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14th Decamber 1982

I confirm that the Prime Minister is looking forward to seeing you and other Conservative Members of Parliament from the West Midlands in her room at the House tomorrow evening. Would you be kind enough, please, to let me have a list of those who will be there? It is not yet certain at what time the vote will be. If it comes at 10.00 p.m., would you please come to the Prime Minister's room after the vote? If the vote does not come until after 10.00 p.m. (in that even the most likely time for the division will be 11.30 p.m.) would you please come to the Prime Minister's room at 10.30 p.m.?

IAN GOW Hal Miller Esq MP /cc

Caroline Stephens

Caroline

HAL MILLER AND THE WEST MIDLANDS CONSERVATIVE MPs

Peccavi. Yesterday, in the House, I let the Prime Minister escape as I had to see JEP. Hal Miller got at her.

She agreelto receive him and

the other (18) Conservative West Midlands Members of Parliament. They want to talk about Spain and Steel and "a fair deal for the West Midlands". They want no other Minister there, save the Queen's First Minister. Could you please give them 40 minutes before Christmas? They have already seen Peter Rees (who is a hero) and Patrick Jenkin (who is less of one).

10.12.82

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Swidaybier131117 and Weekly Post

---

DECEMBER 12, 1982

WORKSHOP OR WORKHOUSE? IT was once the workshop of the nation. Now too much of the West Midlands is in the demoralising shadow of the workhouse. Further evidence of the region's manufacturing decline has come with the news that it became, in terms of output per head, the poorest in England last year. Since then, its unemployment rate has leapt ahead of the national average, and the past week has added substantially to the melancholy toll of lost jobs. Everybody now realises the principal causes: the well• Intentioned hut disastrous Whitehall policy during the "good" years of forcing firms to expand elsewhere and denying new industries access to the region, and the consequent impact of world recession on a workshop with weakened foundations. But simply bewailing the follies of the past will not stop the Midlands becoming even more of a wasteland. Action, of a positive nature, is now desperately needed. The suggestions advanced on this page by Mr. Anthony Beaumont Dark are the kind of measures that deserve urgent consideration.

•

His view that we should not write off the Midlands' traditional "metal bashing" expertise, but look at ways of up-dating it, has the ring of sound sense, too. During the decades of prosperity the region gave richly to Britain — in tax revenue, export enterprise and job creation. It also gave its lifeblood, albeit reluctantly, in the forced transfusion of work to the then depressed areas. Now the Midlands, in its hour of need, should get something in return. We still have the sIdlis, and a determination sharpened by hardship. What we need are the weapons to fight back. So far the message does not seem te have got through to the Whitehall mandarins and ministers. Now, as we report today, , it is to be taken to the very top. If there is one thing above all others that Mrs. Thatcher has demonstrated, it is that once she is convinced of the correctness of a policy she pursues it with unswerving determination. Let us hope that when Midland MIN go to see her at will be No. 10 their wooing passionate enough to win the lady over to their ease.

LET'S FACEIT

OUND04101

Diow we England's became Pauper

THE once inconceivable has become sadly true. The West Midlands is officially the poorest region in the whole of England. The extent of decline has just been revealed in the Government's latest industrial output statistics. A decade ago the figures would have generated a shock wave of reaction. But in a week in which Midlanders had also to cope with the news of over 1,000 BSR redundancies, bringing the job loss total to more than 5,000 in the last month, the impact was muted by more tangible disasters. And still there is no sign of the special help the region so sorely needs to get back on its manufacturing feet. What can be done to stop the rot? Outspoken Conservative ANTHONY BEAUMONT DARK, MP for Selly Oak, Birmingham, has never been afraid to be controversial, either inside his party or in public. Here he talks to CLIVE EDWARDS about the new initiatives that he is urging, to save the people and the products of the Midlands from the industrial scrapheap.

