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Above all we must offer these countries greater security. Russian troops are still stationed on Polish territory. Moreover, it is understandable that the Central and Eastern European countries are alarmed at what conflict in the old USSR and the old Yugoslavia may portend. Although I recognize that the North Atlantic Cooperation Council has been formed with a view to this, I still feel that the European ex-communist countries are entitled to that greater degree of reassurance which a separate closer relationship with NATO would bring.
SECURITY
But, Mr Chairman, most of the threats to Europe’s and the West’s interests no longer come from this continent. I believe — and I have been urging this on NATO members since 1990 — that the Americans and Europeans ought to be able to deploy our forces under NATO outside the area for which the present North Atlantic Treaty allows. It is impossible to know where the danger may next come. But two considerations should make us alive to real risks to our security.
First, the break-up of the Soviet Union has led to large numbers of advanced weapons becoming available to would-be purchasers at knockdown prices: it would be foolish to imagine that these will not, some of them, fall into the worst possible hands.
Second, Europe cannot ignore its dependence for oil on the Middle East. Saddam Hussein is still in power. Fundamentalism is as strong as ever. Old scores are still unsettled. We must beware. And we must widen our ability to defend our interests and be prepared to act when necessary.
THE COMMUNITY’S WIDER ROLE
Finally, the European Community must come to recognize its place in what is called the New World Order.
The ending of the Cold War has meant that the international institutions created in the post-war years — the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, the GATT — can work much more effectively. This means that the role for the Community is inevitably circumscribed. Within Europe, a wider role for NATO and the CSCE should also be reflected in more modest ambitions for the Community’s diplomacy. In Yugoslavia, the Community has shown itself incapable of dealing effectively with security questions. Outside Europe, GATT with its mandate to reduce trade barriers should be the body that establishes the rules of the game in trade. The Community must learn to live within those rules. All in all, the Community must be prepared to fit in with the new internationalism, not supplant it.
CONCLUSION
Mr Chairman, I end as I began — with architecture. The Hague is a splendid capital, and how much we should admire the Dutch for keeping it together so well, as they have done with so many other of their towns. The Mauritshuis is a testimony to the genius which they showed. It was here, and in Amsterdam, that so much of the modern world was invented in the long Dutch fight for freedom.
Dutch architecture has its own unmistakable elegance and durability — it was copied all around the north European world, from Wick in northern Scotland to Tallinn in Estonia. Some architecture does last. Other architecture does not. Let us make sure that we build a Europe as splendid and lasting as the Mauritshuis, rather than one as shabby and ephemeral as the Berlaymont.
APPENDIX II
Political Chronology 1955–1979
1955
5 April: Churchill resigned as Prime Minister; succeeded by Eden
26 May: General election: Conservative majority sixty
1956
26 July: Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal
20 October: Israel invaded Sinai
30 October: Joint Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel; Soviet troops invaded Hungary
5 November: British and French landings at Port Said; intervention aborted two days later under US pressure
1957
9 January: Eden resigned as Prime Minister; Macmillan succeeded him
25 March: Treaty of Rome signed, establishing EEC
25 July: Macmillan: ‘Most of our people have never had it so good’
19 September: Thorneycroft increased Bank Rate from 5 to 7 per cent
1958
6 January: Treasury Ministers (Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch) resigned from the Government over public expenditure plans; Macmillan left the following day for a Commonwealth tour, describing the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’
3 July: Credit squeeze relaxed
31 August: Notting Hill and Nottingham riots
1959
7 April: Budget: 9d reduction in income tax
8 October: General election: Conservative majority 100; MT first elected MP for Finchley
28 November: Gaitskell called for reform of Clause IV of Labour’s constitution — forced to retreat the following year
1960
3 February: Macmillan in South Africa: ‘a wind of change is blowing through the continent’
5 February: MT’s maiden speech February-October Parliamentary passage of MT’s Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill
25 July: Deflationary emergency Budget; ‘Pay Pause’ for Government employees
31 July: Macmillan announced beginning of negotiations for Britain to join EEC
13 August: East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin; Berlin Wall begun
9 October: Reshuffle: MT appointed to her first Government post — Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance
1962
14 March: Orpington by-election: Liberals took Conservative seat, overturning a majority of 14,760
13 July: ‘Night of the Long Knives’ — seven of twenty-one Cabinet ministers fired by Macmillan
October: Cuban missile crisis
