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vii.
France.
The French will be critical of any UK cuts
in defence efforts in and around Europe, and
will make this clear. Some Frenchmen could
regard any cuts as a further sign of loss of
political influence; others could see them as
an indication of a more realistic approach to
economic management. There may also be
implications for our prospects for industrial
and technological co-operation with France,
with wider consequences for our future position
in the Community.
Industrial Implications
J
107.
Total expenditure on equipment in 1978/79 at the Critical level
would be £1558M compared with £1300M in 1974/75; so provided
productivity increases at about 3% a year, there would be no great
change in the total numbers employed in industry, compared with the
present position until the second half of the Costings period. It
is however clear that within this broad picture, there are particular
firms and locations which might suffer, some of them severely,
since defence work sufficient to sustain between 15,000 and 20,000
jobs would no longer be available to them. For example, the scale
of cuts in the helicopter programme would threaten the continued
existence of Westland Helicopters at Yeovil and the Rolls Royce (1971)
Small Engine Division near Watford, while the cuts in the RN ship-
building programme would result in the loss of a substantial amount
of work which would otherwise have been placed on Tyneside and
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