From the archives…
I visited the Churchill Archives Centre today to take copies of a speech made by Baroness Thatcher to CUCA, on 12th March 1976, when she was Leader of the Opposition.
I have put a transcript of the speech at http://www.cuca.org.uk/1976/03/12/margaret-thatcher-speech-to-cuca/, and copies of Baroness Thatcher’s notes at http://www.cuca.org.uk/images/1976/, with kind permission of Baroness Thatcher, The Margaret Thatcher Foundation and the Churchill Archives Centre.
What Baroness Thatcher had to say is relevant today.
More borrowing at home would take us still nearer national stagnation and bankruptcy.
And under Socialism, Britain’s credit overseas is hardly good.
Indeed, if the declining rate of the £ is anything to go by, it is disastrous.
His is a dying Government, creating only uncertainty and confusion, living on borrowed time and borrowed money.
We can visualise the sort of demands our overseas creditors will place on the Government in return for shoring up our economy.
…
Are we going to witness a battle between our overseas creditors, demanding crisis action to safequard their money; and the Left trying to force the Government down the spending road to ruin.
It is a battle which we cannot afford. The Prime Minister must put the country first.
He has heard what the electors of the Wirral and Carshalton have said. They have shouted with a mighty voice. He has failed them, as he has failed the Nation.
He must go—and go now. [applause]