---
election_year: 1974
election_month: october
party_id: labour
party_name: Labour Party
party_leader: Harold Wilson
political_spectrum: centre-left
victory: true
government_outcome: majority
sections:
  - economy
  - taxation
  - health
  - education
  - housing
  - defence
  - foreign-policy
  - environment
  - transport
  - law-and-order
  - welfare
  - democracy-and-constitution
  - agriculture
  - energy
  - local-government
---

# Labour Party Manifesto 1974

## Britain Will Win With Labour

## Foreward

## Foreword

In February we put before the British people our Manifesto, 'Labour's Way out of the Crisis'.

It was a programme for getting Britain back to work, for overcoming what was universally acknowledged to be
the gravest economic crisis Britain had faced since the war. A programme to be carried out by a Government
of all the people working together.

Labour formed the Government, got Britain back to work and showed our determination to fulfil the programme
which we had put before the people. No post war British Government has achieved more in six months.

But at every turn we have found ourselves faced in Parliament by a majority which could, and did, coalesce
to frustrate the policies we had put before the nation. What is still more serious has been the widespread
expectation of an inevitable and early General Election, which created uncertainty in industry and the other
institutions of our British society.

Soon the people must decide on the Government to whom they want to entrust the future of themselves and
their families for the next five years.

They will judge each Party on its record in office, when it had the responsibility: on its record in honouring the
pledges it had made to the country. On its willingness to undertake measures which would enlist the
support and enthusiasm of our people in fighting the economic crisis.

They will judge on the policies which each Party puts forward, asking themselves which Party can best be
trusted to make a reality of those policies.

They will judge not only on policies and records, but on the calibre and experience of the men and women
who will be responsible for carrying out those policies. On their compassion and the understanding of the
problems of ordinary families: on their determination to govern for, and with the sanction of, all of the
people.

In February the country rejected, as we had urged, policies of confrontation and conflict and 'fight to a finish'
philosophies. We put before the country the policy of the Social Contract.

We have shown that as a Government we are prepared to take the decisions that are needed to achieve
economic and social justice without which this country can never unite.

The policies we have followed over the past six months, the policies which the next Labour Government will
follow, are policies to strengthen the Social Contract.

It is not simply, or narrowly, an understanding about wages. It is about justice, equality, about concern for
and protection of the lower paid, the needy, the pensioner and the handicapped in our society.

It is about fairness between one man and another, and between men and women. It is about economic
justice between individuals and between regions. It is about co-operation and conciliation, not conflict
and confrontation.

But more than that. What we as democratic socialists maintain is that when the going is toughest it is
more than ever necessary to base our policies on social justice, to protect the weak, the poor, the
disabled, to help those least able to help themselves, and to maintain and improve their living standards.

Other Parties which do not believe in fair shares deny themselves the right to call for equal sacrifices.

Injustice is the enemy of national unity.

The crisis we are facing demands a still greater emphasis on social justice, as well as economic justice,
than at any time in this generation.

That is the inspiration underlying the policies set out in this Manifesto.

It carries forward the programme we set out in February. It builds on our achievements in fulfilling, in six
months, so much of that programme. It sets out in much more detail the policies we then announced,
proposals which have now been firmly rooted in our experience in government, and responsibly costed
against the resources which as a nation we can afford.

This Manifesto, which is inspired by the idealism which has created our Movement, is now put before the
country on the basis of the realism deriving from experience. It sets out what in our view is the only way
to enable Britain to win through the crisis we now all face, and to share together, as one people, the fruits
of the success we are determined to achieve.

***Harold Wilson***

Britain faces its most dangerous crisis since the war. The Labour Party makes no attempt to disguise this.
On the contrary, at the time of the February election, we took the British people into our confidence and
shared the realities of our daunting problems. We inherited a three-day week, unlit streets, unheated homes
and work-places. And worst of all, a wounded national economy, made all the more serious by the socially
divisive policies of the previous Conservative Government, with its deliberate confrontation with the
organised working people of our country. The Conservatives created a society in which people who made
money were more honoured than men and women who earned their wages.

This crisis for our country was all the more desperate because it was set in the context of a continuing
world upheaval. Most of the world is still staggering from the enormous increases in the price of oil - the
most important basic commodity in modern industrial and agricultural society.

We come with confidence before the public to ask for a strong mandate for the policies drawn from
'Labour's Programme for Britain' set out in our February manifesto, some of which have been spelled
out in greater detail in White Papers published by the Government. No Government can get Britain
moving by itself. A democratic Government must reflect the views of the people. And the people who
vote for the Government must give their share of endeavour and concern - as well as their votes.
But a Government can only ask these efforts from the men and women of this country if they can
confidently see a vision of a fair and just society. Why should a coal miner dig extra coal for a few
pounds more while he has seen property speculators grow wealthy looking at empty office blocks?
A strong new Labour Government, with the agreement and co-operation of the British people, can
make constructive, but not painless progress towards building a fair society.

