    In exploiting the oil reserves around the United Kingdom, there are three essential requirements. First, the British people must retain control of, and enjoy, the maximum benefits from our off-shore oil. The answer is not to spend £2,000 million or more of the taxpayers’ money in nationalising 51 per cent of the industry. Nationalisation is inefficient, hugely expensive and totally unnecessary. The desired results can be achieved just as effectively, and far more cheaply, through taxation and regulation. Taxation will provide Britain with revenue from the oil. A Conservative government will, therefore, block the existing corporation tax loopholes and introduce a new additional tax on North Sea oil profits. At the same time, our proposed new regulations will give the government all the control that it needs. We will establish an Oil Conservation Authority to act as a watchdog. Its job will be to regulate exploration for oil, investment, production and sales in accordance with general policy directives laid down by the Government.

    SCOTLAND AND NORTH SEA OIL

    Secondly, the Scottish people must enjoy more of the financial benefits from oil, and they must be given a far greater say over its operation in Scotland. We will, therefore, establish a Scottish Development Fund. This will provide immediate cash help to solve the problems created by oil development, but beyond that it will lay the foundation for Scotland’s long-term economic prosperity. We will move the Oil Production Division of the Department of Energy to Scotland and encourage the oil industry to locate their UK production headquarters in Scotland.

    NO DELAY

    Thirdly, we must produce enough oil to meet Britain’s needs by 1980. This means allowing the oil industry to press ahead with the minimum of hindrance, with the development of our oil resources. Already, the threat of nationalisation is causing considerable delay in the development of North Sea oilfields.

    NUCLEAR POWER

    We will carry through the recently announced pilot programme of nuclear power stations based on the British designed ‘heavy water’ system. We believe that a larger nuclear programme must be initiated at an early date. In all nuclear matters, safety and reliability must be our paramount considerations.

    ENERGY SAVING

    Events over the last year have highlighted the need for energy conservation. There is a lot that government can do to help and give a lead, for example by encouraging adequate home insulation and by giving the necessary support for research and development. But big savings of energy, which will help the nation’s balance of payments and everyone’s pocket, can only be made if the whole country makes some contribution. People often ask – ‘What can we do to help beat the crisis?’ One really useful thing that many of us could do is to cut down voluntarily on the amount of energy that we use, particularly oil. We will start urgent talks with every interest – local authorities, industry, voluntary agencies, consumer groups and so on – with this objective.

    People at work

    PARTNERSHIP IN INDUSTRY

    We want to promote partnership between government and industry, and partnership between those who work together in industry. It is on this that our chances of overcoming the country’s economic difficulties and laying the foundations of a new prosperity for everyone will depend.

    THE LAW AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

    Governments of both parties have tried to establish a new legal framework within which industrial relations could develop. As we have said elsewhere, we still believe that our own legislation was soundly based and unfairly attacked, but in view of the hostility which it aroused we will not reintroduce it. We accept the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, introduced by the present government and sensibly amended by Parliament, as the basis for the law on trade union organisation and as the legal framework for collective bargaining. We hope that our decision will help create a better climate for industrial partnership.

    EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION

    To strengthen this partnership, we will lay a formal duty on all large and medium-sized firms to consult employee representatives on a wide range of subjects. This is necessary not only for economic reasons but also because a better understanding is important in its own right. We want to leave the precise methods and procedures as flexible as possible, but we have it in mind that the subjects covered should range from disciplinary and dismissal procedures and redundancy arrangements to consultations about methods of working, and profit-sharing and share-ownership schemes. These proposals should lay the foundation for future developments in employee participation at every level of the enterprise, but it is much too soon to be dogmatic about the exact form of participation in management.

    Much can be learned about the right to consultation at work from the success achieved by certain companies. The government in particular will need to set a clear example with its own employees and the nationalised industries will be expected to play their part.

    OTHER RIGHTS AT WORK

    We will protect and extend other rights of workers, after consultations with both sides of industry. Our objectives are:

    • to give employees the right to hold union meetings on the premises of their employer;
    • to give union members the opportunity to elect the leaders of their union by a postal ballot, with adequate help from the government to cover the expense;
    • to seek effective ways of providing government assistance for the training of shop stewards and union officers;
    • to seek ways of regulating the conduct of picketing based on the strict arrangements adopted by the National Union of Mineworkers in February 1974.

    REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS

    We also believe that the time is now overdue for a review of the system of payments for redundancy and the arrangements for redundancy in general. We must take account of developments in Europe, and consider relating payments to need, linking arrangements for redundancy with arrangements for industrial retraining, and improving the arrangements for collective redundancy.

    STRIKES AND THE TAXPAYER

    We believe it is right that the unions themselves should accept a significant share of the responsibility for the welfare of the families of men who go on strike, and that the whole burden should not fall on the taxpayer. Equally, it is right that the families of strikers should not suffer unnecessary hardship. We will discuss with trade unions and employers how best to meet these two aims.

    JOB SATISFACTION

    Much of the friction in our industrial relations is a symptom of the frustration and boredom found in many jobs in modern industry. The scope for improving job satisfaction is considerable. The primary responsibility must rest with management. A Conservative government will accordingly bring together government, management and the trade unions, to promote research into ways of improving and extending job satisfaction and to give advice. This will benefit individual workers, industrial relations in general and the community at large by improving the tone and atmosphere of our industrial civilisation.

