Downing Street Says » 2005

» Thursday, October 13, 2005

Iran-Dr Liam Fox letter

Put to the PMOS that Dr. Fox had sent the Prime Minister a letter regarding clarification of the position of British troops ability to persuade people to attach them in Iran, possibly form over the border in Iraq, the PMOS said he was not aware that the Prime Minister had received the letter, but when he did, he would consider it, and give a considered reply.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Harold Pinter Nobel Prize

Asked if the Prime Minister would congratulate Harold Pinter on his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, the PMOS said of course we would congratulate Harold Pinter on the recognition he had received.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (11)

» Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Anti Terrorism Bill

Asked if there was now a slight element of consensus creeping back into the Prime Minster's language over the Anti-Terror Bill, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the Prime Minister had always wanted a consensus if possible. The key was "if possible". He still believed as he had said explicitly that the case made by the police for 90 days was one that nobody had answered. He was strengthened in that view by Lord Carlile who has said that he was "satisfied beyond doubt that there were situations where significant conspiracies to commit terrorist acts had gone unprosecuted as a result of the time limitations placed on the controlling authorities following arrest". Also that as a maximum 3 months was "probably a practical and sensible option". The Prime Minister's view was now strengthened because not only the police, through the Met and ACPO, but also now by the independent reviewer saying that 3 months, in a few cases, was the right option.

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

Anti Terrorism Bill

Asked what possibilities there might be of a compromise on the 90 day detention rule as set out in the Anti Terror Bill, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the Prime Minister had set out his view on this yesterday at the press conference. What the Prime Minister said was that the police had clearly and publicly set out in their paper they published last week the reasons why in a few circumstances, they needed to question people for longer. The Prime Minister believed the police's case was well made and therefore, it was up to others to argue otherwise. The PMOS said that Ken Jones from ACPO had said in a radio interview this morning he supported the case for three months, and there would be others who would comment likewise. The key point was that whereas in organised crime cases, the police could allow events to unfold and gather evidence as they went along which they could use at a time deemed appropriate, in these cases, because they involved suicide bombers, the fear was that if events were allowed to unfold, there might be a situation where many people were killed or injured. The police could not take that risk. The PMOS said the problem was that the police had to spend a lot of time after the arrest gathering evidence in this country and overseas. The Prime Minister's view was that this was a very strong argument that had been put forward by the police.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (8)

Smoking Ban

Asked if there was any news on smoking in public places, the PMOS said no. Asked if it would be discussed at Cabinet tomorrow, the PMOS said that he would brief on Cabinet as was the usual practice after it had happened.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (30)

David Blunkett

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that David Blunkett was in the headlines again, the PMOS said that Mr Blunkett's office had explained the circumstances and he had nothing further to add to that. Asked if the Prime Minister had full confidence in Mr Blunkett, the PMOS said yes.

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

» Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Police Powers

Asked what new powers could be given to the police to tackle anti-social behaviour, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the new powers would be detailed in the Respect legislation but we needed to leave discussions to go on within Government in terms of where we were going, without going into the detail. We would leave that to the legislation. Put to him that the powers seemed to have been applied to a very wide range of offences, the PMOS said no. As the Prime Minister had said this morning in his monthly press conference, it was appropriate in certain circumstances. Even in those circumstances, as with fixed penalty notices now, people could challenge them and could take up the issue in court. It was interesting that in the bulk of fixed penalty notices people had not done so. What was required was a balance between on the one hand the need for justice to have been seen to have been done in terms of the police visibly acting to stop low level thuggery. On the other hand we needed to secure people's rights. Fixed penalty notices and so on did do that. Put to him that it gave the impression that we had given up on the concept of innocent until proven guilty, the PMOS said that as the Prime Minister had said in the past, of course you needed to make the criminal justice system fit the purpose and that was part of what was behind the large scale reforms that Lord Falconer was taking through the criminal justice system. Equally, you had to recognise that there was a balance between the 'hassle factor' of taking someone through a long lengthy process rather than dealing with it at the point. For everybody concerned it was better to deal with it at the point. If that meant that people paid a penalty for low-level activity which was deeply disturbing for the victims of that activity and it stopped, then that was clearly the correct way to go. The police had said that not only did they believe that fixed penalty notices were very important but furthermore actually did stop yobbish behaviour. Put to him that the Prime Minister seemed to move seamlessly from major crimes to yobbish behaviour, the PMOS said no. The Prime Minister had said in the past, including at the Labour Party conference, that of course it was right and proper that people's rights under the law were protected. Equally we had to face the reality in certain cases it was more effective, more efficient and dealt with the problem immediately rather than allowing it to drag on.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (12)

Northern Ireland

Asked what progress had been made today in light of the Prime Minister's meeting with the Taoiseach, the PMOS said that we had had the decommissioning report, which as the Prime Minister had said, we believed was genuinely significant. We would have in a few weeks the report from the Independent Monitoring Commission, which we hoped would show that IRA activity had stopped. There was a second report due in January. We recognised that because of events last year people were sceptical. We believed that facts were changing and therefore gradually confidence would grow to allow a deal on devolution to take place. At the same time we had to keep emphasizing that loyalist paramilitary activity had to stop too.

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

» Monday, October 10, 2005

Benefits

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with David Blunkett's assessment that the benefit system was "crackers", the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that what the Prime Minister believed was that we should reform measures such as the incapacity benefit to help more people back to work as they wished. Therefore, that was why we were having a fundamental think about the way in which incapacity benefit in particular worked within the welfare system.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (12)

EU Informal Summit

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that following consultations with other European Heads of Government the Informal EU Summit being held at Hampton Court would be on Thursday 27 October from 10am till 6pm. The preference had been, given the nature of this summit, for a concentrated day so that we could squeeze in more discussion time than you normally could in the usual evening and morning sessions in Brussels. There would be several working sessions throughout the day of the Summit. As the Prime Minister had made in clear in Paris we needed to distinguish what this summit was about. It was a follow up to his Europe speech, in that we wanted to concentrate on how we faced the challenge of globalisation as Europe. As the Prime Minster said there were various areas where we would be working in cooperation with our French counterparts in preparation for the Summit.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Thursday, October 13, 2005

Iran-Dr Liam Fox letter

Harold Pinter Nobel Prize

» Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Anti Terrorism Bill

Anti Terrorism Bill

Smoking Ban

David Blunkett

» Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Police Powers

Northern Ireland

» Monday, October 10, 2005

Benefits

EU Informal Summit

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