This election is inevitable since no clear majority emerged in February. Despite its minority position the
Labour Government have made a good start. Now we ask for the return of a Labour Government, with a
working majority, so that we can continue to tackle the great problems facing Britain. We have to come to
the men and women of our country and ask for their mandate for industrial and social reconstruction. We
need national support for a steady will for a new society. In fact we are asking your help to carry through
policies which will work for international peace and co-operation and at the same time create at home
effective measures of economic and social reconstruction.

It is only with a sense of unity that we shall win through. But we cannot expect this from a Conservative
Government - nor from any Conservative-Liberal coalition. The Tory Party is, by its own statements,
deeply divided about what policies to put before the electorate. Neither the Tories nor a
Conservative-Liberal coalition can bring a united and decisive programme of solution to contemporary
problems.

Why can't we accept the idea of a coalition to meet the nation's crisis? Because what our country needs in
this crisis is a government with a clear-cut understanding of the nation's problems and the ability to decide
quickly and effectively how to deal with them. A coalition government, by its very nature, tends to trim its
policies and fudge its decisions, and in present circumstances that just won't do. If we believe, as we must,
in our own independent political philosophies, there is no meeting point between us and those with quite
different philosophies, and it would be a cruel farce to suggest that the future of the country would be helped
by shuffling, compromising administration.

We want to be frank with you. The regeneration of our economy isn't going to be easy, even with a Labour
Government. The next two or three years are going to be difficult for us all. There will be no easy times
and no easy pickings for anyone.

We put forward in this manifesto a list of improvements we want to make in society. We put them forward in
good faith; but many of them cost money, and we understand perfectly well - and we believe you will, too -
that the timing of them will depend on how quickly and how completely we get on top of the economic problems.

But Labour doesn't go along with the prophets of doom and gloom. We have great confidence in the British
people. If you give us your full backing over the difficult two or three years ahead we shall weather the
storm and get back on the right course.

## Promises and Priorities

The Labour Government has kept the promises made at the election in February. From the day we took office
we acted. We increased pensions to £10 and £16. We froze rents. We gave security
to people who live in furnished tenancies. We repealed the divisive Industrial Relations Act and we replaced
confrontation by conciliation. We restrained the rise in the cost of living by our subsidies on essential foods
and price controls. We gave loans to the building societies to help house-buyers - who would otherwise
have faced mortgage rates of 13%. We allocated more money to local councils to build or buy homes.

The Government have published plans for the public owner ship of development land which will get rid of the
major inflationary element in the cost of building; for public control and participation in North Sea oil; for
greater accountability and the extension of public ownership in industry; for beginning the redistribution
of wealth by new taxation on the better-off - while at the other end of the scale a million and a half people
have been taken out of liability to any income tax. We have published radical and detailed proposals for
pensions and for bringing help as of right to the disabled. New rights for women and our determination to
implement equal pay have been announced. And we have begun in earnest the promised renegotiation of
the Conservatives' disadvantageous terms of entry to the Common Market.

As at the last election, we are not making any promises which we cannot keep. We do not believe in electoral
bribes - these are an insult to the intelligence and realism of the public. The priorities we set out here are part
of a programme for a five year term of office. Much of what we want to do will take longer because of all the
heavy spade-work which has to be done to create the economic strength on which all else depends.

## The Social Contract

At the heart of this manifesto and our programme to save the nation lies the Social Contract between the
Labour Government and the trade unions, an idea derided by our enemies, but certain to become widely
accepted by those who genuinely believe in government by consent - that is, in the democratic process
itself as opposed to the authoritarian and bureaucratic system of wage control imposed by the Heath
Government and removed by Labour.

The Social Contract is no mere paper agreement approved by politicians and trade unions. It is not concerned
solely or even primarily with wages. It covers the whole range of national policies. It is the agreed basis
upon which the Labour Party and the trade unions define their common purpose.

Labour describes - as we did in our February manifesto at the time of the last election and as we do again at
this one - the firm and detailed commitments which will be fulfilled in the field of social policy, in the fairer
sharing of the nation's wealth, in the determination to restore and sustain full employment. The unions in
response confirm how they will seek to exercise the newly restored right of free collective bargaining.
Naturally the trade unions see their clearest loyalty to their own members. But the Social Contract is their
free acknowledgment that they have other loyalties - to the members of other unions too, to pensioners, to
the lower-paid, to invalids, to the community as a whole.

It is these wide-ranging hopes and obligations which the General Council of the TUC described in its
declaration of June 26 and which were overwhelmingly approved by the Congress on September 4.
This is the Social Contract which can re-establish faith in the working of Britain' 5 democracy in the
years ahead.

## Inflation

The first priority must be a determined attack on inflation and the appalling overseas deficit which we
inherited. Inflation is a World-Wide problem and there are no easy answers, but for us the crisis was
made worse than it need have been because of the financial disasters Labour inherited from the
Tory Government.