    People and taxes

    A RESPONSIBLE APPROACH TO TAXATION

    We believe as Conservatives that people should keep as much of what they earn as is consistent with the responsibility of government to provide adequate services for the whole community. This is the most practical way to reward and therefore encourage effort, and it provides the best guarantee of individual choice and freedom. In present circumstances it would be irresponsible to promise large reductions in tax rates; and as we said earlier, if we cannot find the money to pay for additional programmes through cutting spending on other things it may be necessary to increase some taxes in the short term. But, as circumstances allow, we shall reduce the burden of tax on individuals and industry alike, as we have done in the past.

    Above all, the tax system must be fair, and be seen to be fair. The last Conservative government went a long way towards making it fairer. Higher personal allowances gave proportionately more help to the less well-off taxpayers. The unified system of income tax brought relief to retired people living on small investment incomes.

    Our proposals for helping older people and low income groups through personal allowances and the tax credit scheme respectively will be found later in this manifesto.

    TAXATION ON CAPITAL

    We shall also seek to bring greater fairness into the whole system of taxation on capital. We do not oppose this in principle – for example, we already have in this country death duties and capital gains tax. What we do oppose are ill-considered and damaging additional burdens piled on top of existing penal and comprehensive taxes. Britain already has higher taxes on both capital and income than other countries – with a top rate for income tax of 98 per cent. Tax on tax on tax: this is a prescription, not for a fairer society, but for a poorer and more bitter one. It is wrong to reform capital taxation in a piecemeal way without full consideration of the effects. We will examine the whole system of taxation on capital with the aim of making the system more fair, less a matter in its application of chance or skill in avoidance, and less damaging to the thrift, saving and investment on which our future depends.

    The last Conservative government raised the starting point for estate duty so that property passing from husband to wife (or vice versa) is exempt up to £30,000. An important part of our reform of capital taxation will be to extend this limit so that no estate duty is payable until the death of the surviving husband or wife. At present, relations sharing the family home may be forced to sell it in order to meet estate duties on the death of parents, brothers or sisters. We shall extend the relief at present enjoyed by widows or widowers to safeguard the matrimonial home to cover close relatives living in the same house.

    People and rates

    People pay tax not only to national government but to local government as well in the form of rates.

    Local authority expenditure has been growing faster than the economy as a whole. Although on average 60 per cent of this expenditure is met by grant from the taxpayer, the burden on the domestic ratepayer has risen sharply. The rating system itself has come under increasing criticism because it does not reflect people’s ability to pay.

    Further heavy increases in rates are forecast. In these circumstances Conservatives will take the following steps.

    TRANSFERRING EXPENDITURE

    First, we shall transfer to central government in the medium term, the cost of teachers’ salaries up to a specified number of teachers for each local education authority. Expenditure on police and the fire services will qualify for increased grants from the Exchequer. We shall see that this saving is passed on to the ratepayer.

    FAIRER TAXES

    Secondly, within the normal lifetime of a Parliament we shall abolish the domestic rating system and replace it by taxes more broadly based and related to people’s ability to pay. Local authorities must continue to have some independent source of finance.

    People and their homes

    Tackling the nation’s housing needs is second only to the fight against inflation on our agenda.

    TWO MAIN OBJECTIVES

    We have two main objectives. First, we want to see that enough homes are provided for the families that need them. This means, among other things, trying to ensure a steady flow of funds for the construction industry and concentrating help where it is really needed – for example, in the inner city areas where our proposal for establishing Social Priority Areas (set out in more detail later) will greatly help.

    Secondly, 51 per cent of houses are at present owner-occupied. There are many families who would like to own their home but for one reason or another cannot do so. It is our purpose to extend the opportunities for home ownership to as many of them as possible. The Conservative ideal is a property-owning democracy.

    MORTGAGE RATES

    The first part of our programme for doing this is to reduce the interest rate charged by building societies to home buyers to 9½ per cent and ensure that it does not rise above that figure. At the moment, societies have to offer those who are saving money with them the going interest rate for their investment. Without government action, any rise in this rate is passed on virtually automatically to the home buyer. But by varying the rate of tax payable by the building societies (known as the composite rate) when interest rates in general rise, the Government can enable the societies to attract sufficient funds without passing on the full increase in the rate to the purchaser. This step will help all home buyers – both new buyers and those existing buyers who have to struggle to find the extra money each month for the increased mortgage repayments for which they were unprepared.

    A number of questions have been raised about the liquidity and reserve ratios of building societies, the legal restrictions on them, and the possibility of widening their powers so that they can operate more flexibly. In order to settle these matters, we shall set up a one year enquiry to sit full-time and to make recommendations to the government on the future role and structure of the societies.

    HELP WITH THE DEPOSIT

    Our second proposal is to give first-time purchasers of private houses and flats special help in paying the deposit.We will start a Home Savings Grant Scheme in which people who save regularly with building societies under schemes approved by the government will receive a grant proportionate to their savings. The Government will contribute £1 for every £2 saved up to a given ceiling.

    This scheme would take at least two years to mature in order to give builders sufficient time to increase the supply of homes for sale. Without this, the extra grant would raise prices since more money would be chasing the same number of homes.

    Several kinds of low start mortgages are already available. We shall encourage a greater variety of house purchase schemes to fit different circumstances.

