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The Prime Minister: I welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his new position. He asked what is an active aging strategy. The best active aging strategy that I know of is to be either Leader of the Opposition or Prime Minister--we shall see how we both fare in that regard. I welcome the fact that the right hon. Gentleman agreed with much of the Denver communique, particularly the points about organised crime, Hong Kong and the participation of Russia. That is precisely what I am saying in relation to G7 summits. It is important that they concentrate on fewer issues, but go through them in depth.
As for structural reform, the words "responsive to change" are those that the Government have been using. They mean not only more flexible labour markets but an emphasis on education and skills, and ensuring that people can be genuinely employable within new labour markets. Decent civilised standards of treatment for people at the workplace are not inconsistent with a prosperous economy.
The right hon. Gentleman asked about Africa, budgets there and the announcement of 50 per cent. more provision for basic education and health care. The money will be found within existing budgets as part of our policy of reallocating priorities and focusing our aid on the poorest countries. Commitments over the past three years have totalled about £240 million, and commitments over the next three years will therefore be increased to about £360 million.
The right hon. Gentleman asked me also about targets and the measures that we might take to meet those which we have set ourselves. I believe that the targets that we have set ourselves are achievable by continuing with the types of policy that we have been outlining over the past few weeks--for example, in relation to an integrated transport system, working with the rail operators to ensure that they make sure that more is done to integrate their services by introducing such things as through ticketing, giving people the real choice of being able to use public transport where they wish to do so and, in relation to improved energy efficiency in firms and the public sector, the energy efficiency best practice--[Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman asked me for the details, and I am giving them to him.
The energy efficiency best practice programme has a target of generating additional savings worth £800 million a year by the year 2000. We are well on target to achieve that. If we continue with the policies that we have outlined, we believe that we will meet that target. It is part of a continuing programme. As for improving energy efficiency in homes, not merely is the home energy efficiency scheme in being, but part of the new Government's proposals is the establishment of an environmental task force that will be specifically charged with assisting measures that will combat some of our environmental problems. In all these areas, we shall continue to make progress. I believe that we can meet the targets.
The right hon. Gentleman said that it was a pity that Denver G8 failed to reach agreement. It is a pity that we were unable to go further there. The key event, however, will be the Kyoto conference, which will take place later this year. The US has given an indication that it will be in a position then to agree legally binding targets for the future. If that can happen, that will be substantial progress. Yes, we would have liked to go further at Denver, but, as I have said, I think that the key issue is what happens at the Kyoto conference. I think that the possibilities there are good.
The right hon. Gentleman will have to await the Budget for any matters of taxation. I believe that the most important thing that we can do in respect of meeting the targets to which I have referred is to continue with the measures that relate especially to transport and energy efficiency, which we have already outlined. If we do that,
we have the best chance of making a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which is what we all want to see.
Mr. Paddy Ashdown (Yeovil):
I join the Prime Minister, first, in welcoming the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) to leadership of the Conservative party. I think that I am right in saying that he is the sixth leader of one or other of the two parties, Conservative and Labour, that I have seen since becoming leader of mine. I wish him--[Interruption.] Look how I look, Madam Speaker? I look younger every day. I wish the right hon. Gentleman well in his task, which most people regard as impossible.
I very much welcome the thrust of the Prime Minister's statement. The Denver summit of Eight was obviously more successful than most of these summits and it achieved a number of notable things. I welcome particularly the inclusion of Russia. I especially welcome the clear statement on Hong Kong. It is, of course, the case that the Sino-British agreement is an international agreement. The fact that that will be observed in detail by the international community will be a great incentive to ensure that the agreement is carried out in full, especially in relation to the preservation of democracy.
I also welcome the clear statement on Bosnia. I am sure that the Prime Minister will agree that, unless the warring parties understand that they must make faster progress, there is a real possibility that the momentum for peace will slip away and the situation will slide back towards warfare and conflict, perhaps even in the very near future.
I regret that there was not greater agreement on the environment, although perhaps that was too much to ask. It is welcome to see the Prime Minister and the Government taking the lead on environmental matters. I am almost tempted to say that, once again, they seem to be observing more of our manifesto than theirs, but that would be curmudgeonly, so I shall not say it.
No doubt the Prime Minister was happy to see the newspaper headlines about his leadership when he returned. I remind him that I have seen those headlines before, and so has he. I remember the 1989 summit, from which the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher, returned to headlines--in The Daily Telegraph I think--saying, "Thatcher to save the planet" and "Thatcher dons green mantle for economic summit". The right hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Major) had similar headlines. Does the Prime Minister realise that he will be judged not by the rhetoric or the newspaper headlines, but by results and actions?
We will look for those results when we consider next week's Budget. Will there be a move towards green taxation? Will there be a reduction of VAT on home insulation? Will there be a national home insulation programme? The Prime Minister cannot answer those questions now, but does he recognise that we will judge what he does rather than what he says? He will be judged by his actions and not by the rhetoric, although welcome, that he used in Denver and New York.
The Prime Minister:
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his agreement to much of what we did. I shall deal with his two main points.
We want faster progress in Bosnia. We want a far greater impetus towards implementing the Dayton agreement and greater pressure from the countries
involved to achieve that. I have been saying that for some time, as has President Clinton. If pressure to reach agreement is taken off those countries, there is a risk that the whole process will slip backwards; that would be desperately unfortunate. I agree whole-heartedly with the right hon. Gentleman on that.
On the environment, the right hon. Gentleman will have to wait for the Budget, as he knows. I agree that the issue is results and not rhetoric. In the programmes that we have already outlined, there is at least the prospect that results will be achieved. I believe that they are achievable, provided that the national will and the political will are there.
Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):
On Africa, does the Prime Minister recall that the one subject about which President Mandela wrote a personal letter to the previous Prime Minister was his unease about Libyan sanctions? The unease felt about Lockerbie has been outlined in 11 Adjournment debates. Will the Prime Minister also reflect on the Channel 4 programmes that cast grave doubt on whether the Libyans were responsible for the brutal and wicked murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher? Before dismissing them merely as television speculation, will he take into account the fact that to do so he would have to suppose that George Styles, the senior ballistics officer of the British Army, does not know much about ballistics, that Hugh Thomas, who was the senior consultant at the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast, does not know much about the angles at which bullets enter bodies, and that Bernard Knight, as the distinguished Home Office pathologist in charge of the Cromwell street investigation, does not know about pathology? Will he take this matter seriously?
The Prime Minister:
As I said to my hon. Friend last week, the Libyan sanctions will remain until Libya complies with the United Nations Security Council resolutions. The Channel 4 programme was a follow-up to the original programme that was made some time last year. The continuing investigation into the murder of WPC Fletcher is a matter for the police, and anyone who has new evidence relating to the crime should pass it to them. The original extensive investigation by the Metropolitan police forensic science laboratory and the pathologist Dr. Ian West concluded that she was killed by a bullet fired from the Libyan People's Bureau. Every piece of new evidence has been reviewed, but my advice is that the view prevails that she was killed by a bullet from the Libyan People's Bureau.
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