Inflation is one of the greatest economic perils we face. It afflicts all the countries of the world. From Japan
to France, from the United States to Britain, prices are rising at between 15*% *and 25*% *a year.
Oil, the lifeblood of industry and transport, costs four times what it did a year ago; wheat, feedgrains, sugar
and other imported foodstuffs, nearly double. These powerful inflationary forces cannot be wholly mastered
by any single government acting alone. It will require international co-operation both to curb inflation and to
avoid a slump.

But there are things the Government can - and must - do. We were elected last February to govern a Britain
that had been greatly weakened by the policies of the Conservatives. The Heath Government allowed a huge
deficit to accumulate on our balance of payments, even before the oil price rises hit us. It borrowed and
printed hundreds of millions of pounds at home, fuelling the fires of inflation; it let our scarce resources go into
office blocks, luxury flats and property speculation, at a time that Britain badly needed investment in industry
and in housing for rent. Britain, in February 1974, was in bad shape to withstand the economic hurricane.

We reject entirely the policy put forward by some Tories of fighting inflation by throwing millions of people out
of work.

We are doing everything within our power to curb inflation. And where rising prices are outside our control, as
with imports of oil and raw materials, we have sought to protect the least well-off, the pensioner and the
low-paid, for whom inflation is not just a worry but a nightmare.

*We have:*

- Stopped printing money to finance unnecessary expenditure;

- Cut VAT from 10% to 8%;

- Reduced gross profit margins by 10% and agreed with the food trade to concentrate profit cuts on
 essential foods;

- Frozen rents and stabilised mortgage rates;

- Subsidised basic foods - bread, flour, butter, cheese, milk and tea- in a way that gives most benefit
 to the least well-off;

- Taken powers to set maximum prices for subsidised foods; laid down a minimum of three months
 between price rises, and stopped' the 'sticky label' trick;

- Set up a National Consumer Agency, backed by a net work of local consumer advice centres.

*We shall:*

- Provide detailed information to shoppers on where to get value for money;

- renegotiate the Common Agricultural Policy of the Common Market to make sure
 shoppers get secure supplies of food at fair prices;

- Introduce unit pricing for meat, fish, fruit and vegetables;

- Put teeth into nationalised industry consumer councils and finance them independently.

## Oil Crisis

We shall continue to give high priority to our overseas trade. We have to. At the centre of our national and
international crisis is the enormous increase in oil prices which is costing this country an extra £2,500
million this year.

We must get rid of the non-oil deficit we inherited from the previous Tory Government, while tackling in
co-operation with other countries also affected, the balance of payments and currency problems created
by the fourfold increase in the price of oil.

## Agriculture

Labour will encourage the maximum economic production of food by the farming and fishing industries. We
inherited from the Tories an extremely grave crisis in the agricultural industry - with extremely high feed
costs, and the cereals sector succeeding at the expense of the livestock sector.

A Tory Government negotiated entry into the EEC and removed the long-term guarantees to the livestock
industry. The Intervention System of the Common Agricultural Policy has not worked. Labour insists that
there must be a new approach, with a clear emphasis on *national *aids, and that we must be able
to provide suitable guarantees to our farmers.

We have already taken urgent action:

- A special subsidy on pigs, representing an injection of £30 million to the UK pig
 industry;

- The near doubling of the calf subsidy, providing an extra £35 million a year.

- A new beef premium, an arrangement which gives another £40 million to the
 producers;

- The restoration of the lime subsidy which was abolished by the Tories - worth £5
 million a year.

- A temporary subsidy on the oil used for heating glass- houses - which injects a further
 £7 million into the horticultural industry.

We will, in addition, introduce in the very near future, considerable help to the dairy industry.

Our long-term objective is to secure the expansion of the industry. We intend to continue our discussions
with the Farmers' Unions - and the agricultural workers - with the dual objective of drawing up a meaningful
longer term expansion and of determining the means whereby this can be achieved.

## Employment and Expansion

In the long run, a nation, like a family, can only live on what it earns. If we want to maintain our standard of
living and protect people's jobs and give a boost to our deprived regions, we must get industry to produce
more and export more.

This is going to demand some radical changes. The Tories and their Aims of Industry friends say we ought to
leave things as they are. But things as they are consist of lower productivity, less competitiveness and much
lower investment than other countries. If we leave things as they are we shall go on, as we have done for
years, slipping behind other nations. The industrial sector of our economy is suffering from grave and
chronic debilitation and that sort of illness cannot be cured with a couple of aspirin tablets. We need a
new deal.

The present Labour Government has made a start on this task. It has stemmed the runaway rise in interest
rates. It has doubled the Regional Employment Premium and listed new development and special
development areas for extra help. Our exports are doing well, and outside the inflated oil bill, we are
paying for more of our imports with exports.

But there is still a long way to go. In our February manifesto we put forward proposals for an extension of the
public sector where it is most needed, and for a new relationship between the Government and the large
privately-owned companies which will do much to regenerate British industry.

We stand firmly by those proposals. The Government has published a White Paper describing how they will work:

- A new and urgent Industry Act will provide for a system of Planning Agreements between the
 Government and key companies to ensure that the plans of those companies are in harmony with
 national needs and objectives and that Government financial assistance is deployed where it will
 be most effectively used. Wherever we give direct aid to a company out of public funds we shall
 reserve the right to take a proportionate share of the ownership of the company; and wherever
 possible this public support will be channelled through the Planning Agreements System.

