Downing Street Says » 2006

» Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Education Bill

Asked whether the Prime Minister would be voting tonight, PMOS said he suspected that the Prime Minister knew, but he had not had time to check out for sure yet.

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

Asked if it was a risk to say this was a new beginning for Iraq given that the violence was likely to continue and put to him that we had had "new beginnings" before, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that first and foremost it was not us who was saying this was a new beginning, it was the representatives of the 12,191,000 Iraqis who had elected them. The reason it was a new beginning was that for the first time the Iraqis had a truly representative, democratically elected government which, as the Prime Minister said, was writing the next chapter in the history of Iraq. Furthermore, as the Prime Minister set out, if people were worried that their section of the community might be excluded, they could now lay those concerns to rest. Everybody was now represented on the Government. So people had a choice, they could join the politics, which was working, or they could continue with the violence. But as the Iraqi Prime Minister has made very clear, both publicly and privately, the Iraqi Government with the increasing ability of its forces would stamp hard on those who wished to continue with violence. So it was new era.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Home Office

Asked if the Prime Minister was set against the idea of breaking the Home Office up into smaller units, the PMOS said that the situation was precisely as we had set out in the past. We had already moved the criminal justice element to the DCA. There was a natural synergy about having issues such as immigration and policing in the same department. Nobody was pretending that the issues were anything other than complex, as recent events had shown. However we believed that the synergy between the different parts outweighed the problems of having such complex issues in the same department.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Friday, May 19, 2006

Deputy Prime Minister

Asked what the Deputy Prime Minister would be doing in Helsinki, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said it was all part of the run up to the Finnish EU presidency in June. Asked whether the Deputy Prime Minister was now in charge of EU policy, the PMOS said no but as the Prime Minister had made clear in his appointment letter the Deputy Prime Minister, the had always had a role in representing him abroad. That continued to be the case. He had always played a very valuable role, particularly in the run up to enlargement and during our EU presidency in representing the country in Europe. Asked if journalists could expect to see the Deputy Prime Minister doing more abroad now, the PMOS said that the Deputy Prime Minister chaired and deputy chaired a range of cabinet committees, which was very time consuming. He had always had a role representing the Prime Minister and the government abroad.

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

Home Office Cleaners

Asked by Channel 4 how many government contracts Techclean had to clean government buildings, the PMOS said that departments had their own individual contracts. What was more important, which if Channel 4 had given advance notice we could have pointed this out yesterday, was that the system worked. They were caught. Asked when the checks were carried out, the PMOS said the Home Office operated their checks system and it worked. Across government it worked, which we could have pointed out if given more notice. Asked if there were any other incidents where illegal immigrants were employed, the PMOS said that it was a matter for departments to operate their policies, which they did. Asked how many employers had been prosecuted under the immigration act, the PMOS suggested they check with the Home Office.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments Off on Home Office Cleaners

Iraq

Asked if Downing Street had a view or any optimism about the formation of the next Iraqi government, the PMOS said that he would not get into a running commentary about the formation process. Clearly, however, the formation of a national unity government in Iraq was a very important moment. This was because it would mean that the wishes of 12,191,000 voters in Iraq would have been put into place. It was a government, which would be representative of the country as a whole and of the ethnic groupings in the country as a whole. As Des Browne had said when he was in Basra the other day, you only had to think of the difficulty that we had witnessed in Northern Ireland getting a government representative of the community to see what an achievement this would be. It was even more of an achievement because it had been done against the background of a terrorist campaign, which had been specifically designed to stop such a government taking shape. If and when it happened it would be a significant achievement.

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

Pensions

Asked when journalists could expect the pensions white paper, the PMOS said that he would be able to guide them better on Monday, but he thought it would be the back end of the week.

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

Education Bill

Asked if the bill was coming back unchanged, the PMOS said that the Department for Education and Skills had announced the committee stage amendments.

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

» Thursday, May 18, 2006

Eric Forth

Asked if there was any comment on Eric Forth's death, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that when Jacqui Smith had broken the news to the Cabinet this morning there had been a genuine and spontaneous expression of sadness. The Prime Minister reflected that Eric Forth was one of those colourful characters that made parliament the place it was. He would be sadly missed by everyone, including those who did not agree with him on many things.

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

Iraq

Asked if the Prime Minister might be going to Washington or Iraq soon, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he wasn't in a position where he could give any meaningful guidance, because we did not yet know when the new national unity government might be formed in Iraq. Asked if there was some sort of deadline on Monday 22 May, the PMOS said that Monday was when the Iraqi Prime Minister elect said that he hoped to have a government by.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

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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» Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Education Bill

» Monday, May 22, 2006

Iraq

Home Office

» Friday, May 19, 2006

Deputy Prime Minister

Home Office Cleaners

Iraq

Pensions

Education Bill

» Thursday, May 18, 2006

Eric Forth

Iraq

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