November: Vassall affair
21 December: US agreement to sell Britain Polaris
1963
14 January: De Gaulle rejected first British application to join the EEC
14 February: Harold Wilson elected Labour Leader following death of Hugh Gaitskell
4 June: Profumo resigned
1 July: Philby named as ‘the third man’
10 October: Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister during Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool
19 October: Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office
1964
July: Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance
15 October: General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister
28 October: MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions
November: Sterling crisis
1965
24 January: Churchill died, aged ninety
12 July: Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’
22 July: Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell
16 September: Labour’s National Plan published
5 October: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land
8 November: Abolition of capital punishment
11 November: Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)
1966
31 March: General election: Labour returned with an overall majority of ninety-seven
19 April: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT appointed Iain Macleod’s deputy, shadowing the Treasury
3 May: Budget introduced Selective Employment Tax (SET)
May–July: Seamen’s strike
15 June: Abortion Bill passed Second Reading
July: Sterling crisis; deflation; wage freeze to be followed by a prices and incomes policy
5 July: Sexual Offences Bill (legalizing homosexuality) passed Second Reading
12 October: MT spoke against SET at the Conservative Conference
10 November: Labour announced Britain to make a second application to join the EEC
1967
11 April: Massive Conservative gains in local government elections<
br />
10 October: Heath moved MT to Shadow Fuel and Power, with a place in the Shadow Cabinet
18 November: Devaluation of sterling by 14 per cent ($2.80 to $2.40)
27 November: Britain’s second EEC application vetoed by France
29 November: Jenkins replaced Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer; Callaghan succeeded Jenkins as Home Secretary
1968
22 February: Callaghan announced emergency legislation to curb immigration of Asians expelled from Kenya; Shadow Cabinet divided
17 March: Grosvenor Square riot — violent demonstration against Vietnam War
19 March: Budget increased indirect taxes by almost £900 million — austerity under Jenkins
20 April: Enoch Powell’s ‘River Tiber’ speech in Birmingham; Heath dismissed him from the Shadow Cabinet the following day
10 October: MT gave her CPC lecture What’s Wrong With Politics?
14 November: MT moved by Heath to Shadow Transport
1969
17 January: Barbara Castle introduced In Place of Strife — Labour’s proposals to reform industrial relations law; opposition from within the Labour Party, led by Callaghan, forced their withdrawal in June
14 August: British troops deployed on the streets of Londonderry
21 October: MT appointed Opposition spokesman on Education in succession to Edward Boyle
1970
30 January–1 February: Selsdon Park Conference — Shadow Cabinet discussion of Conservative policy for next manifesto
18 June: General election: Conservatives won majority of thirty-one; Heath became Prime Minister; MT appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science
30 June: MT issued Circular 10/70, withdrawing Labour’s comprehensive education Circulars
20 July: Iain Macleod died suddenly
6–30 September: Leila Khalid affair
27 October: Budget — ending free school milk for children over seven; increasing school meal charges; Open University reprieved
1971
4 February: Nationalization of Rolls-Royce
5 August: Industrial Relations Bill became law
28 October: House of Commons on a free vote approved terms of entry to EEC
1972
9 January: Miners went on strike
20 January: Unemployment total passed one million
10 February: Mass picketing closed Saltley Coke Depot
19 February: Government conceded miners’ demands to end the strike
29 February: Government announced U-turn on Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
March: Government began search for voluntary pay policy in talks with TUC and CBI
21 March: Budget — reflation began in earnest
22 March: Industry White Paper published
24 March: Suspension of Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont; direct rule began
June-July: Industrial Relations Act badly damaged following court decisions leading to arrest of pickets in docks dispute
23 June: Sterling floated after only six weeks’ membership of the European currency ‘snake’
Summer-autumn: ‘Tripartite talks’ between Government, TUC and CBI — Government attempted to negotiate a voluntary pay policy
2 November: Collapse of ‘Tripartite talks’
6 November: Heath announced Stage 1 of statutory pay policy
6 December: MT’s White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion
1973
1 January: Britain joined EEC
17 January: Heath announced Stage 2 of statutory pay policy
16 March: End of Bretton Woods system — all major currencies floated May Heath/Barber boom at its height; Budget reduced spending plans
6-24 October: Yom Kippur War; oil prices dramatically increased
8 October: Heath announced Stage 3
12 November: Miners began overtime ban, sharply cutting coal production
2 December: Reshuffle — Whitelaw became Employment Secretary
13 December: Heath announced three-day week