- In addition to our plans for taking into common ownership the land required for development, we
 shall substantially extend public enterprise by taking over mineral rights. We shall also take ports,
 ship-building, ship-repairing and marine engineering, and the aircraft industries into public ownership
 and control. We shall not confine the extension of the public sector to loss-making and subsidised
 industries. We shall set up a National Enterprise Board to administer publicly-owned share-holdings:
 to extend public ownership into profitable manufacturing industry by acquisitions, partly or wholly, of
 individual firms; to stimulate investment; to create employment in areas of high unemployment; to
 encourage industrial democracy; to promote industrial efficiency; to increase exports and reduce our
 dependence on imports; to combat private monopoly; and to prevent British industries from passing
 into unacceptable foreign control.

We do not accept the negative policies adopted by the previous Tory Government towards the nationalised
industries. We shall restore to our public enterprises the assets and licences which the Tory Government
took away from them, and will encourage and help them diversify into new industries. We shall bring forward
early proposals to ensure that banking and insurance make a better contribution to the national economy.

Regional development will be further encouraged by new public enterprise, by assistance to private industry
on a selective basis, and new Regional Planning Machinery, along the lines set out in 'Labour's Programme
1973'. We will set up Scottish and Welsh Development Agencies. Moreover, the revenues from the North Sea
and Celtic Sea oil will help us to improve employment in Scotland, Wales and the English regions in need of
development.

We shall transform the existing Manpower Services Commission into a powerful body, responsible for the
development and execution of a comprehensive manpower policy. Redundant workers must have an
automatic right to retraining, with redundancy leading not to unemployment, but to retraining and job
changing.

## Energy

The discovery of oil off our shores dramatically changes not only the country's energy prospects, but our
whole economic future. Because its importance cannot be over-estimated it is essential that its development
should be under public control in the interests of the whole community, and with regard to the future. The
Labour Government will:-

Take majority participation in all future oil licences and negotiate to achieve majority state participation in
existing licences.

Set up a British National Oil Corporation to. enable the Government to exercise participation rights; to play
an active role in the future development, exploration and exploitation of offshore oil; and to engage in the
refining and the distribution of oil. Its headquarters will be in Scotland.

Impose a substantial extra tax on the oil companies' profits from the North Sea - and plug the loopholes in
existing taxation.

Take new powers to control the pace of depletion, pipelines, exploration and development - and to protect
the environment; and nationalise the land needed for the oil platform construction sites.

Set up new Development Agencies in Scotland and in Wales - financed by the United Kingdom exchequer -
with extra funds to reflect the revenue from offshore oil.

After years of Tory indecision Labour has - within a few months - laid the foundation for a coherent energy
policy involving coal, gas, nuclear power and electricity as well as oil. We have agreed an additional
investment of £600 million for the coal mines. We have backed British technology with a
programme of British reactors for the next generation of our power stations.

## Industrial Relations

We promised to repeal the Tory Industrial Relations Act and this promise has been fulfilled. The last minute
amendments inserted into our Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, by the coalition of Tories, Liberals
and the Lords, will be removed in the first session of the new Parliament.

But the repeal of the Tory Act was only the first step. Our aim is to make industry democratic - to develop
joint control and action by management and workers across the whole range of industry, commerce and
the public services.

This objective involves strong trade union organisation and widening the scope of collective bargaining. In
addition, however, it will mean the provision of new rights for workers through changes in company law.

*First, *We will introduce an Employment Protection Bill - to provide extensive new rights for workers
covering such issues as union membership, apprentices' training and conditions, the guaranteed week,
maternity leave, safeguards on redundancy and employers' bankruptcy, to give new rights to unions in
collective bargaining, including new safeguards for peaceful picketing, to reform the Wages Councils and
establish a key role for the new Conciliation and Arbitration Service in helping to get rid of low pay.

*Second, *we will introduce new legislation to help forward our plans for a radical extension of
industrial democracy in both the private and public sectors. This will involve major changes in
company law and in the statutes which govern the nationalised industries and the public services.

Measures will also be taken to tackle the evils created by private employment agencies and to deal
with abuses of labour-only contracting.

## Social Justice

We believe that men and women will respond to difficult challenges if there is a sense of underlying fairness
in society.

Labour believes, for instance, that taxation must be used to achieve a major redistribution of both wealth
and income. The March Budget took 1½ million men and women out of income tax altogether and
concentrated tax increases on the better off. It also blocked dozens of tax loopholes and announced that
a new Capital Transfers Tax would operate from the date of the Budget.

The next Labour Government will introduce an annual tax on wealth above £100,000. We will also
legislate for the introduction of the Capital Transfers Tax - which will, for the first time this century, make
the Estate Duty an effective tax on inherited wealth. Labour will also offer retired people and young
couples saving for a home a form of National Savings the value of which will be guaranteed against
inflation.

