913
Oral Answers
30 NOVEMBER 1993
The Prime Minister: I agree with my hon. Friend about that. Consumer demand is rising, manufacturing output is growing, retail sales are at record levels, exports are up, and car registrations are up, which is all good news for British manufacturing. Opposition Members who continu- ally knock the record of British manufacturing should ask themselves how, if it is not doing well, British exports have risen so dramatically. We were certainly the first to go into recession but we are also the first to be clearly out of recession and we are set to grow faster this year than almost any other European nation.
Mr. Ashdown: Should not those who hope for peace and wish the Prime Minister well in his pursuit of it in Northern Ireland nevertheless recognise that the events of the weekend, for whatever reason, have served to dent the trust of the Unionists, put the extremists centre stage and check the momentum of peace in Northern Ireland? Does the Prime Minister recognise the absolute urgency now of taking action to restore the momentum for peace by proposing, after discussion with the Irish Prime Minister, actions that will unite the majority on both sides?
The Prime Minister: The right hon. Gentleman, who made his own comments about the leaks over the weekend, might have been prudent to wait to hear what the Government had to say before he made those comments and to study the documents which the Government released to justify the position that they have taken, as those documents clearly do. I believe that when people in Northern Ireland have had a chance to study what was said, they will see that the Government have acted properly and done their duty throughout this whole affair.
If there had been a terrorist tragedy of some sort on a massive scale this week and it then became apparent that we had ignored the message that we received earlier this year, that would have been unforgivable, and I dread to think what the right hon. Gentleman would have said in those circumstances.
Q4. Mr. Patrick Thompson: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 30 November.
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Thompson: Bearing in mind that there is strong and firm support for the Home Secretary's recent proposals on law and order, particularly with regard to people on bail and remand-reforms that have been urged on the Government over a period of years by the Norwich crime prevention panel-will my right hon. Friend confirm that he will encourage business leaders and local councils in Norwich to support the panel's campaign to install security cameras in the city centre, leading to the deterrence of crime and more convictions, as sure as night follows day?
The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is determined to make Norwich as famous as Basildon, and I suspect that he may succeed. I agree with him about closed circuit television and reject outright the views of those people who claim that it is in some way Big Brother. The public rightly want less crime, and closed circuit television has an important part to play in achieving that. My hon. Friend is right to say that there is strong support in the House and beyond for the anti-crime measures announced by my right
Oral Answers
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hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary. I hop they will have the support of hon. Members across the House when they come before the House for consideration.
Q5. Mr. Trimble: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 30 November.
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Trimble: May I refer the Prime Minister to the channel of communication with the IRA that was revealed yesterday? Is the Prime Minister satisfied about the reliability and accuracy of that channel in view of the denials now issuing from Belfast about the February statement to which the Prime Minister referred earlier? Was the dialogue with the IRA in any way prompted by events in England? Were any messages sent on that channel of communication by or on behalf of any Minister other than the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland? Were they in any way related to recent events in England?
The Prime Minister: For the reasons that my right hon. and learned Friend set out yesterday, it is useful to continue to have a confidential channel of communication—which, as the hon. Gentleman knows, and his hon. Friends said yesterday, has been available for many years. Any private communications on our part will, on all occasions, be consistent with the Government's public position, as was the case with the documents published yesterday. On the reliability of the channel, experience has proved it to be extremely accurate and extremely reliable over many years. But the real test over time is action not words. We need to see what the final outcome is. The documents published yesterday set out a full record of the exchanges and I have no further exchanges to report to the House.
Q6. Mr. Anthony Coombs: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 30 November.
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Coombs: Is my right hon. Friend aware that last month, not only was there a decrease in unemployment in my constituency of 7 per cent., but Brintons Carpets, my constituency's largest employer, has just announced a year-on-year increase in exports of 86 per cent.? Is that not indicative of the huge improvement in competitiveness in British industry, and would not that improvement be severely damaged by the social chapter, the minimum wage and the European superstate, with which the Labour party increasingly seems to be obsessed?
The Prime Minister: I am pleased to hear the good news from my hon. Friend's constituency, and to hear that unemployment is falling there, as it is now in all parts of the country. It is true that, while I have no doubt that the Opposition wish to create jobs, their policies would, in practice, destroy jobs. A minimum wage would destroy jobs, a 35-hour week would destroy jobs and levelling up business taxes would destroy jobs. People will notice that unemployment is falling here with our policies, but rising in other countries that follow the policies advocated by the Opposition.
Mr. Grocott: Can the Prime Minister confirm that, in the three years that he has been in the job, 1,300,000 people have lost their jobs, 250,000 people have lost their homes
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