    SALE OF COUNCIL HOUSES AND FLATS

    Our third proposal for extending home ownership is to give a new deal to every council tenant who has been in his home for three years or more. These tenants will have the right to purchase their homes at a price one-third below market value.The community will no longer tolerate the attitude of councils which, for narrow partisan reasons, stand in the way of their tenants becoming homeowners. We will therefore place a duty on every council to sell homes on these terms – giving their tenants what amounts to a 100 per cent mortgage with no deposit. It is of course only right that a tenant who buys his home should surrender the appropriate portion of any capital gain if he re-sells it within five years.

    VOLUNTARY HOUSING MOVEMENT

    We shall support the voluntary housing movement and the Housing Corporation, both of which have benefited from new measures originally introduced in our Housing and Planning Bill. Housing Associations will continue to provide dwellings to rent as an alternative to local authorities.

    RENTS

    We will continue the freeze on rents until the end of the year. When we have examined the reports of the Rent Scrutiny Boards, we will consider how increases can gradually be implemented in the light of our policies for fighting inflation. Families in need, whether in furnished or unfurnished accommodation, will continue to receive help with their rent as provided for the first time by law under the Conservative Housing Finance Act.

    MODERNISING OLDER HOUSES

    A policy of maintaining and modernising older houses is often preferable to demolition and rebuilding. The original scheme for home improvement was subject to certain abuses but these have now been removed. In all, our improvement programme resulted in 1 million homes receiving grants under the last Conservative government. We will continue this programme since it is exceptionally important to keep our older houses in good condition and to keep established communities together.

    People in retirement

    Inflation hits the old and the retired especially hard and in our tax and social service policies we must do all we can to protect them. And in a compassionate society they, like people in need, have the right to look forward to a better standard of living.

    SIX-MONTHLY REVIEWS

    We will act first to protect the value of the pension. With prices rising as fast as they are, annual reviews are too infrequent. A Conservative government will therefore increase retirement pensions (as well as other long-term benefits) and public service pensions every six months. We will make sure that the burden of paying for improved pensions is fairly shared. The self-employed in particular should not have to face the huge increases in contributions proposed by the present government. Our development of inflation-proofed savings schemes will help those who want to add to their retirement pension by putting money aside during their working lives.

    SECOND PENSION SCHEME
    The pension prospects of millions of people in employment have been damaged by the present government’s decision to abandon the Conservative Second Pension Scheme. Under the Conservative scheme, which was all set to come into operation, twelve million people would have started building up a second pension from April 1975. The present government has put a stop to this. The next Conservative government will reactivate the Second Pension Scheme to start as soon as possible, and at the latest by April 1976. With this as a foundation, we shall introduce further improvements, in particular to make still better second pension provision for women. We will make sure that married women in employment retain their right not to pay the full contribution to the State basic scheme.

    HIGHER PERSONAL ALLOWANCES FOR OLDER PEOPLE

    We recognise the special needs of older people, often trapped by rising expenses that they cannot escape, and without the opportunity to increase their incomes as younger people can. Therefore, when we can afford to do so, we shall introduce higher personal tax allowances for people over 65. This will give a real rise in after-tax income to many older taxpayers who at present pay tax at a penal rate of 55 per cent immediately their income becomes subject to tax.

    ABOLITION OF THE EARNINGS RULE

    We believe that the earnings rule is socially harmful as well as widely resented. It discourages able men and women, merely because of their age, from making a contribution to society which would help both them and the rest of us. We have relaxed the earnings rule in the past and we will relax it further. We will abolish it as soon as resources allow.

    People in need

    PRIORITIES AND INFLATION

    The record of the last Conservative government in giving new help to people in special need was by any reckoning remarkably successful. But rising standards only highlight the inadequacies that still persist. And inflation makes them worse. To tackle all these will cost money – and, as we have said throughout, cash and resources will be severely limited over the next few years. This underlines the need, greater now than ever, for establishing a clear set of priorities.

    Our first priority in the social services, as we have made clear, is to look after the pensioners and other families dependent on long-term social security benefits by reviewing these benefits every six months. This is the best way of protecting them against rising prices, and it must be our first task.

    THE TAX CREDIT SCHEME

    The speed at which we can carry out our other main social policies will depend largely on the economic situation and the resources that become available. But the centre-piece of our social programme Will be the Tax-Credit scheme – the most advanced anti-poverty programme set in hand by any western country. This scheme will provide cash help, related to family circumstances, automatically and without special means test. It will be of special help to pensioners and to hard-pressed families with low incomes, especially where there are children. Our intention is to ensure that ultimately no family in the land need remain in poverty.Tragically the present government have set their face against this scheme. We will establish the framework for tax credits as soon as we can and bring the scheme into effect in stages, as economic circumstances permit.

    CHILD CREDITS

    As a first step towards establishing the tax credit scheme, we will introduce a system of child credits when economic circumstances allow. These will be available for all children, including the first child. Child credits will take the place of the family allowances and tax allowances. The whole of the new child credits will be payable to mothers in cash in exactly the same way as existing family allowances, the only difference being that they will be worth more.

    SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES

    Single-parent families face many financial and social problems, to which the Finer Report has recently drawn attention. We are studying the Report very carefully and will take action in the light of its recommendations.

    CHRONICALLY SICK AND DISABLED PEOPLE

    One of the particular achievements of the last Conservative government was to introduce new benefits for chronically ill and severely disabled people. We shall continue this work. As resources become available, we shall establish as of right, a new benefit – modest to begin with, but a start – for those disabled people who have never been able to undertake regular work and for married women so disabled that they cannot look after their homes and families. We shall also improve the vehicle service for disabled people in the light of the Sharp Report: the minimum aim must be to see that all those who now qualify for ‘three wheelers’ will be able to exchange them for cars if they wish to do so.