### Social Security

The Labour Government's first step was to increase pensions to £10 for a single person and
£16 for a married couple: a record increase in record time. Corresponding increases for widows,
invalids and others on supplementary benefit have been enacted. This is a real increase which more
than compensates for the rise in prices.

The Labour Government has already committed itself by law to maintain and improve the real gain for
existing pensioners by reviewing pensions and other benefits regularly and by linking future increases
to the rise in wages and not just prices.

The Labour Government will:

*Pay *another £10 Christmas bonus this year to those who have retired and this time will
include invalidity pensioners and those receiving attendance allowances, unemployability supplements
or widows' benefits.

*Replace *the unjust Tory pension scheme with our recently announced long-term plan for adequate
earnings-related pensions for everyone, fully protected against inflation. This will free future pensioners
from the need for means-tested assistance; give equality of treatment to women; include invalidity
pensioners; and give special help to the older workers and the low-paid.

*Attack *family poverty, by increasing family allowances and extending them to the first child through
a new scheme of child credits payable to the mother. We are also examining other ways of helping
one-parent families.

*Help *disabled people who are outside the National Insurance scheme through a new non-contributory
benefit for those of working age and for disabled housewives. We shall introduce an Invalid Care Allowance
for those who give up their jobs to look after a severely disabled relative and a new mobility allowance for
severely disabled people Whether or not they can drive a car.

### The National Health Service

Labour created the National Health Service and is deter mined to defend it. Immense damage has been done
to it by Tory cuts in public expenditure, by the Tory Government's policy or rigid pay control and by the
upheaval of Tory reorganisation on undemocratic lines. Labour has already injected more money into the
Service; published proposals for greater democratic participation in its running and above all, taken steps
to end the exploitation of nurses and other workers in the Service and to see that at last they receive the
rewards they so richly deserve.

Labour has already relieved women over 60 and children under 16 from prescription charges and strengthened
provision for dental care under the National Health Service by freezing the level of dental charges for
patients while increasing dentists' fees. Labour has reversed the Tory proposal to impose charges on
Family Planning.

It has started its attack on queue-jumping by increasing the charge for private pay beds in National Health
Service hospitals and is now working out a scheme for phasing private beds out of these hospitals.

The Labour Government will reduce regional inequality of standards; put the emphasis on prevention and
primary care and give a clear priority to spending on services for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped.
It will continue the progressive elimination of prescription charges and phase out private pay beds from
National Health Service hospitals.

### The Right to Education

The Labour Party believes that full opportunities for the education of our children, our young people and
students of all ages are an essential part of a fair society and indispensable to the social contract. We
have already asked local authorities to submit plans for comprehensive education by the end of the
year, increased provision for nursery education and raised students' grants by *25%. *The
Labour Government realises the problems of many of our teachers and an independent inquiry has been
set up into their pay. We have made an additional £1 1.8 million available to supplement teachers'
pay in difficult areas and increased the school building programme we inherited. We have provided funds
for new classes for adults who cannot read.

As in all our plans, economic restraints are bound to influence timing. But the next Labour Government will:

- End the II plus and other forms of selection for secondary education. Continue to give
 priority to nursery school and day care provision, full-time and part-time.

- Stop the present system of Direct Grant Schools and withdraw tax relief and charitable
 status from Public Schools, as a first step towards our long-term aim of phasing out fee
 paying in schools.

- Continue to move towards a fairer system of student grants.

- Provide increased opportunities for further education and training, including compulsory
 paid day release, especially for young people who leave school early.

- Legislate for an annual review and an annual report to Parliament on youth services.

Labour appointed the first ever Minister of Sport and Recreation and the first ever Minister for the Arts. We
removed the museum charges introduced by the Tory Government, and we allocated greater resources to
the Arts Council than ever before. We shall bring forward proposals to make the Arts Council more democratic
and representative of people in the arts and in entertainment. We will continue to develop and improve the
facilities for sport and leisure for all our citizens.

We will support the further development of the Open University, which was founded by a Labour
Government and which has enriched the lives of thousands of people of all ages.

## Our Homes, Our Land, Our Environment

Everybody is entitled to a decent home at a price they can afford. This cannot be achieved in a free-for-all
market, which has resulted in homelessness, over-crowding and squalor for thousands of our people.
We have in a few months:

- given an extra *£350m *for councils to build more new houses and buy
 existing housing;

- given a £500m loan to Building Societies to keep mortgage rates down, and to make
 more mortgages available;

- introduced a rent freeze for both council and private tenants;

- passed a Rent Act to give security of tenure to furnished tenants of absentee landlords;

- legislated for the creation of Housing Action Areas and against the abuse of improvement
 grants;

- introduced a Bill to demolish the Tory Housing Finance Act.

The Labour Government will take into public ownership land required for development, redevelopment and
improvement. These proposals do not apply to owner-occupiers, whose homes and gardens will be
safeguarded. But the public ownership by local authorities of necessary land is essential to sensible
and comprehensive planning both in our towns and in the countryside. The land will be paid for at existing
use value and the expensive disgrace of land speculation will be ended.

