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If the economic myths need exploding so do the political ones.
There is a group of marginal constituencies that once were,
King Cotton, textile constituencies.
in the day of
Their industry is now highly diversified.
In the run up to the 1979 election neither party mentioned the
No candidate bothered to include textiles
subject in these constituencies.
in his own publicity. There was no mention of textiles in the local press. Only the visiting great men from the front benches managed to include a few
words.
To put it in a nutshell, the textile lobby has bamboozled this country into imposing tough restrictions on imports from countries that can make good cheap clothing. These restrictions are driving up the prices of the clothes we all wear, or they would be a failure, and they are preventing
the creation of jobs in export industries that have prospects for growth.
But let us get back to Hong Kong and the last leg of the tripod
that is our relations with China.
on which Hong Kong stands
Hong Kong has a crucial role to play in the Four Great
Modernisations and China has explicitly accepted that role. Everywhere in Hong Kong today you can see evidence of it in terms of Chinese investment in
Hong Kong.
We have a direct train service from Kowloon to Cantion, ferries
up the river and regular air services between Hong Kong, Canton and Shanghai.
The industrial zone across the border at Shenzen is taking shape
and joint ventures between China and Hong Kong and overseas companies are
springing up at a steady rate. Only a few years ago, as recently as 1977
when I came to London, this would have been unthinkable.
/China's modernisation ..........