Downing Street Says » 2007

» Monday, January 15, 2007

Robert Gates

Asked if the Prime Minister had had any contact with Robert Gates, the PMOS said that they had met yesterday. They had discussed the US plan for Baghdad, its welcome by the Iraqi Government, and moving forward. However, the PMOS said that he would leave the full details of the discussion, as they were private.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Special Envoy

Asked why the Prime Minister had appointed Lord Triesman as Special Envoy, the PMOS said that as people knew, returning people from abroad, and failed migrants, was one of the Government's priorities, and what we wanted to encourage was other countries to accept these people. Therefore, what we needed was a Special Envoy to work in conjunction with the Home Office with foreign governments to significantly increase the number of people returned to countries who were in the UK illegally. We also wanted to open up new routes to countries from which the UK had experienced large numbers of failed asylum seekers and had not been able to return them. The Special Envoy would review the existing arrangements and try to ensure that they were efficient, effective and sustainable.

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

Policy Review Session

Asked if the policy review session today was a general one, or was it focusing on education, the PMOS explained that it was partly an update on the public side of where we were on policy review. It was a seminar which would ask whether people were prepared to consider the questions that were the basis of citizen forums. Those questions were: how could public services make a step change in customer care? What could the state and individuals do to change culture, expectations and aspirations to tackle damaging behaviour? How should we update the relationship between citizens and state, focusing on rights and responsibility? The PMOS said that Pat McFadden and Ed Miliband would chair the discussion on the three issues for consulting the public on, and as people knew, the policy review process was announced last October.

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

Law and Order-Home Office

Asked for a reaction to the suggested reports that the Government's law and order policy have had no effects, the PMOS replied that we firmly rejected this analogy. Overall crime, as measured by the British Crime Survey, was down by over a third since 1997, and it had continued to fall significantly after 2000. Violent crime, as measured by the British Crime Survey, was down by over 43% since 1995. There were 14,000 more police officers, 19,000 additional prison places and over 250,000 more offences being brought to justice each year.

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

Iraq

Asked if there was any reaction to the "botched hanging" in Iraq, the PMOS said that he presumed that the journalist was asking about the latest executions in Iraq. The PMOS said that in terms of the death penalty in Iraq, our position on the death penalty was well known, and we had made that position known to the Iraqi Government again since the death of Saddam Hussein. However, Iraq was a sovereign Government, and therefore had a right under international law to decide its own policy on the death penalty.

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

Radar Sale

Asked for further information regarding the Guardian story today about Tanzania buying a military radar system, the PMOS said that he understood that this was part of an SFO investigation, therefore he could not comment.

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

Building Schools

Put that the Times today had said that there were no new schools being built as promised, the PMOS said that if people looked at the figures on building schools and at the amount of money that was going into building schools, then they would see that there was an enormous amount of effort going on. The PMOS said that there was a six-fold increase in capital investment in schools from £643 million to £6.4 billion, and that was set to rise to £8 billion by 2010/2011. That was under the "Building Schools for the Future" programme. We were investing a further £7 billion over 15 years to refurbish half of the 17,000 primary schools in England. We had also streamlined the planning and design process, improved management and leadership at local authority level and were now making good ground. That, however, could not be turned around in a day, given the lack of investment in the past.

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

No10 Butler

The PMOS told journalists that the stories about the Downing Street "butler" could best be described by a four-letter word - TOSH! This post had existed under every Prime Minister for as long as people could remember. It was essentially the person who looked after the public side of the Downing Street operation, and had nothing to do with the family of the Prime Minister.

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

» Friday, January 12, 2007

PM’s Defence Lecture

The PMOS quoted from the lecture that the Prime Minister gave today in Plymouth. He said that the Prime Minister wanted to set out the approach to defence issues and the redefining of that approach. It had been governed as much by values as by interests. It had been based on two major alliances, America on the one hand, and Europe on the other. It had combined hard and soft parts; in other words we have been in the forefront of the fight against terrorism, for example beating Milosovic, helping prevent Sierra Leone falling into the hands of gangsters, all of which have required military action.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

» Thursday, January 11, 2007

PM’s Regional Visit

Asked to clarify who the Prime Minister would meet in the South West today, the PMOS replied that he would meet members of the armed forces. He would visit Westland Helicopters, the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and the Royal Marines training Centre in Lympstone, Devon.

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

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» Monday, January 15, 2007

Robert Gates

Special Envoy

Policy Review Session

Law and Order-Home Office

Iraq

Radar Sale

Building Schools

No10 Butler

» Friday, January 12, 2007

PM’s Defence Lecture

» Thursday, January 11, 2007

PM’s Regional Visit

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