Downing Street Says » CBI Speech

» Tuesday, November 29, 2005

CBI Speech

Put to him that given how security conscious we all were these days how concerned was the Prime Minister about this morning, the PMOS said that security was a matter we took very seriously, but this was a matter for the police and those whose job it was to look after security. The Prime Minister’s main concern as you had seen was, thanks to those at the CBI, to be able to deliver his speech. He had received a standing ovation at the end of it so what was there to complain about!

Asked if the Prime Minister had any views on the manner of the Greenpeace protest, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had said at the top of his speech that free speech was a two way street. He was the elected Prime Minister of the country and therefore he had a right to be heard just as Greenpeace, quite rightly, had a right to make their views known. If it was an attempt to stop the Prime Minister being heard then that was unfortunate. The Prime Minister had been quite prepared to go ahead with his speech even if that meant being heckled. The CBI came to their decision and the Prime Minister was more than happy to abide by that. The dignified manner in which the CBI handled it was commendable.

Asked if the Prime Minister in anyway accepted the argument that when public debates were launched putting on stunts was often the only way for groups to be heard, the PMOS said that in this country we had fought for the right of free expression but we also had things called elections. The Prime Minister was the elected head of the Government in this country. As such he had a right to express his views and a duty within Government to take hard decisions. We should wait to see what the energy review actually produced and debate that rather than be distracted by stunts.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

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.