    EARNINGS RULE

    We will relax the earnings rule in relation to supplementary benefit so as to enable widows to make a real contribution to the living standards of their families, and we will see that the earnings of children at school are entirely disregarded.

    THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

    The National Health Service now faces acute difficulties, which are made all the worse by the impact of inflation. In present economic circumstances, it will not be easy even to maintain existing standards. That is why it is so wrong to reject any acceptable method of channelling additional resources into Britain’s health services. The present government’s commitment to scrap all Health Service charges at a cost of £100 million is bound to make the problems of the National Health Service worse. For the same reason we reject the present government’s plans for abolishing private practice in association with the National Health Service. This is unacceptable in principle; it would also reduce the skills available to patients generally and would cost nearly £30 million a year. We shall safeguard the right of people to make provision for their own health and that of their families. What is now needed in the National Health Service is a period of comparative stability, founded upon the reorganisation that we carried through, which must now be allowed to settle down.

    On pay there is considerable criticism of the working of the Whitley Council system in determining salaries and conditions of service in the National Health Service. We will therefore set up an independent inquiry to make urgent recommendations for the improvement of the system. A Conservative government will back-date to last May the recommendations of the Halsbury Committee on the pay of nurses and related medical professions. But the problems on pay that have arisen in the National Health Service only underline the need for a policy to help workers throughout the public sector to be paid comparable rates of pay to those earned by workers in the private sector. This may mean channelling more money into wages and salaries, at the expense of buildings, if we are to avoid a total collapse of the National Health Service. In this way, for instance, we could implement the principal recommendations of the Briggs Report on nursing, while preserving the identity of the health visitor.

    SPECIAL NEEDS

    There are additional areas requiring special help when the country can afford it. A Conservative government will give priority to services for old people, disabled people, mentally ill people, and mentally handicapped people, at home, in the community and in the hospital. We will build on the record of the last Conservative Government in providing improved services for deaf people, and continue to improve the rehabilitation services. We will take what action may be necessary, in the light of the Report on the death of Maria Colwell, to detect and prevent the ill-treatment of small children. We will improve the law relating to adoption following broadly the recommendations of the Houghton Report.

    VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE

    In implementing our policy of identifying and meeting special need, we will continue to respect and help the voluntary organisations in their invaluable work. To this end, we will review the legal framework within which charities operate, a review that is long overdue. We will also develop the special unit that we set up when we were in government to help encourage voluntary service throughout the community.

    Women – at home and at work

    CHILD CREDITS FOR MOTHERS

    Among those worst hit by the ravages of inflation are mothers, whose house-keeping money often fails to keep pace with the higher prices in the shops. Housewives will therefore stand to gain most from the success of our price stabilisation programme. In addition, as we have already said, we plan as part of our tax credit scheme to introduce new child credits for all children, including the first. These will be worth more than the existing family allowances and will be payable to mothers in cash at the Post Office.

    WOMEN AT WORK

    The last Conservative government took steps to ensure the effective implementation of Equal Pay for women at work by the end of 1975.

    We stand by the principle of equal pay for women.

    WOMEN IN RETIREMENT

    Women have had a rough deal over pensions from the present government, which has abandoned the last Conservative government’s Second Pension Scheme. One of the purposes of this scheme was to improve greatly the pension prospects for women in employment – enabling many of them to earn a second pension for the first time and to get a second widow’s pension, also for the first time. A Conservative government will reintroduce the scheme. We will also maintain the right of women not to pay the full contribution to the basic State scheme, and retired women who want to do part-time jobs will of course greatly benefit from our eventual abolition of the earnings rule.

    WIDOWS

    In relation to supplementary benefit, we also intend, as we have said, to relax the earnings rule so as to enable widows to make a real contribution to the living standards of their families. Widows, as well as separated and deserted wives, with children to bring up, will benefit from the action we take in the light of the Finer Report.

    THE RIGHT OF A WOMAN TO BE TREATED EQUALLY

    The last Conservative government made considerable progress in strengthening women’s rights. In pensions, social benefits, taxation, maintenance payments and guardianship of children, we introduced a succession of new rights for women. We also announced our intention to set up an Equal Opportunities Commission, the biggest single step towards a society of real equality for men and women taken by any government since women won the vote. Only the timing of the election prevented its implementation. We remain committed to setting up an Equal Opportunities Commission with powers to enquire into areas of discrimination and to report to the Government on the need for future action.

    Children, parents and schools

    THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION

    Many parents are deeply worried about the quality of the education which their children receive – in particular about standards of learning, conduct and discipline. These problems have accumulated over the years in an atmosphere over-charged with politics. Too often, the debate over education has centred on the kind of school rather than on the quality of the education provided; and too few parents have been allowed any real say over their children’s education.

    CHILDREN’S NEEDS MUST COME FIRST

    The Conservative approach towards education is clear and distinct. Our overriding concern is with the educational needs of the children. Our first objective will therefore be to preserve good schools of whatever kind. We are in no way against comprehensive schools: what we oppose is the ruthless imposition of these schools, regardless of local needs and in defiance of parents’ wishes. Typical of this approach is Labour’s circular, which hits the building programmes of local authorities which have not gone comprehensive. The next Conservative government will withdraw this. We will expect local authorities to make their schemes of reorganisation sufficiently flexible to include grammar and direct grant schools of proven worth. This will help to meet the needs of bright and able children, especially those from disadvantaged areas. We will scrutinise zoning arrangements to ensure that they do not restrict or eliminate choice.