The next Labour Government will:

- help home-buyers through a new National Housing Finance Agency to assist first-time buyers
 and to stabilise mortgage lending. Local councils' lending will be expanded so that they can play a
 major part in helping house purchasers and keep down costs by supplying unified services for estate
 agency, surveying, conveyancing and mortgages;

- restore to local authorities the right to fix rents which do not make profits out of their tenants;

- protect council tenants by giving them security of tenure;

- ensure that rent increases in the private sector will be limited by Government action and that
 houses without basic amenities will not be taken out of control;

- encourage the public ownership of rented property, except where an owner-occupier shares his
 home with a tenant;

- help conserve homes and areas that can be improved with the aid of grants rather than demolish
 them;

- reverse the disastrous fall in house-building, which will include measures to tackle the 'lump' and
 other proposals which must be worked out by both sides of the construction industry to attack the
 system of casual labour in the industry and create a stable, permanent work force;

- abolish the agricultural tied cottage system;

- transfer housing management and allocation to elected authorities in the New Towns nearing
 completion.

**Rates**

Everybody realises that the increasing responsibilities of local authorities must lead to reconsideration of the
whole question of local government finance. The last Tory Government consistently rejected any alternatives
to the rating system. And it bequeathed to Labour this year's massive rate rise. This record proves that their
new proposals are vote-buying moonshine.

By contrast, the present Labour Government - like the last Labour Government - has taken swift action to help
rate-payers. This year we are giving £150m of special help to those hardest hit by this year's rate
increases, and rates have been kept down in hard-pressed inner city areas. And we have set up a high
powered independent inquiry to try to find a workable alternative to the rating system as a matter of urgency.

We appreciate the anxieties of rate-payers and this is why we have set up this inquiry into local finance. But
everybody has to face the fact that demands for better local services have to be paid for. And these have to
be reconciled with demands for more local autonomy and less central direction. Public services have to be
paid for by the public - the only argument is about how to share the costs, not how to avoid them.

### Environment

Our home may be our most immediate environment. But our wider surroundings, whether at work or at
leisure, demand much greater concern with the environment. We have published a Green Paper 'The
Politics of Environment' which discusses many ideas about our changing world.

It was a Labour Government which in 1970 set up the permanent Royal Commission on the Environment and
first appointed a Minister with overall responsibility for the environment. Within a few months the present
Government put on the statute book the Control of Pollution Act. We scrapped the Maplin Airport project.

There is an increasing awareness of the need to treat the natural environment with more respect. The oil
crisis was but one sharp reminder that finite natural resources cannot be taken for granted. We live in
a wasteful society at a time of economic stringency. The Labour Government wants to reverse this trend
and has already set up a Waste Management Advisory Council, appointed a responsible Minister, and
published a Discussion Paper on the recycling of waste.

All our policies touch at some point or other on the living, working or recreational environment of our people.
We will continue to work with the United Nations Council on Environment Problems, because these
concern the whole world.

### Transport

The energy crisis has underlined our objectives to move as much traffic as possible from road to rail and to
water; and to develop public transport to make us less dependent upon the private car.

Labour's Railway Act 1974 provides for a general subsidy to passenger services and grants for the provision
of new private sidings and .other freight facilities. Many proposed rail closures have been stopped.

Expenditure on new roads has been reviewed and priority given to the creation of a comprehensive heavy
lorry network to divert the lorries now thundering through towns and villages. We shall continue to
discourage the building of urban motorways.

Proposals have been issued to bring all commercial ports and cargo-handling into public ownership and
control with a radical extension of worker participation in the industry.

Further measures will be introduced to:

- co-ordinate and integrate our transport services;

- improve public transport, especially in rural areas;

- extend public ownership of road haulage;

- expand the system of free and concessionary fares for old people, the blind and disabled;

- improve road safety.

## Scotland, Wales and the Regions

The next Labour Government will create elected assemblies in Scotland and Wales. It will also consult with
the local authorities and other interested parties about the democratisation of those regional bodies
which are at present non-accountable. A separate statement setting out more detailed proposals has already
been published by the Labour Party and the Government's proposals are set out in the White Paper.
Separate manifestos are being published for Scotland and Wales.

### Northern Ireland

The Labour Party is working for a political solution in Northern Ireland, but no political initiative can succeed
without the end of bombing and shooting in an area which has suffered over 1,000 dead and more than ten
times as many injured.

Any political solution must enable Catholics and Protestants to work together. As a first step in our policy
we have provided for the election of a Constitutional Convention to consider future government in
Northern Ireland. It will be a Convention of Northern Irish people elected by Northern Irish people.

The Labour Government has spelt out certain realities which the Convention must take into account before
 it makes its report to Parliament at Westminster:

- There must be some form of power-sharing and partnership because no political system will
 survive, or be supported, unless there is widespread acceptance of it within the community. There
 must be genuine participation by both communities in the direction of affairs.

