Orders of the Day — The Economy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:12 pm on 28 November 1989.

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Photo of Mr Edward Heath Mr Edward Heath , Bexley Sidcup 5:12, 28 November 1989

I have to point out that that lady is 95 years old. Despite what we are doing, the genuine requirements of the citizen are not being met. We as a party must show that we are following a course which will ensure that they are met.

There is another fundamental fallacy here—that everyone must become more efficient. The usual answer is to pluck someone who knows nothing about the job and put him in, saying that he is now a manager. In the hospital service, the more efficient one becomes—in my constituency, Queen Mary's hospital is immensely efficient and acknowledged to be so—the more money one requires, as more patients are seen and they spend a shorter time in hospital. The result is a need for more money— [Interruption.] I am sorry if my hon. Friends are not interested in Bexley—[HON. MEMBERS: "We are."] I nave described a fundamental misunderstanding concerning the NHS.

Another thing that worries me immensely about the attitude towards money concerns privatisation. I imagine that most right hon. and hon. Members were horrified when, after the Deal tragedy when the Royal Marines band was bombed, we heard that the guards had been privatised. To me, that is utterly unacceptable. As a party, we have always believed in effective defence. If someone is in the Army, his job is to defend himself and not to get private citizens to do it, even in peace. I do not believe that the change is justified, and I am even more horrified to learn the extent to which it is going on. This cannot possibly continue if we are to have an effective answer to the terrorism that we face.

For my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to say, "Don't blame us for not having a proper military guard—blame the IRA for attacking us" is not justified in a war of terrorism against the British people. We cannot say, "They will not go for the soft spots," because we know that they will go for any spot they can find. That is clear from recent experiences in Europe and especially in Germany.

Italy and Germany have dealt with terrorism. We have had it for 20 years, but we have still not dealt with it, and the information that we have for dealing with it is inadequate, as proved by the number of occasions when we have been taken off guard and people have suffered. That is what is happening in Northern Ireland, in mainland Britain and in Europe.