The economic prospect and the tasks for industry, given at the Industrial Society Conference on 23 April 1980.
I must first say how pleased I am to be invited to address this conference. It is, I think, an admirable example of the Industrial Society's work that it has assembled today this group of senior management and trade union representatives to consider together how to promote the prosperity of our industry, and the employment that only such prosperity can produce.
Finding myself in the Porter Tun Room of this brewery, I am reminded of Dr Johnson's words on the occasion when he attended the sale of another brewery-Mr Thrale's. Looking around at the massive equipment of the trade, he said 'we are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice'. This may sound a piece of Johnsonian rhetoric. But it is true that we must look at the large possibilities and the large issues.
Governors speeches at the Industrial Society Conference and the Financial Times luncheon