    The eleven-plus examination is arbitrary. But selection where necessary must be flexible so as to allow the transfer of children from one school to another at a variety of ages.

    RAISING STANDARDS

    We must take speedy action to raise standards of teaching and education. This will involve a considerable strengthening of the system of schools inspection. More inspectors will need to be recruited. National standards of reading, writing and arithmetic will be set. And the training period for teachers should give more attention to teaching the three basic skills and how to maintain discipline.

    COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLS

    Comprehensive schools have been a continuing source of controversy. This controversy should be settled by a fair and dispassionate examination of their performance, their size and their structure. A Conservative government will set up such an enquiry, as a matter of urgency, to report speedily.

    DIRECT GRANT SCHOOLS

    The direct grant schools are particularly valuable. They combine high academic standards with a wide social mix. The present government is currently examining ways of destroying these schools. A Conservative government will instead strengthen them by re-opening the direct grant list, by considering the introduction of a complete system of assisted places so that every parent pays only according to his or her means, and-when economic circumstances allow us to do so – by raising the capitation grants to take account of increased costs.

    THE SCHOOL-LEAVING AGE

    Since the raising of the school-leaving age, the problems of truancy and indiscipline have become more acute. We remain committed to the principle of education up to sixteen, but believe that it should be applied more flexibly. One possibility, which we will want to examine closely, is to allow children of fifteen the opportunity of taking up an apprenticeship or training as a first step towards taking a job.

    A CHARTER OF PARENTS’ RIGHTS

    An important part of the distinct Conservative policy on education is to recognise parental rights. A say in how their children are to be brought up is an essential ingredient in the parental role. We will therefore introduce additional rights for parents. First, by amending the 1944 Education Act, we will impose clear obligations on the State and local authorities to take account of the wishes of parents. Second, we will consider establishing a local appeal system for parents dissatisfied with the allotment of schools. Third, parents will be given the right to be represented on school boards-by requiring a substantial proportion of the school governors and managers to be drawn from, and elected by, the parents of children currently at school. Fourth, we will place an obligation on all head teachers to form a parent-teachers association to assist and support teachers. Fifth, we will encourage schools to publish prospectuses about their record, existing character, specialities and objectives.

    TEACHERS

    Better standards in schools will mean raising the status of the teaching profession. We will consider sympathetically the recommendations of Lord Houghton’s Committee on Teachers’ Salaries. As steps towards raising the professional status of teachers, we will encourage the movement to an all graduate profession, the implementation of the recommendations of the James Report on In-service Training and the establishment of a professional council for teachers to regulate their own affairs. We will also stimulate local authorities to provide houses for teachers where this is necessary.

    TASKS FOR THE FUTURE

    For the moment, we cannot afford as a country to do all the things we want for children and young people – in their schools, colleges and universities. But when we have got on top of our present economic difficulties we will complete the work we have started for the younger children-replacing and modernising old primary schools (especially in the rundown areas of our towns and cities), developing further the pre-school facilities for children, and helping handicapped children. We will also want to ease the financial problems faced by our universities and see that teachers in polytechnics, with the same qualifications as those at universities, receive the same salaries. In addition our aim will be to finance the polytechnics and colleges of education in a similar way to the universities.

    Young people

    Young people want many of the same things as their parents-a decent home to start married life in, the opportunity to earn a rising standard of living, a fair reward for what they do, a decent environment, the chance to go as far as their abilities will take them. But the problems that are special to young people are not being adequately dealt with by central and local government.

    THE NEED FOR CO-ORDINATION

    We therefore think that it is time to establish a special unit to co-ordinate the actions of government departments as they affect the needs and aspirations of young people.

    YOUTH AND COMMUNITY BILL

    We will re-introduce the Youth and Community Bill, which, among other things, provides local reviews of existing arrangements in the field of housing, employment, leisure and advice services as they relate to young people.

    HOUSING

    We will give special help to first-time house buyers as we have said in more detail earlier. We should also recognise that young people working in our cities are more mobile and have a special housing need which has been aggravated by the actions of the present government in introducing the Rent Act. We will encourage the voluntary housing movement to provide accommodation in inner city areas which will meet their needs. We will also encourage the growth of hostel accommodation and student co-operative dwellings. Local authorities should consider the needs of young people in planning their housing provision.

    EMPLOYMENT

    The youth employment service has over the years provided invaluable help to thousands of school leavers. But too many young people still receive inadequate guidance in choosing their first job and insufficient help with the difficult move from school to work. We will accordingly undertake a review of the youth employment service in order to strengthen it and make it even more responsive to the needs of young people. We will also examine ways of improving the co-ordination of vocational guidance services in general, including the Manpower Services Commission, the adult occupational guidance unit, and the careers service profession. We want to see more young people in their last year at school given the opportunity to try out prospective jobs with the help and participation of local industries. For those in need of special help and support we will expand the Community Industries Scheme.

    COMMUNITY SERVICE

    Most young people wish to have a greater say in the decisions affecting their lives, and many also wish to give service to the community. It is important to see that they are given opportunities to serve on bodies which influence daily life, particularly where the Government itself makes the appointments.