- Secondly, any pattern of government must be acceptable to the people of the United Kingdom
 as a whole and to Parliament at Westminster.

- Thirdly, Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, shares a common land frontier
 and a special relationship with another country, the Republic of Ireland. Any political arrangements
 must recognise and provide for this special relationship. There is an Irish dimension.

When a Labour Government first sent troops into Northern Ireland it was on a temporary basis and their task
was to stop sectarian violence. The Army cannot replace the police and it will be the aim of the Labour
Government to encourage the whole community to support the police service which would enable the Army
to make a planned, orderly and progressive reduction in its present commitment.

Britain has a responsibility in Northern Ireland and the Labour Party rejects the view that the troops should
be pulled out in advance of a political solution. A sudden withdrawal in advance of any political settlement
would leave a vacuum which would certainly be filled by para-military groups, with a grave possibility of
civil war.

The Labour Government reaffirms its intention to phase out detention for all sections of the community in
Northern Ireland when, but only when, the security situation permits. As an earnest of this intention, the
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has begun a programme of releases, in addition to those ordered
by the Commissioners as part of the normal review procedure. More and more cases are being tried in
the courts. Meanwhile, the Labour Government has established the Gardiner Committee to make a
comprehensive review of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1974.

Our appeal is to all the people of Northern Ireland. It is our desire to harness the new awareness among
many Catholics and Protestants of their social and economic interests and to enable them to fulfil their
aspirations through political means. Labour's policy offers a new opportunity to achieve this.

## Individual Rights and the Community

It is part of the very purpose of the Labour Party's existence to protect and extend the processes of
democracy at all levels. It was a Labour Government which introduced the law which allows a citizen
to sue Government itself; established the Parliamentary Commissioner; and legislated against
racial discrimination and to enforce equal pay. Now we want to give a much bigger say to citizens
in all their various capacities - as tenants, shoppers, patients, voters. Or as residents or workers in
areas where development proposals make them feel more planned against than planned for.

Labour believes that respect for the law must be firmly based on the rights of the citizen and on his or
her obligations to the whole community. We share the view of those who are alarmed at the growth of
violence in our society, particularly among young people. Labour believes that law-abiding citizens
are entitled to full protection. We will strengthen and uphold the police in the exercise of their proper
functions. We reject entirely the view that law enforcement should ever be a matter for self appointed
and politically motivated private armies.

Labour respects the rule of law; it does not respect those who want to be unofficial enforcement officers or
their own special version of it. We shall also vigorously pursue policies for the elimination of areas of
deprivation which are the most dangerous breeding grounds of juvenile and other crime. A Labour
Government set up the Law Commission machinery to overhaul the whole body of our laws, some of
which are out of date and irrelevant. In the interests of a wider, more just and effective democracy we
shall seek to:

- give real equality to women;

- strengthen legislation protecting minorities;

- reform the law of nationality and citizenship;

- introduce an independent element into complaints against the police;

- make legal advice more accessible to those most in need of help;

- extend legal aid to certain tribunal hearings;

- encourage local authorities in a diversity of neighbourhood or community consultation;

- work with the co-operative movement to develop its role through the creation of a
 Co-operative Development Agency and in other ways.

Labour believes that the process of government should be more open to the public. We shall:

- replace the Official Secrets Act by a measure to put the burden on the public
 authorities to justify withholding information;

- establish compulsory registers of interest for all MPs, councillors, peers,
 senior civil servants, senior council officials, and others in the upper reaches
 of the public service;

- protect the citizen from unwarranted and mischievous intrusion into the citizen's
 private affairs.

## A Charter for Women

Changes in our society over recent years have emphasised the importance of providing practical equal
opportunities for women rather than making polite noises about equality. We have already made a start
towards equal citizenship by giving British women, married to foreign husbands, the same rights as
British men with foreign wives.

The Labour Government's decisions provide a new deal for women. We will:

- ensure that by the end of 1975 Labour's Equal Pay Act will be fully effective throughout the land;

- introduce a comprehensive free family planning service;

- legislate for equality of treatment in social security;

- make provision for maternity leave;

- introduce a new child cash allowance to be paid (including the first child) usually to mothers;

- extend nursery education and day care facilities;

- bring a fairer system of family law with new family courts;

- reform housing law, to strengthen the rights of mothers on the break-up of marriage: and introduce
 other reforms proposed by the Finer Committee on One Parent Families;

- increase educational opportunities for girls, including further education, training and compulsory
 day release.

We also intend to legislate directly on new rights for women, through a Sex Discrimination Bill as set out in
our White Paper. The proposals cover: employment, training, education, housing and the provision of
goods, facilities and services (including mortgages and H.P., etc.) There will also be new machinery to
ensure the enforcement of these measures.

But of course all our proposals - about prices and consumer protection and homes and education and full
employment - will help to improve life for all the women of our country.

And we are determined to see more of them from all walks of life - in Parliament, on local councils and other
public bodies - including political parties and trade union committees.

