Downing Street Says » 2007 » January

» Thursday, January 11, 2007

Home Office

Asked if the Prime Minister had full confidence in Joan Ryan, the PMOS said: yes.

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

Education Figures

Asked by Gallery News if huge success though they were, were we anticipating any scepticism on the education figures, the PMOS said that the question was as neat an encapsulation of the lobby philosophy as he had heard for a while, ie, something's a success, therefore, it must be a failure. The figures spoke for themselves, and of course, we wanted them to keep improving. The PMOS said that the percentage of pupils who had achieved 5 or more good GCSEs including English and Maths had risen again this year to 45.3% - significantly better than in 1997 when only 35.6 per cent of pupils achieved this level. Alan Johnson also said that London was now ahead of the national average - that also spoke for itself. Was this the end of the road? Of course not. Was it a substantial stepping stone on the way to getting there? Answer: yes.

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

Prime Minister’s speech

Asked for further information on the Prime Minister's speech tomorrow, the PMOS replied that the speech was a strategic overview of defence for this country since World War II. It was looking at the choice that we now faced, and that choice was: did we remain a major player in defence terms in the world, or did we adopt a more passive role?

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

MRSA

Asked by ITN if the Prime Minister agreed with the Department of Health (DoH) that the MRSA targets should be delayed or dropped, the PMOS asked who in the DoH had said that. The journalist said that there had been a memo written by a DoH official saying that MRSA targets should be delayed or dropped. The PMOS pointed out that that was not what the journalist had initially said, and the question was a piece of spin, and although he knew that broadcasters did not "do" spin, it was a disgraceful example! Andy Burnham had said this morning that of course, it was a difficult target, but it was meant to be difficult, but it was leading to real improvements on the ground. The PMOS said people should not, therefore denigrate those efforts by a disgraceful piece of spin.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | 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.

The unofficial site which lets you comment on the UK Prime Minister's official briefings. About us...

» Thursday, January 11, 2007

Home Office

Education Figures

Prime Minister’s speech

MRSA

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries