Downing Street Says

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) began by updating Lobby on what had been discussed at Cabinet this morning. There had been the usual update of parliamentary business from Geoff Hoon; Jack Straw updated Cabinet on where we were following his statement to Parliament yesterday, as well as a wider discussion on intercept issues; and there was a presentation from Ed Miliband about the big strategic challenges facing the country up to the year 2020.

Asked what Ed Miliband identified as the strategic challenges, the PMS replied that Ed Miliband went through a quite detailed Cabinet Office presentation looking at issues that arose from demographic change in an ageing population, looking at issues that arose from climate change and energy, looking at the big challenges facing the economy from the rise of China and India, and looking at the challenges that face society and communities as a result of the growth of virtual communities, and what that meant for community integration. So it was a wide-ranging discussion looking at what some of the big issues were as a way of helping to frame the policy agenda going forward.

Asked if constitutional issues were discussed, the PMS replied that it came up in parts. Asked if Scotland was mentioned, the PMS replied that he would have to check his notes.

Asked how virtual communities were putting traditional communities under strain, the PMS replied that he was not saying this, but it was a fact that the growth of Facebook for example changed the way in which we might start thinking about communities in the future. So the question was to what extent did this raise issues for the Government. So it was more an issue of identifying trends and raising questions at this stage.

Asked if there were any particular concerns expressed about how the Government was affected by this, the PMS replied that concern was not necessarily the sense of the discussion, it was more recognising that this was an issue, this changed the way people interacted with each other, and this raised questioned about what issues did this arise for the Government now going forward.

Asked if there was more research on this going on, the PMS replied that it was something that the Cabinet Office had been looking at, but obviously it affected all departments.

Asked if it was a regulatory matter, the PMS replied that there was no discussion of regulation, that was not really the issue here. We were living in a world that was rapidly changing, our economy was rapidly changing, communities were rapidly changing and we faced different issues and different challenges.

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» Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Cabinet

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