17 December: Emergency Budget cuts £1,200 million from expenditure plans
1974
9 January: NEDC meeting at which TUC suggested miners could be treated as a special case within Government pay policy
5 February: Miners voted to strike from 10 February
7 February: General election called for 28 February
21 February: Relativities Board leak suggesting that miners’ claim could have been accommodated within Stage 3
23 February: Enoch Powell announced that he would vote Labour
28 February: General election: no single party won a majority; Labour won the largest number of seats
1–3 March: Heath attempted to form a coalition with the Liberals
4 March: Heath resigned following Liberal rejection of his proposals; Wilson became Prime Minister, leading a minority Labour Government
11 March: Heath formed his Shadow Cabinet, giving MT responsibility for the Environment
May: Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) founded
22 June: Keith Joseph’s speech at Upminster
28 August: MT announced Conservative pledge to abolish domestic rates and hold down mortgage interest rates to maximum of 9½ per cent
5 September: Keith Joseph’s speech at Preston
10 October: General election: Labour majority of three
14 October: 1922 Committee executive urged Heath to call a leadership election
19 October: Keith Joseph’s speech at Edgbaston
7 November: Heath reshuffled Shadow Cabinet; MT became Robert Carr’s assistant spokesman on Treasury questions
14 November: Heath told 1922 that he would set up a committee to review leadership election procedure
21 November: Keith Joseph told MT that he would not stand for the leadership against Heath; MT told him she would
November-December: ‘Hoarding’ story run against MT in the press
17 December: Leadership election review reported
1975
15 January: Airey Neave took over the organization of MT’s leadership campaign, Edward du Cann having decided not to stand
4 February: Leadership election first ballot: MT 130, Heath 119, Hugh Fraser 16; Heath resigned as leader
11 February: Leadership election second ballot: MT elected leader
12 February: MT called on Heath at Wilton Street; Heath refused to serve in the Shadow Cabinet
18 February: Shadow Cabinet complete: Maudling, Foreign Affairs; Howe, Treasury; Joseph, Policy and Research; Thorneycroft, Chairman
5 June: EEC referendum
July: £6 a week quasi-statutory pay policy introduced; unemployment passed one million
1976
2 March: Sterling fell below $2
16 March: Wilson announced his resignation; Callaghan elected Labour Leader on 5 April
7 April: Government lost its majority
3 May: Stage 2 of pay policy agreed between Government and TUC
10 May: Thorpe resigned as Liberal Leader over the Scott affair; Grimond interim Leader; Steel elected on 7 July
7 June: Sterling under pressure — $5,300 million standby credit made available to UK for three months
28 September: Healey forced to turn back from the airport as sterling fell to $1.63; spoke at the Labour Conference on 30 September
4 October: The Right Approach published
1 November: IMF team arrived in UK
19 November: MT reshuffled Shadow Cabinet, dismissing Maudling and replacing him with John Davies
1 December: Shadow Cabinet decision to oppose the Scotland and Wales Bill; Buchanan-Smith and Rifkind resigned
15 December: Healey’s mini-Budget and IMF Letter of Intent
1977
22 February: Government defeated on Scotland and Wales Bill guillotine — Bill effectively lost; prospect that Government would fall
23 March: ‘Lib-Lab Pact’ saved the Government
16 June: Governmen
t defeated over Rooker-Wise-Lawson amendments — tax allowances linked to RPI
24 June: Grunwick dispute: mass picketing began
18 September: MT interviewed by Brian Walden suggested referendum if a future Conservative Government met the kind of trade union challenge Heath faced in 1974
8 October: The Right Approach to the Economy published
16 November: Scotland Bill and Wales Bill successfully guillotined
1978
25 January: Scotland Bill Committee — ‘Cunningham amendment’: 40 per cent hurdle for devolution in referendum
30 January: MT on television referred to people’s fears that they would be ‘rather swamped’ by immigration
3 March: Rhodesia: ‘internal settlement’ — Muzorewa and others to join Ian Smith’s government
25 May: Steel announced end of Lib-Lab Pact after current parliamentary session
21 July: Incomes policy White Paper: Stage 3–5 per cent guideline for wage increases
Summer: ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ — Saatchi & Saatchi’s first campaign for the Conservative Party
7 September: Callaghan announced there would be no autumn election
21 September: Ford strike (ended 2 November): breached 5 per cent pay norm
11 October: Heath spoke in favour of Stage 3 at the Conservative Party Conference
8 November: 114 Conservatives rebelled against leadership decision to abstain on motion to renew Rhodesian sanctions
1979
3 January: Lorry drivers strike for 25 per cent pay claim: ‘Winter of Discontent’ reaching its height
7 January: MT interviewed on Weekend World; suggested possible union reforms
14 January: MT offered to cooperate in legislation on secondary picketing and no-strike agreements for essential services; Government made no direct reply but eased its pay guidelines and lorry-drivers’ strike settled locally over the following three weeks
1 March: Scotland and Wales devolution referenda
28 March: Government defeated on Motion of Confidence 311–310, forcing general election
30 March: Airey Neave murdered by INLA bomb