SPEECH 2


TASK Read the following interview between a famous politician (PL) and an interviewer (IN).

The politician was asked a question if _______________ left the nation divided.


PL: Let me answer that very deeply. Because I feel very strongly about it. The greatest divisions
this nation has ever seen were the conflicts of trade unions towards the end of a Labour
government. Terrible conflicts. That trade union movement then was under the dictator trade union
bosses, some of whom are still there. They used their power against their members. They made them
come out on strike when they didn´t want to. They loved secondary picketing, they went and
demonstrated outside companies where there was no dispute whatsoever and sometimes closed them
down. They were acting as they were later in the coal strike before my whole trade union laws were
through this government. They were out to use their power to hold the nation to ransom; to stop
power from getting to the whole of manufacturing industry, to damage people´s jobs, to stop power
from getting to every house in this country, power, heat  and light to every housewife, every
child, every school, every pensioner. You want division, you want conflict, you want hatred. There
it was. It was that, which_________ , if you call it that, tried to stop.


IN: But…..


PL: One moment. Not by arrogance, but by giving power to the ordinary decent honourable  trade
union member who didn´t want to go on strike, by giving power to him over the scoundrels of this
world. Al those laws weren´t through when we had the conflict. That is one conflict. That has gone,
now another one. I believe passionately that people have a right by their own efforts to benefit
their own families so we´ve taken down taxation. It doesn´t matter to me who you are or what your
background is. If you want to use your own efforts to work harder, yes I´m with you,  all the way.
Whether it´s unskilled effort whether it´s skilled. And so we´ve taken the income tax down ……. and
the third thing. All my predecessors, yes I read Disraeli, yes Harold McMillan. I would say I am
right in their tradition. It was Disraeli one nation, we´ve had an increase of home ownership, the
heart of the family


IN: Can I get in with a question Prime Minister because …..


PL: You´ve asked me the most fundamental thing.


IN: Well I know….


PL: I must beg you….


IN: We are not having a party political broadcast. We are having an interview which  must depend on
me asking some questions  occasionally.


PL: Yes, indeed. You asked what I know you call the gut question. Right it´s gone to the gut, it´s
gone for the jugular. Let me finish it. More home ownership, far more shareownership, far more
savings and building society accounts. This is what is building one nation as every earner becomes
a shareholder, as more and more people own their homes. No, we are getting rid of the divisions, we
are replacing conflict with cooperation. We are building one nation through wider  property owning
democracy. Right please go ahead.