» Thursday, February 22, 2007

Prviate Member’s Bill

The Leader was asked if the Government would look favourably on a Bill, due on March 2, on temporary and agency workers. Mr Straw said that the Government was looking at the issue.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Prviate Member’s Bill

The Leader was asked if the Government would look favourably on a Bill, due on March 2, on temporary and agency workers. Mr Straw said that the Government was looking at the issue.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Iraq/Future Inquiry

The Leader, responding to a question about his earlier comments at a Press Gallery lunch, said he had heard the Prime Minister use words to the effect of what he said on other occasions. He had also pointed out at the lunch that he had recalled the occasion of the previous Franks Inquiry into the Falklands War, which had been a very short war. At that time, there were also no standing mechanisms for holding the Government to account. In relation to Iraq, aside from the Hutton Inquiry into the David Kelly tragedy, the Foreign Affairs Committee had conducted an inquiry, another had been held by the Intelligence and Security Committee and then there had been the Butler Inquiry.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Iraq/Future Inquiry

The Leader, responding to a question about his earlier comments at a Press Gallery lunch, said he had heard the Prime Minister use words to the effect of what he said on other occasions. He had also pointed out at the lunch that he had recalled the occasion of the previous Franks Inquiry into the Falklands War, which had been a very short war. At that time, there were also no standing mechanisms for holding the Government to account. In relation to Iraq, aside from the Hutton Inquiry into the David Kelly tragedy, the Foreign Affairs Committee had conducted an inquiry, another had been held by the Intelligence and Security Committee and then there had been the Butler Inquiry.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Iraq

Put to him that the Prime Minister had said yesterday in the House that there were signs that Syria might be able to cooperate over Iraq, and asked what these signs were, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that the Syrian Foreign Minister had been to Baghdad, and our envoy had also been to Damascus. We had always said that we would judge Syria on what it did, rather than what it said. Not just on Iraq, but on Lebanon as well.

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

Gun Summit

Asked for more information on the Gun Summit, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary would be focusing on three main areas. One was policing and working with communities; the second was powers for the police and the courts; and thirdly prevention, helping local communities to address the problems themselves. We also wanted to learn lessons from Boston, USA and in particular Paul Evans would be attending, former Chief of Police of the city and now Head of the Home Office Police Standards Unit. On legislation, we would bring forward criminalising the act of passing a gun to a younger sibling, friend or girlfriend. This would still count as possession by the person who passes the gun on, so that people could not seek to evade responsibility for their crimes. This power was due to come in later this year, we were now bringing that forward. This was just one example, but it was important that we went through previous experiences and found a tactical way forward. We needed to be careful however that this was kept in context. As the Prime Minister had said, this was a particular problem in a particular community, and should not be read wider than that.

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

Michael Meacher

Asked if the Prime Minister wished Michael Meacher well in his endeavours, the PMOS replied that the best thing for him to say was probably that Mr Meacher would get on with his life and we would get on with ours.

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

Pedantry

Putting himself forward for "Pedant of the Week" the Gallery News reporter asked whether in reply to yesterday's question about Baroness Thatcher's memorial statue, the PMOS had said that the Prime Minister had an audience "with" the Queen or "of" the Queen, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister had an audience with the Queen. Put to him that it should be an audience "of" the Queen, the PMOS replied that the award was most definitely the reporter's, but we would check the point.

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

Police Inquiry

Asked if there had been any contact from the police, the PMOS replied that there had been no contact between the Prime Minister and the police.

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

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