Downing Street Says » 2004

» Friday, October 15, 2004

Parenting Classes/Benefits

Asked if the Prime Minister supported Patrick Diamond's view that people who refused to attend good parenting classes should have some of their benefits docked, the PMS said that as a Civil Servant, she was unable to comment on ideas put forward in a paper written by Mr Diamond who was a political adviser. That said, the Government remained committed to helping people get back to work. Asked about Mr Diamond's job description, the PMS said that he had been appointed Special Adviser to Alan Milburn having previously worked in Downing Street.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

» Thursday, October 14, 2004

Progressive Governance Summit

Asked if the Prime Minister had made a speech at the Progressive Governance Summit in Budapest this afternoon, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that, as he had advised journalists this morning, the Prime Minister had made some remarks. Asked if the text was available, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware since the Prime Minister had not spoken from a script.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Ken Bigley

Asked if Cabinet had discussed the circumstances surrounding the murder of Ken Bigley this morning, the PMOS said no. As he had told journalists earlier in the week, the picture was still confused about the events leading up to Mr Bigley's murder. This morning Cabinet had taken the opportunity to express their respect for the way the Bigley family had handled the whole situation. Asked if an investigation into what had happened was taking place, the PMOS said it was a statement of the obvious that those who knew what had happened were not those who were likely to talk to us about it.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Gambling Bill

Asked about the report on gambling in today's Times, the PMOS said that the paper had managed to get the story the wrong way round. As he understood it, the new regime would result in gambling machines in six thousand fewer premises than at present because we were taking them out of shops, taxi ranks and the like where children were able to play on them. Instead, gambling machines would be concentrated in betting shops, casinos and a small number of other arcades which would be tightly licensed by local authorities. The PMOS referred journalists to DCMS for further detail about this issue.

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

Iraq/Peter Mandelson

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Peter Mandelson's comment that any future conflict should be legitimised by the international community, the PMOS reminded journalists that Mr Mandelson was no longer a member of the British Government and, in his new role as European Commissioner, spoke for himself. As we had made clear yesterday, we would of course have preferred to have obtained a second UN Resolution on Iraq and for the UN to have been part of the response to Saddam Hussein. Indeed, the reason why we had put so much effort into obtaining Resolution 1441 was precisely because we had wanted the UN to be involved in Iraq. As we had made clear at the time, we had wanted to see the UN involved in addressing the issue rather than avoiding it. It was therefore unfortunate, in our view, that we had been unable to obtain a second UN Resolution. Asked if we would take the same action in the future were the UN again to refuse to get involved in a similar issue, the PMOS said he did not think it would be helpful to get drawn into a hypothetical discussion about such matters. All he would point out was that the UN was now playing a role in Iraq, for example by assisting in the preparations for the elections next year, the process of which, according to a report which had been published today, was well under way. The role the UN had played in the Afghanistan elections had also been very important and should not be under-estimated.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Progressive Governance Summit

Asked about the Progressive Governance Summit in Budapest which the Prime Minister was attending today, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was expected to make some short remarks rather than a speech. Contrary to reports this morning, he would not talk about Iraq and nor was Iraq on the Summit's agenda. The discussions that would take place would be informal and would be wide-ranging, covering issues such as globalisation, trade, the environment (for example climate change), peace and security and organised crime. It would also give those attending an opportunity to compare notes on approaches to domestic reform agendas, such as the reform of public services. From our point of view, the Summit was particularly useful as it would allow us to begin preparations for building a consensus for our priorities during our Presidencies of the EU and the G8 next year, with a particular emphasis on climate change and Africa regarding the latter.

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

» Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Iraq

Asked if he would agree with the suggestion that if Saddam had complied with UN Resolution 1441, as the Prime Minister had said that he wanted him to do, Saddam would still be in power today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that in his speech in Glasgow in February 2003, the Prime Minister had said that "The time is the time necessary to make a judgment: is Saddam prepared to co-operate fully or not? If he is, the inspectors can take as much time as they want. If he is not, if this is a repeat of the 1990s - and I believe it is - then let us be under no doubt what is at stake.....The moral case against war has a moral answer: it is the moral case for removing Saddam. It is not the reason we act. That must be according to the United Nations mandate on Weapons of Mass Destruction". As the Prime Minister had said at the time, the reason for going to war was because Saddam was in breach of UN Resolutions, and had been for over twelve years. Resolution 1441 had given him a final chance to comply. Had he done so, he would have still been there. However, he had not complied, and that was the important point. Asked why the Prime Minister had criticised the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in PMQs today for adopting a position that would have left Saddam in power in Iraq when the Prime Minister himself had been looking to do the same thing by getting Saddam to comply with Resolution 1441, the PMOS said that as a Civil Servant he was unable to get drawn into a debate along party political lines. That said, it was important for people to recognise that, as we had pointed out at the time, we would have seen a different kind of regime had Saddam complied fully with the UN - a regime which would no longer be sustained by the threat of WMD.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (7)

Employment Figures

Asked if the Government was concerned about the rise of economically inactive people of working age, the PMOS said he thought the main message arising from today's employment figures was the fact that unemployment was continuing to fall. This was a consequence of an economy that had been well managed. The Government's record on employment was there for all to see. He pointed out that there were a number of areas where the Government was continuing to work hard to encourage people back into work.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Iraq

Asked why the Prime Minister was refusing to say "sorry" when Patricia Hewitt and Lord Falconer had both done so, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that whatever form of words were used, it was important to make a clear distinction between the mistakes in intelligence which the Prime Minister had acknowledged and for which he had accepted full responsibility in his response to the Butler Report, and apologising for the war which was something the Prime Minister was not prepared to do, despite the wish of his critics. Equally, it was important to recognise that the ISG had not only concluded that there were no WMD in Iraq. They had also stated that Saddam had been in multiple breach of UN Resolutions. The fundamental case for war, therefore, remained as valid today as it was at the time and was why the Prime Minister continued to believe that the conflict had been right.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

NAO Report

The PMOS said that while he understood the media's focus on Iraq today, he thought it worthwhile to note the very good results contained in the NAO's report on A&E waiting lists today which showed that we had moved from a situation in 2002/3 where only just under 80% of people had been seen within four hours or less, to 95% of people being seen within that timeframe in June this year. We were on target to hit 98% by the end of the year. He was making this point because one evening paper had presented this positive story as a disaster. If it was a disaster, we wanted more like it.

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

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

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» Friday, October 15, 2004

Parenting Classes/Benefits

» Thursday, October 14, 2004

Progressive Governance Summit

Ken Bigley

Gambling Bill

Iraq/Peter Mandelson

Progressive Governance Summit

» Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Iraq

Employment Figures

Iraq

NAO Report

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