## The Common Market

Our genuine concern for democratic rights is in sharp contrast to the Tory attitude. In the greatest single
peacetime decision of this century - Britain's membership of the Common Market - the British people
were not given a chance to say whether or not they agreed to the terms accepted by the Tory Government.
Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have refused to endorse the rights of our people to make their
own decision. Only the Labour Party is committed to the right of the men and women of this country to
make this unique decision.

The Labour Government pledges that within twelve months of this election we will give the British people
the final say, which will be binding on the Government - through the ballot box - on whether we accept the
terms and stay in or reject the terms and come out.

Labour is an internationalist party and Britain is a European nation. But if the Common Market were to
mean the creation of a new protectionist bloc, or if British membership threatened to impoverish our
working people or to destroy the authority of Parliament, then Labour could not agree.

Within one month of coming into office the Labour Government started the negotiations promised in our
February manifesto on the basis set out in that manifesto. It is as yet too early to judge the likely results
of the tough negotiations which are taking place. But whatever the outcome in Brussels, the decision will
be taken here by the British people.

## Policy for Peace - International Co-operation and Security

The nations of the world are becoming ever more economically and politically interdependent. The energy
crisis of last winter could not be solved by any individual country acting on its own - international
co-operation was required. The same is true if the world is to succeed in solving the problems of
inflation, of poverty, of economic growth and full employment. We are more than ever one world.
Labour's foreign policy is, therefore, dedicated to strengthening international institutions and to world
co-operation in all fields, including trade and currency.

A Labour Government which excluded from its foreign policy the ideals of morality, equality and justice,
which are at the heart of our domestic policy, would soon lose such ideals at home. The Labour
Government will, therefore, continue its policy of strengthening international organisations and
particularly the United Nations, dedicated to the peaceful settlement of disputes, to the promotion
of human rights, to the rule of law and to the improvement of living standards throughout the world.

We shall continue to work for a peaceful and just settlement of the disputes in the Middle East and in
Cyprus in the light of the declarations of the United Nations and our own responsibilities.

The Labour Government has placed great emphasis on the need for closer relations with Commonwealth
countries and we shall use every means of strengthening our ties with them. The Government has
accepted the United Nations target of 0.7% of the Gross National Product for financial aid to developing
countries in need throughout the world and will seek to move towards it as fast as possible. We have
provided special help for the developing countries hardest hit by the crisis in oil prices and for areas
of famine and disaster, and we have set up a Disaster Unit to speed our response to emergencies.
We shall direct our aid towards the poorest countries and to the poorest people and give emphasis to
rural development. In recent negotiations between the European Economic Community and the African,
Pacific and Caribbean countries we have sought, with some success, to establish a more generous and
liberal trading pattern to meet their needs.

We oppose all forms of racial discrimination and colonialism. We will continue to support the liberation
movements of Southern Africa. By a decision of the Government arms are no longer being supplied to
South Africa. The Labour Government will seek to end the unlawful South African occupation of Namibia.
The policy of sanctions against Rhodesia has been intensified and we will agree to no settlement which
does not have the agreement of the African people of that country.

The policy of détente between East and West has brought a relaxation of tension in Europe as in
other parts of the world. It is the objective of the Labour Government to bring the current negotiations in
the Geneva Conference on European Security and Co-operation to a successful conclusion.

The Labour Government is conducting the widest ranging defence review to be carried out in peacetime;
and we shall, in consultation with our Allies, press forward with our plans to reduce the proportion of
the nation's resources devoted to defence so that the burden we bear will be brought into line with that
carried by our main European allies. Such a realignment would, at present levels of defence spending,
mean achieving annual savings over a period on defence expenditure by Britain of several hundred
million pounds. If in time this entails closure of or cutting back on defence establishments, alternative
sources of employment will be sought, where possible by taking on major contract work and research
for outside industry.

Starting from the basis of the multilateral disarmament negotiations, we will seek the removal of American
Polaris bases from Britain. We have renounced any intention of moving towards a new generation of
strategic nuclear weapons.

The Labour Government will maintain its support for NATO as an instrument of détente, no less
than of defence. The ultimate objective of the movement towards a satisfactory relationship in Europe
must be the mutual and concurrent phasing out of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Government
will continue to work for the success of détente by playing an active role in the multilateral
disarmament negotiations now taking place in Vienna and will back this diplomacy by improving
bilateral relations with the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe up to the limit that the situation
in each case allows.

We shall continue to improve relations between Britain and China.

## Time for Decision

We have not tried in this manifesto to pretend that there is some simple, easy way out of the crisis which
confronts us. But we have tried to set out the kind of programme needed to unite the nation against the
dangers ahead; a programme designed to create a fairer, more democratic and more socially just society.

We have made no easy promises. Our programme has been fully costed. And we have weighed those costs
carefully. But we have set our aims high. We are a democratic socialist party and our objective is to bring
about a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people
and their families.

Now it is for the voters of our nation to make their decision. The Government is pledged to the service of the
nation. But only the nation, working with the right leadership, can solve its problems. We believe it will.
Britain will *win* with Labour.

###