DRAFT INTRODUCTORY SPEECH BY MR NICHOLAS RIDLEY MP
One of the problems about arranging a seminar of this
kind is the difficulty of getting all the right people together
at the same time. Inevitably, the people you need are going to
be busy people, with many other demands on their time.
I was
particularly impressed therefore by the readiness with which
everybody who is here tonight accepted the invitation to attend
the seminar.
Certainly, the questions we shall be considering are
not new, and we can hardly expect to come up with dramatic new
solutions. Nonetheless, I do not think our time here will be
wasted.
This meeting is part of a process that has been going
on for over three decades now: the conversion of one of the
most extensive empires in history into a commonwealth of sovereign
independent states. We are now at the stage of tying up the last
loose ends in that process, and this seminar is intended primarily
to increase understanding of the problems involved in this final
stage.
Perhaps it is not too much to hope that our discussions
may also suggest new or improved ways of tackling some of these
problems though I cannot of course guarantee that any new ideas
that do emerge will be adopted as government policy, least of all
if they are likely to cost a lot of government money. But
certainly any proposals you make, and any conclusions that are
reached, will be considered very carefully.
/My