"SUCCESSIVE Governments have shown a lack of foresight over the problems of the Midlands. "They have always thought we were crying wolf, and they have told us we mustn't be selfish." Anthony Beaumont Dark delivers his verdict with a certain wry smile. In his days as a local politician before he became a Conservative MP, he can clearly remember being rebuked for "selfishness" when appealing for aid for Midlands industry. "Needless to say the Minister who told me that came from up North," he adds. For years, Government aid has flowed unceasingly to traditionally run-down areas like the North and Scotland, while the "unselfish" Midlands has done without — and economic problems in the region have gone from bad to worse. Now no-one can accuse the Midlands of crying wolf. The slide towards economic disaster has been dramatically confirmed. The West Midlands is the poorest of all England's regions. Starved of Government attention, we have ended up with lower productivity and income per head than even Scotland.

"I never thought it would be quite as grim as this," admits Mr. Dark. "The Government has to realise that industry has its back not against the 1wall but against the precipice. Once it falls over the edge there will be no saving it; it will die." That may sound like strident criticism from one of the Government's own MPs,

Wanted. 5-year plan to stop the rot •

but the figures in the Central Statistical Office's Economic Trends show the need• for urgent intervention. In 1981 people in the West Midlands produced per head £3,234, compared to a Scottish figure of £3,524 and the average of £3,635 for England as a whole. The statistics for income per head paint the same depressing picture — £3,587 in the West Midlands, below Scotland's £3,788, and the English average of £3,972.

Bribed In human cost the fall of the Midlands is most obviously reflected in growing dole queues. While the rates of unemployment in othcr regions get closer to the national average, the West Midlands is way above it. By last year it had jumped to an appalling 21 per cent more than the national average. "Back in the 1930s we had an unemployment rate of two per cent when the rest of the nation was ten per cent or more. We had growth industries then in cars and iron and metal-bashing," reflects Mr. Dark. Who then could ever have imagined that the West Midlands would end up so sadly in need of care and plotection? Mr. Dark traces the decline to two major causes. "Forty per cent of the blame lies with the labour problems of the past, but the major cause was that other areas were getting grants and companies were being bribed to go elsewhere than the Midlands. "Because of Industrial Development

Try an experiment .

THERE is something very odd about words. A long time ago, before I entered the Ministry, the vicar of a large church wrote to me: "God means you to be a priest." Months later, I was taking part in a service in a new suburban church in Birmingham when the lady pianist, whom I had never seen before, came up to me and said: "You are to be a priest." And then I opened the Bible and time after time the words that sprang out of the page at me were: "Thou art a priest for ever." I used to walk round the gardens of Birmingham Cathedral hour a fter hour questioning what all this could mean. But in the end I became a priest. All because of a few words. The Bible calls Jesus the Word of God. Jesus Himself said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we will and it will be done for us. I used to think that we ought to read the Bible, apply our modern interpretations to if, and then believe what we felt we could believe.

Now I know that approach is wrong. We are to read the Bible and believe. Full stop — BELIEVE. I write these things today because one of the things we are supposed to centre on during Advent is the Bible. And it is certainly a reminder that most of us need. In my church we often leave Bibles around for months or even years and feel quite happy they will not disappear. But you try leaving a valuable vase or ornament around and see what happens. People value ornaments, but they think nothing of the Bible. And yet, as we are so often told, it contains the words of life. daresay that you who read these words have quite a bit of spare time. You may even be one of that increasing number of citizens who are unemployed. And, if you are, you will be feeling pretty depressed about it, certainly if it has been going on for long. However much time you have. I would like you to try an experiment. The odds are that it will be some

time since you seriously thing out of the Bible.

0

• read any-.

So what I would like you to do is sit down and then, however little your belief may be, ask God to direct your reading. Then take one of the Gospels perhaps Mark is the most straightforward and read a chapter or two each day for several days, praying each time before you read. What I think will happen is this: some phrase or sentence will suddenly come alive for you. It will strike you as It never did before. It will almost be as if the letters have turned into capitals compared with the rest. And you will find yourself thinking of those words in a special way. When that happens, almost certainly it is God's word for you. It may comfort you, or guide you, or cha»ge you. But it will certainly do something. And you will know that today, in this year of 1982, in this rather depressed place called the Midlands, Almighty God has spoken to you.