    The young in urban communities are subject to special stresses. Those with immigrant parents may have additional problems because of the cultural differences between their family life and the society they live in. We will use the urban aid and community development programmes to support cooperative schemes, involving local authorities, voluntary agencies and the communities themselves.

    STUDENTS

    When we review student grants, we will reduce the amount that parents have to contribute and we will end the discrimination against married women students. It is unfair that, while some students can get a grant as of right from a local authority, other students only get a grant if the local authority chooses to give one. As soon as economic circumstances allow, we will review the present arrangements with the aim of ending these unfairnesses in the provision of grants. We will encourage the formation of student housing associations.

    People and their environment

    For some unfortunate people environment means the slum they live in or the slag heap which looms at the bottom of their garden. For others it means stricter controls over pollution or conserving the world’s finite resources; clearing more derelict land or encouraging family planning; giving more people the chance to go to concerts and galleries or raising the quality of broadcasting. The term covers a whole complex of questions which in one way or another affect the quality of our lives. Our approach to these problems as Conservatives is based on our belief that many things should be conserved, and on our belief in the dignity of the individual. We do not accept that, by becoming more prosperous, we will destroy the quality of our environment. We believe, to the contrary, that properly controlled and directed growth can and will improve the environment, not least of those who at present have too low a standard of living to enjoy many of the good things of life.

    BUILDING ON OUR RECORD

    In 1970 we set up the first Department of the Environment in the world and became world leaders in a policy to protect the environment when it was good and to improve it when it had been spoilt or polluted. We will build on our record by:

    • leading a determined, properly co-ordinated effort on a national scale to make far greater progress in the recycling of waste products;
    • carrying through the drive to clear derelict land;
    • pressing on with measures to prevent pollution of all kinds, and improving the methods for monitoring potentially dangerous matter;
    • seeking methods of avoiding waste and unnecessary consumption of fuels and energy, for example, by helping to raise the standards of house insulation.

    FAMILY PLANNING

    The last Conservative government appointed the Population Panel and for the first time provided a complete family planning service within the National Health Service. We believe that it is the responsibility of government to provide such a service and to tell people the facts about our population. But we must leave it to every family to decide what use to make of the family planning service.

    TRANSPORT

    We want to preserve a proper balance between the interests of road and rail transport and between those of the private motorists and public transport. We will re-introduce our plans to modify the bus licensing system so as to give greater freedom for new forms of local transport in country areas. We will also extend the establishment of a system of lorry routes to keep heavy vehicles out of towns and villages and away from narrow country lanes. We will naturally continue to take all possible steps to diminish noise and other nuisances caused by new roads and the traffic which uses them, and also to improve road safety wherever possible.

    TOWNS AND CITIES

    There are still parts of Britain, especially the inner city areas, which suffer acute squalor and deprivation-poor housing, dilapidated schools, substandard social and welfare services and a general lack of amenities. It is not surprising that these conditions have led to an increase in juvenile crime and vandalism.

    What is needed is a major concentration of help in these areas, brought together in an effectively co-ordinated programme. We will first ask local authorities, in consultation with voluntary organisations, to propose Social Priority Areas. Our aim will then be to bring about a major transformation in these areas, by improving housing conditions, replacing or improving out-dated schools and building up the local social services and amenities. We will give more opportunity for local people to play a greater part in the affairs of their community. In particular we will make sure that more tenants are involved in running their council estates.

    ADVICE CENTRES

    People are frequently unaware of their rights as citizens. They often find themselves being passed from one office to another receiving only discouragement. To help meet this problem we will set up advice centres, in partnership with the independent voluntary agencies which are already making a useful contribution.

    BETTER RACE RELATIONS

    In many urban areas, in particular, social harmony depends on the white and the coloured communities living and working together on equal terms and with equal opportunities. A Conservative government will pursue positive policies to promote good race relations. This means, among other things, seeking remedies for the problems faced by coloured people, especially adolescents, in employment and in education (for example, in the teaching of the English language). The Government must take the lead and set an example, but local authorities, employers, trade unionists and voluntary organisations have an important part to play.

    STRICT IMMIGRATION CONTROL

    Better community relations, however, depend also on reassuring people that immigration is being kept down to the minimum. In the interests of good race relations, and for the benefit of immigrants already in Britain, as well as for the wider community, a Conservative government will follow a policy of strictly limited immigration. Abuse of immigration control is unfair, particularly to immigrants who have arrived lawfully. While honouring commitments already made, we will discuss with the representatives of the immigrant communities steps to be taken against abuse. In all our policies our aim will be to keep in the closest touch with the immigrant communities.

    NATIONALITY LAW

    We shall carry forward the review of British nationality law. Dependent on its outcome, new legislation may be required in the life of the next Parliament.

    THE ARTS, SPORT AND BROADCASTING

    At a time when economic conditions necessarily impose limits on public spending, we will nevertheless continue to give as much help as we can to the arts, to sport and to broadcasting, and we will be particularly keen to encourage local effort and involvement. As we have promised before, we will introduce legislation to establish a Public Lending Right for authors.

    People in Scotland and Wales

    A recurring theme in our programme is the need to recognise that people want more freedom and more control over their own lives. This is what has shaped our policies for Scotland and Wales.

