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» Monday, March 8, 2004

Professor David King

Asked for a reaction to reports, following the publication of a confidential memo, that the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir David King, had been gagged by Downing Street following his comments in which he had sought to categorise global warming and international terrorism, the PMOS referred journalists to the transcript of the press briefing he had given on 9 January 2004 when he had said that Professor King had been expressing his own view, but that we wouldn't necessarily rank terrorism and global warming inasmuch as they were both serious problems and both merited a different response. The Government was committed to dealing with both of them. The fact that there was communication within Government shouldn't come as any great surprise. It was perfectly possible for different parts of Government to communicate with each other without it being seen as 'gagging' someone or showing disrespect to a distinguished member of the scientific community and, indeed, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser - somebody whom the Prime Minister and Ministers held in high regard. The PMOS also took the opportunity to point out that Professor King had held a press conference at the conference in Seattle, where the memo had reportedly been discovered, with an unrestricted Q&A.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Peter Foster

Asked for a reaction to the latest Peter Foster claims, the PMOS said that as we had made clear at the weekend, we were not going to dignify the allegations by responding to them. He had nothing further to add.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)

Education

Asked the Prime Minister's reaction to the accusation by the chairman of the Society of Headmasters and Headmistresses of Independent Schools (SHMIS) that he was a 'public school toff' who had manipulated the system to get his two sons into a good state school, the PMOS said that he hadn't heard or seen the remarks before now. However, his initial response was that freedom of speech was a key characteristic of living in a democracy. People were entitled to express themselves in the way they saw fit.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Monday, March 8, 2004

Professor David King

Peter Foster

Education

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