Certificates all our potential growth industries were encouraged to leave. We're now left with the mature industries that are ex-growth, and we've been left stranded." Spelt out in the Government figures, that means we are dependent on slow-growing industries like cars and Mr. Dark's "metal-bashing," which account for 14.5 per cent of our output, while the rest of the country depends on them for only 5.6 per cent. The persistent refusal by Governments to label the West Midlands in need of help as a development area has meant that growing industries always got a better deal to settle elsewhere. Millions of pounds in EEC grants have poured into the areas that are now officially better off than we are. The question, now that we have ended up at the bottom of the pile, is just how can we start back up again? Anthony Beaumont Dark believes there is a way out of our problems and that the people of the West Midlands have the strength to take it. "The worst thing we can do now is to put a notice up saying 'The Midlands' Despairs' as though we are an infectious area. "We are in an unhealthy state, but we are not in a terminal phase." The greatest cause for hope, he believes, is in the way Midlanders have tackled their own labour problems and changed their attitudes. "For a long time there were over weak Governments and over-powerful unions.

Realistic "But now I believe we have never had a more realistic approach. Industry and workers have done a tremendous job in making themselves more competitive and in accepting inevitable job losses without more wasteful strikes." There is clearly a willingness to work, and no-one can doubt our ability to struggle against the odds — but what the Midlands now urgently needs, and deserves, is some concerted help from the Government. Mr. Dark's solution is a far-reaching five-year plan for the region, and he hopes a meeting with the Prime Minister herself will make sure it gets a proper hearing. "Firstly, I believe the Government should de-rate industrial manufacturing companies for five years, to give them a real breathing space. "The money for this should come from central Government funds. I believe any money the Government has to spare should be used in this sort of way to help create and save jobs. "De-rating industry would also stop the nonsense of companies like BL taking the roofs off thousands of square feet of factory space in acts of industrial vandalism, just to avoid the rates burden." Mr. Dark's next priority is to channel Government and EEC funds in the direction of our beleaguered industry. "We have done very badly for lack of EEC aid, and I think we should be changed to an assisted area so that we can call on EEC funds," he says.

Anthony Beaumont Dark, MP "Give Midlands a proper chance".

"I would also like to see a widening of the inner area status, so that money can be spent on building up again the infrastructures, from roads to services, that will support new industry moving into the Midlands' depressed areas." While industry is finding its feet again, there is the question of protection against unfair foreign competition. "Trade must be fair. I've been told it's now easier for us to sell into Rumania than into France, which must be wrong. "The most immediate problem is to give our car industry an equal chance against imports from Spain. Last year we imported 59,318 cars from them and they took just 355 of our cars and their import duties are ten times ours.

The message "There will be worse to come if we don't do something about it." Mr. Dark believes the Prime Minister will do something to help, although he is critical of the attitudes of some Government Ministers. "Mrs. Thatcher has an excellent Gaullist approach — my country comes first. Some of her Trade Ministers tend to lack that, and they need to become more realistic." The message for the Midlands itself is to encourage new industry but not to forget our traditional strongholds just because they have been weakened by bearing the brunt of the recession. "Let's not write off the metal-bashing industry. There are new refinements to come in metals which we should take advantage of, and I would prefer to see our metal-bashers meeting all the world's needs, rather than Tokyo and Spain." With the infusion of new funds Mr. Dark believes there should be affirmations of belief in the area from some of the major companies. "I find the most uplifting thing is that there is still vision, courage and belief shown by the region's businessmen I don't find them talking themselves into a decline. "It would be good if that was matched by more of the big companies with London-based office.s showing their commitment to the region by moving their headquarters back here." Mr. Dark is not preaching an easy message, and he believes it will take a long time to put the Midlands back where it belongs. "It would be an even crueller delusion to think there will be a quick turn-round. Unless markets turn round world-wide it's going to take time, but the Government can do something to help in a very difficult period." Not that he believes that the present realism will fade. "Instead there are very refreshing attitudes. Factory workers and businessmen enc age me," he goes on. "I think we have the best wo rce in the country with a kind of inherited skill which should be given a proper chance."

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10 DOWNING THE PRIME MINISTER

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Thank you very much for having your manuscript evening to me last handed the Prime with of the Meeting notes Minister on 15th December, Those manuscript notes I now together with a photocopy, 1.ihich return, to David Hunt. to give you may wish that thought The Prime Minister thank one; valuable most was a the Meeting up, it set having in initiative your for you

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