    In Scotland we will:

    • set up a Scottish Assembly;
    • give the Secretary of State for Scotland, acting with the Scottish Assembly, the power to decide how to spend Scotland’s share of the UK budget;
    • establish a Scottish Development Fund, as stated earlier, to provide substantial help with both the new problems created by oil, and with Scotland’s old deprived areas;
    • transfer the Oil Division of the Department of Energy to Scotland.

    In Wales, we will:

    • increase the powers and the functions of the Secretary of State for Wales and ensure that Wales’ share of the UK budget is spent in accordance with decisions taken in Wales and the Welsh Office;
    • establish a new Select Committee of Welsh MPs entitled to meet in Cardiff as well as at Westminster;
    • strengthen the functions of the Welsh Council and reconstitute its membership so that the majority will be elected from the new County and District Councils.

    In Scotland and Wales we are publishing separate manifestos, setting out these plans and others in more detail.

    People in Northern Ireland

    Our troops are still heavily engaged in Northern Ireland. They have carried out their difficult and dangerous task with superb courage, discipline, and skill. No other body of men in the world could have done so well. But the more police duties can be carried out by the police, the more we can reduce the strain on the Army, and the more soldiers we can withdraw from Ulster.

    Yet it would be fatal to withdraw the Army before its work is done. And while our troops are risking their lives, they must have the support of the necessary emergency powers.

    We recognise that Ulster is at present under-represented at Westminster, but obviously any change in that representation must await an agreement on the future devolution of government in Northern Ireland.

    The next Conservative government, like the last, will work for peace and consent in Northern Ireland. There can be no military solution without a political solution that is fair to both the majority and the minority communities. Equally there can be no political solution unless terrorism is curbed and the law is respected and upheld by all. There must be partnership between the communities. We will seek the closest co-operation with the Republic, but Ulster is, of course, part of the United Kingdom.

    People and the law

    THE LAW UNDER ATTACK

    Through the centuries, the law in Britain has acted as the defence of the small man against the great, of the weak against the strong. If we cannot depend on the protection of the law, enacted by the free Parliament of a free people and enforced impartially between one man and another, then our security and our freedoms alike are without foundation. In a world of growing turbulence, individuals more than ever need the law’s protection against the might of the powerful and irresponsible. But recently the law has been under attack, and those attacks have all too often been condoned and even endorsed by members and supporters of the present Government. Respect for the law cannot be selective. At a time when there are too many people prepared to take the law into their own hands, a Conservative government, backed by public opinion, will uphold the rule of law. Without law, there can be no freedom.

    STRENGTHENING THE POLICE

    We will need to take vigorous action to deal with the lawlessness and the growth of terrorism which confront us in the 1970s. The new Conservative government will strengthen the police force, our principal defenders against internal attack. We will improve the career prospects throughout the whole police service, to provide greater incentives for policemen to remain in the force until retirement. We will launch a new recruitment drive to increase the numbers of Special Constables who can play an invaluable role in supporting the regular police. We support the introduction of an independent element into the procedure for investigating complaints against the police.

    YOUNG OFFENDERS

    A strengthened police force will be in the forefront of the continuing battle against crime. But additional measures are needed to tackle the growth in crime committed by young persons, especially in our towns and cities. The Children and Young Persons Act of 1969 is now in need of review and amendment. The courts must be enabled to deal more effectively with persistent juvenile offenders-for example, football hooligans-and the range of available institutions must be improved. We need more community homes providing both secure accommodation and an environment for encouraging young offenders to become useful members of the community. All these steps will help to prevent today’s young apprentices in crime from becoming tomorrow’s professional criminals.

    CRIME PREVENTION AT THE ROOTS

    A Conservative government will review fines, taking account of the change in the value of money and of trends in sentencing. We will pursue the policy we started of dealing with offenders in the community when it is both possible and sensible to do so. Our programme for channelling additional help and resources into the deprived areas of our cities and towns will also, by creating a better environment, play a valuable part in combating crime at the roots. We will further strengthen and expand the probation service.

    PROCESSIONS AND DEMONSTRATIONS

    We will review the Public Order Act 1936 to ensure that it is adequate for the control of processions and demonstrations.

    PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM INDECENT DISPLAY

    The growing display of indecent material in public places gives offence to many people. Accordingly, we will reintroduce our Bill to prohibit this and to tighten up the law against sending through the post unsolicited matter of an indecent nature.

    REDRESS AGAINST OFFICIALDOM

    In the complex and powerful modern State, control 0£ administrative decisions that can adversely affect the individual has become increasingly important. There have been some valuable recent developments in Britain such as the spread of the Ombudsman system. But we believe our legal structure still needs further reform in order to strengthen its power to defend the citizen aggrieved by the State. We will pursue reform of administrative law in the light of our experience of the extended Ombudsman system and of the forthcoming proposals of the Law Commission.

    LAW REFORM

    The framework of freedom and civilised life is the law. All our daily activities are dependent on it. We propose to give a high priority to keeping the law clear and up to date. Law reform may seem a dull subject but it does affect the rights of all of us. Here are some examples of needed reforms.

    NEEDED REFORMS

    Our extradition laws, based on a century-old statute, are cumbersome, out of date, and in some conditions unworkable. We also need to reform the licensing laws taking into account public reactions to the Erroll Report. The law on compensation for personal injury needs attention and is at the moment being studied by a Royal Commission. The law affecting ‘squatters’ has been shown to be inadequate. Finally the drafting of our laws frequently lacks clarity, and this means that they are inaccessible and are difficult to interpret. We propose to secure greater simplicity and clarity in statute law in the light of the forthcoming report of the Renton Committee on the Preparation of Legislation.

