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Oral Answers
22 JUNE 1989
loyment. We have the highest number of jobs that we nave ever had. It has worked particularly well for women. The United Kingdom is the only country in the European Community where the unemployment rate is lower for women than for men. We have done excellent work in lowering the rate for men too. The proposed social charter would place additional burdens and restrictions on businesses and so lose jobs rather than create them, especially for women.
Dr. Owen: In view of today's findings that more people than ever before support and approve of the National Health Service 90 per cent. of family doctors and 85 per cent. of those in the hospital service—would it not be wiser not to destabilise the NHS but to introduce reform cautiously with development projects, as advocated by the royal colleges, and to evaluate scientifically their success?
The Prime Minister: I am very glad that the right hon. Gentleman has at last come round to that view. He could have said it any time, any month, in the last 10 years, but he did not for 10 years, although the Health Service has continuously and steadily been improved by extra resources, extra doctors and extra nurses—[Interruption.] -from what it was when his Government left office, when there were strikes, and hospitals and cancer beds were left untended. He has had 10 years to admit that we have done far better. I am delighted now to hear him say it. It is the best service that it has ever been.
Q3. Mr. Anthony Coombs: To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 22 June.
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Coombs: Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the adoption earlier this week of the European second banking directive which, by allowing banks to operate more freely throughout Europe, will provide a tremendous boost to this very important sector of our economy? Does she also agree that this is further justification for the Government's policy of extending competition and deregulation within the single European market, rather than the grandiose schemes of European economic union and a social market with which the Opposition seem to be so obsessed?
The Prime Minister: Yes. We have been negotiating the second banking directive for a very long time. Its passage is very welcome because it will improve greatly our chances of having a free market in financial services which we offer to other people but which they have not always offered to us. So it is a great plus for our people in financial services. Also, we hope that it will soon be followed by an investment services directive. It is, of course, greater prosperity, not only in manufacturing but in the services sector, that enables us to offer higher levels of social services and social protection.
Mr. Michael: Now that the Prime Minister has had a little more time to consider the results of the recent European elections, does she not believe that to withdraw the Health Service White Paper would be in the best interests of the health of the people of Britain and of her own political health?
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The Prime Minister: If the hon. Gentleman reads the White Paper carefully, he will find, as many protesters have found, that it was quite different from the one that they were led to believe. I hope that we shall be able steadily to continue to improve the Health Service in the future, as it is now acknowledged-even on the Opposition Benches, that we have done in the past. We have one of the best Health Services in the whole Community.
Mr. Robert Banks: Knowing of the Prime Minister's deep concern and sympathy for the anxieties of the people of Hong Kong, does she agree that we could take an initiative by going to the Commonwealth and asking it to provide rights of abode for all the people of Hong Kong on the basis that each Commonwealth country took a quota of people-if it became necessary?
The Prime Minister: Of course, these matters will be raised at the Commonwealth conference. I do not think that it will be easy to get the results that my hon. Friend seeks, any more than it has been easy to secure other results with other refugees, although it has been very good in taking genuine refugees from Vietnam. It would be a considerable step for the Commonwealth. I have also to report that the Commonwealth-especially Australia and Canada-have been very active in taking in the entrepreneurs from Hong Kong to the advantage- [Interruption.] Of course, I do not expect Opposition Members to agree about people who create wealth-they can only spend it. Many of them have gone to Australia and Canada. It has given them peace of mind that they have somewhere to go and they have also brought great comfort to Australia and Canada.
Mr. John D. Taylor: Will the recently announced student loan scheme be extended to students from European Community countries who come to the United Kingdom for their higher education?
The Prime Minister: No. No more than grants will be extended, unless they are part of the overseas grants service where grants are given to specific people. They will not be given as a general right.
Q4. Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 22 June.
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Knight: Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the fact that the stike at the Liverpool passport office is now over and that, therefore, the threat of disruption to those who wish to holiday abroad has been lifted? However, will my right hon. Friend also join me in condemning the actions of those who wish to prolong the dispute and who have issued a leaflet which says that an all out strike now, at the beginning of the tourist season, will give the passport workers the chance to give the Tories a bloody nose? Does that not prove that, whatever the place, whatever the issue and whatever packaging is used to try to convince people otherwise, here in Britain socialists are still the strikers' friends?
The Prime Minister: I agree. Those who protest loudly about the greater needs of the public service are the first to say that they do not give tuppence for the public's rights, whether it be to get passports or to come to work. It is