Downing Street Says » 2005

» Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Public Sector Pensions

Asked if the deal on public sector pensions was not a "bit beer and sandwiches", and why did the Prime Minister allow his capitulation just before Adair Turner made the private sector work for longer, the PMOS said that without agreeing to any of the pejorative elements of the question, he would try and answer factually. The Government, of course, consulted unions, the CBI and the Chamber of Commerce, and we were doing so equally over the issue of paternity pay. It was sensible to hold proper discussions, and as a result of those discussions, the public purse would have saved £13 billion by 2050. That was a considerable saving, and that was why the negotiation made sense.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

EU Informal Summit

Asked about the informal summit, the PMOS said that it was about putting bones on the Prime Minister's June speech about the future of Europe in terms of facing the challenge of globalisation and economic reform. What it was not about was future financing. That would be discussed at the December summit. There was no desire that we had detected around Europe to debate future financing at the informal summit. That would be a matter for the December Council. Asked if any leaders would be arriving by water, the PMOS that he was not aware of any plans to do so. Asked if there were no plans to discuss financing how could they discuss CAP, the PMOS that they were not going to discuss it. The important thing for the informal summit was that Europe faced up to the broader issues before it faced up to the particular issues. The broader issues were how you met the challenge of globalisation. How you met the challenge from India and China. How you met the challenge of giving people the relevant skills for the era of globalisation. You had to get a consensus about how you approached these challenges before you dealt with the nitty-gritty of how you implemented that in terms of EU budget. People had a tendency in this country to start with the rebate and interpret everything from that perspective. It was better in fact to put the horse before the cart.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Conference on tackling Islamic Extremism

Asked if the Prime Minister was still exploring the idea of hosting an international conference on combating Islamic extremism, as he had said some months ago, the PMOS said that work and discussions did continue on it. Equally, the Prime Minister had said that there were conferences taking place in the Islamic world that we would want to contribute and help with, and we were doing that. The PMOS said the FCO had more details on this issue.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

IMC Report

Asked for a reaction to the report, the PMOS said that there would be a reaction after it was published from Peter Hain and his Irish counterpart who were attending the British-Irish Conference in Dublin.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Trident

Asked if the Prime Minister was suggesting that there would be an opportunity for the Commons to vote on a replacement for Trident, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister's words spoke for themselves, and we were not at that point.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Sinn Fein Allowances

Asked why the decision was taken to give Sinn Fein back their allowances, the PMOS replied that the IMC report that ran up until the end of August, said that during that period, IRA activity had come to an end. Equally, the two Governments had the knowledge of what had been happening in September and October as well. On the basis of that, our basic approach had been "so far, so good", but equally, if the IMC report in January were to report IRA activity, then the matter could be reconsidered at that stage.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Memorandum of understanding with Libya

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that the UK had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Libya concerning deportations. Put to him that this was a quite significant step forward for Libya, the PMOS said it was. It meant that we had MOU's with both Jordan and Libya which was obviously of considerable help with dealing with the deportation issues the Prime Minister set out before the summer break.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

ID cards

Asked if the Prime Minister was planning to vote on the ID Cards Bill later today, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister would make that decision himself at the time.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (6)

Public Sector Pensions

Asked if Downing Street was concerned about the impact on the public purse of the recent public sector pensions agreement, the PMOS said that in terms of the impact of the original deal, it was estimated that 85% of the savings would come from new entrants anyway. There were some 50,000 new people out of 550,000 who join every year. So the main impact was going to come from new entrants anyway. So it didn't actually shift the burden of the savings to any great degree.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Inflation

Put to the PMOS that inflation had risen today due to the rising price of oil, and was No10 worried that the economy would suffer as a result, the PMOS said that we believed that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, as the records showed. He recommended that the journalist spoke to the Treasury for more information.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Public Sector Pensions

EU Informal Summit

Conference on tackling Islamic Extremism

IMC Report

Trident

Sinn Fein Allowances

» Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Memorandum of understanding with Libya

ID cards

Public Sector Pensions

Inflation

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