    IMPROVING JUSTICE

    When in office we substantially improved the machinery of justice. We will continue to do so and will review the machinery and jurisdiction of Magistrates’ Courts in the light of the forthcoming James Report. When the economic situation permits, we favour the phased extension of Legal Aid to proceedings before Tribunals on certain defined principles.

    PRIVACY AND OFFICIAL SECRETS

    When in office we implemented some of the Younger Report’s recommendations on privacy (for example, on the secrecy of people’s credit ratings) and were working on further aspects of it. We were also working on the security implications of the Franks Report. When returned to office, we will take up the unfinished work and present the country with further firm proposals.

    SPEAKER’S CONFERENCE ON ELECTORAL REFORM

    In a democracy, it is essential that Parliament and our parliamentary institutions should enjoy the confidence of the people. That is why, for example, we have brought forward plans for giving people in Scotland and Wales a greater say in running their own affairs.

    But confidence in Parliament has been strained by two developments. First, there have been the attempts by industrial monopolies and others to do as they want, regardless of the democratically expressed will of the people, and of the actions of a democratically elected government. Second, there have been those who have questioned whether our electoral system ensures that Parliament and the legislation it passes reflect the wishes of the people. We will propose the establishment of a Speaker’s Conference to examine our electoral system and to make recommendations. In addition to considering our present voting system and alternatives, we would like the Speaker’s Conference to examine the question of representation in the European Parliament, which many people think should be decided by direct election.

    The British people and the world

    DEFENDING BRITAIN

    We live in dangerous times. As much as in the past Britain must be able to defend herself and her way of life. To us, aggressive war may be unthinkable. To some other countries, it is an acceptable way of gaining their ends. Now we face the ever increasing danger of both national and international terrorism. In these circumstances the national interest demands the maintenance of adequate defence forces. Moreover, we must take all necessary steps to protect our energy supplies in the North Sea.

    THE NATO ALLIANCE

    Throughout the last few years the Soviet armed forces in the West have continued to grow and there has been a vast expansion of the Russian navy. Unquestionably the NATO alliance, which has provided peace in Europe for 25 years, remains crucial to our security, and so the Conservative Party believes that Britain should continue to play a leading role within the alliance. We shall see that Britain’s nuclear deterrent remains effective.

    EFFICIENCY AND MORALE

    The efficiency and high morale of the armed forces, which has been so outstandingly demonstrated in Northern Ireland is of paramount importance. We must improve conditions of service for those who make the defence of this country their career. We will take action to tackle the difficulties which have arisen in the provision of housing for servicemen at the completion of their regular service. We will maintain the efficiency and improve the equipment of the Reserve Forces which play a vital role in the preservation of Britain’s security.

    BRITAIN AND THE WORLD

    Conservative foreign policy has always had two main objectives: first, to maintain the security of Britain and the protection of British interests; and, secondly, playing our full part in the Commonwealth, to gain as many friends and allies in the international community as possible. Such a policy contributes to stability throughout the world. It also creates the necessary conditions for the expansion of our trade.

    CONSERVATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS IN FOREIGN POLICY

    The last Conservative government helped to strengthen NATO, but we also promoted the process of détente. We played a leading part in the Conference of Security and Co-operation in Europe. We opened Ministerial talks with the Peoples’ Republic of China. We greatly improved our relations with the countries of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

    THE COMMON MARKET

    But by far the most historic achievement of the last Conservative government was to bring about British entry into the European Community. Membership of the EEC brings us great economic advantages, but the European Community is not a matter of accountancy. There are two basic ideas behind the formation of the Common Market; first, that having nearly destroyed themselves by two great European civil wars, the European nations should make a similar war impossible in future; and, secondly, that only through unity could the Western European nations recover control over their destiny – a control which they had lost after two wars, the division of Europe and the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union.

    All recent governments of this country have concluded that membership of the community is essential for British interests. These decisions were not lightly taken. They were preceded by prolonged study of the facts. The terms secured by the last Conservative government were supported by those members of the previous Labour government most qualified to judge them. The country’s long term interests should not now be sacrificed to short term party interests.

    THE DANGERS OF WITHDRAWAL

    An overwhelming majority of British exporters and businessmen favour our membership of the Common Market. The Community provides an enormous home market for our industries and membership of the biggest trading bloc in the world. Just as we need military allies, so we need political and economic allies. British withdrawal would mean the abandonment of export opportunities, the decline of industrial development in this country and the loss of jobs. Withdrawal would give us less power and influence in the world not more. Withdrawal would confront us with the choice of almost total dependence on others or retreat into weak isolation. We reject such a bleak and impotent future for Britain.

    NEGOTIATION

    Within the Community, there is a continuous process of negotiation in order to take account of the interests of Britain and to deal with the problems of the community as a whole. This process will go on: it ensures that no member state carries an unfair burden. We will present the results of negotiation to Parliament at every stage in accordance with Britain’s constitutional practice.

    Conservatives have been playing their full part in the European Parliament to protect British interests, improve Community policy and make Europe more democratic. A central part of future Conservative policy will be to work realistically for closer European unity in all the areas of Community policy which can be of benefit to Britain. In this way we can make our contribution to a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Europe.

    Europe gives us the opportunity to reverse our political and economic decline. It may be our last.