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Mr. Rhodri Morgan (Cardiff, West): That is excellent news about the 15,000 new jobs, which possibly makes this a record year, but does the Secretary of State accept that most of those posts will not be filled until after the general election, and that most of the employers are well aware of Labour's 20-point lead in the opinion polls? That makes it absolutely clear that all those employers, both existing and new, have no fears about anything that an incoming Labour Government might do.
Mr. Hague: Most employers are far too wise to presume on the outcome of an election being determined by opinion polls, as the hon. Gentleman seems to do. If many of those employers were aware--as some of them are--of the many regulations imposed on businesses on the continent of Europe, they would have a different view on where to expand their activities.
Mr. Donald Anderson (Swansea, East): The LG investment, as the Secretary of State knows, will generate the need for substantial additional housing, and there is a major question whether that will be clustered in one area, Coedkernew, or spread wider afield. The Secretary of State for the Environment has published a think piece on where people will live in England, because of the growing
number of households and other factors. Can the right hon. Gentleman see a case, given that our problems are similar, for a similar think piece in respect of Wales?
Mr. Hague: I do not necessarily accept what the hon. Gentleman said about there being a great need for new housing because of the LG development. In the main, I should like the benefits of the project to go to people living where they live today. I cannot prejudge any decision that I would make on alterations to structure plans, but that is my general approach, and I believe that it will command the support of hon. Members of all parties.
Mr. Paul Flynn (Newport, West): I am puzzled by one thing: the United Kingdom has won 78 Nobel prizes for science this century, and Korea has won none, so why are we spending large sums of money to buy scientific jobs from Korea?
Mr. Hague: The hon. Gentleman knows that the project will bring vast benefits to his constituency. The vast majority of the money that brings the jobs is coming from LG, from Korea, not from the United Kingdom. I think that it is right in some areas to give assistance to companies, wherever they come from--Korea or Wales, home-grown or overseas--to encourage jobs to go to those areas. The hon. Gentleman's constituency has been one of the principal beneficiaries of that policy, and he should not be in the business of criticising that.
Mr. Rod Richards (Clwyd, North-West): Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Hague: Yes, but this will be a very long speech if I give way all the time.
Mr. Richards: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. Does he understand the Labour party's proposals on employment? On the one hand, the right hon. Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown) says that a Labour Government would spend about £3 billion subsidising employers to employ approximately 250,000 people, on the basis that reducing employment costs increases the numbers employed; on the other, he wants to introduce a minimum wage, which would increase costs and, surely, reduce the number employed. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that is totally illogical?
Mr. Hague: Yes. My hon. Friend makes a pertinent point. There is no question but that Labour's policies would reduce employment, and they would certainly reduce employment opportunities for the future in Wales. The minimum wage would damage those opportunities, as the deputy leader of the Labour party has acknowledged in the past, as would the adoption of the social chapter.
I briefly mentioned education and industry. We are working, in addition, to sustain rural communities and to maintain a living, working countryside, bringing together agriculture, industry and tourism in a way that preserves a way of life, a culture, and the countryside itself.
We have succeeded in all that, not by looking inward and believing that our economy or our environment begins and ends at the Welsh border, but because we are part of one of the strongest and most flexible economies
in Europe; because we look outward for investment and ideas; and because we are prepared to compete at an international level.
There is still the challenge of spreading opportunity and prosperity throughout Wales, and I shall outline in a moment some measures to achieve that; but before I go into detail on those and other matters, let me refer to one more piece of recent good news, one more opportunity for Wales.
When the European Council meets in Cardiff next year, we intend to make sure that it meets in an even more prosperous and dynamic Wales, a Wales that is fully part of a prosperous and dynamic United Kingdom with a strong, self-confident message about itself for the rest of Europe and a strong, clear voice in the decision-making processes of the United Kingdom, not a Wales distracted and weakened by a prolonged and bitter debate about yet another tier of government. I want not the devolution of despair but the devolution and extension of opportunity for more and more people in Wales.
Mr. Dafydd Wigley (Caernarfon):
Will the Secretary of State confirm that, if there is a referendum after the general election, with a real choice for the people of Wales, the Conservative party will not oppose it? If he opposes such a referendum, is it because he believes that the general election gives a mandate to an incoming Government to set up an assembly?
Mr. Hague:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I have said clearly that we would respect the outcome of a referendum and that people would be landed with the consequences of such a referendum for the foreseeable future. However, I have grave misgivings about the idea of a pre-legislative referendum. That is a misuse of referendums and creates a situation in which the Government of the day either say that they want the electorate to give approval before seeing the details or say subsequently to Parliament that a draft Bill has been approved in a referendum and Parliament must pass it whether it likes it or not. That is not easily combined with the parliamentary democracy that we cherish.
We are threatened with the misuse of a referendum by a Government with an overmighty attitude. If the disaster of a Labour Government were to happen, we would no doubt have to return to the subject. I intend that the Government of the United Kingdom after the general election will be one who will not go down that road of the ludicrous distraction of constitutional change but will continue to bring jobs and prosperity to Wales.
That prosperity is the subject to which I now want to return. Our overriding objective for the UK economy is to promote sustained economic growth and rising prosperity. The two cornerstones of our policies are permanently low inflation and sound public finances.
We have the fundamentals well in hand: inflation is well under control and stable--the best performance for nearly 50 years--interest rates remain low; public finance is under tight control; and the public sector borrowing requirement is forecast to fall further in the years to come. Independent observers, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, say that the UK economy is now more flexible, competitive and resistant to inflation.
Wales has benefited enormously from those policies. We have more than 300 overseas-owned companies operating out of almost 380 plants and employing more
than 75,000 people. Wales is undergoing a new industrial revolution, transformed from a country heavily dependent on traditional industries to a modern and diverse growing economy.
Let us consider some of the facts. Since 1982, manufacturing productivity in Wales has been above the UK average--9 per cent. above in 1994. Provisional figures for 1995 show that Wales has a sturdy 14.6 per cent. advantage over the rest of the UK.
Mr. Ted Rowlands (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney):
Given those figures, is it not all the more dismaying that Bluebird Toys decided to close its Merthyr plant? It had been part of the diversification process and had received fantastic assistance from the Welsh Office, local authorities and the Welsh Development Agency. Even at this twelfth hour, I wonder whether collectively we could persuade the company to continue to locate some of its production there, so that it does not become an import-only toy company.
Mr. Hague:
I share the hon. Gentleman's disappointment about that recent news, which, I think, involves 88 jobs. I recently wrote to him about the matter. Both the Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Mr. Jones), and I have written to the company in the past to make it clear that we stand ready to offer any assistance that we can give. That offer stands, and if there is any other way in which we can pursue the matter, I am ready to do so. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman acknowledges that, although we regret that news, there has been much other good news for employment in his constituency in recent months.
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