Downing Street Says » Prime Minister’s Press Conference

[This is the transcript of one of the Prime Minister’s occasional press conferences; these
are the words of the Prime Minister giving a statement and answering the
questions of journalists. Unlike the PMOS’s briefings, this is a more-or-less
verbatim transcript of the Prime Minister’s words. Such press conferences
happen about once a month, and occasionally more often.]

Picking up on that last point, Prime Minister, if you are re-elected later this year, will you retain Gordon Brown as your Chancellor?

First of all, I don’t take, as I think some people do, our re-election for granted. Whenever the election is, it is going to be a tough election fight, we will have to do everything we possibly can to persuade the British people that we deserve re-election. I take absolutely nothing for granted. As for Gordon, you know, because I have said this on many, many occasions, he has done a superb job as Chancellor, I am very happy with the job that he is doing. I am not getting into the business of what happens after elections and reshuffles and all the rest of it, but I can tell you he has done a superb job for many, many years, and I have no doubt he will continue to do a superb job.

Beyond being the tragedy of nature which you described the Tsunami as being, do you think it has as an event any epoch making significance as for example you saw 9/11 as having? And can we also ask you, as a man of faith, what it has made you feel about your faith in God?

Well it is a terrible natural disaster, and the consequences of it are very evident to people and we have got to follow through how we deal with those consequences and the generosity and the spirit of the British people in responding to this, as with other countries frankly, has been remarkable. It is not obviously the same as 9/11 which is a terrible act of terrorism and therefore requires a different form of political response. In relation to my faith, it is important to realise there are terrible things happening in our world every day, and when we talk about Africa, that is a preventable disaster, but thousands of children die needlessly in Africa every day. 4 million people have died in the last five years in the Congo through famine, and conflict and disease – 4 million. And so if your faith was to be rocked by a terrible natural disaster, it would be rocked also by what is happening, not always with the same visibility, in different parts of the world. And what my faith makes me do is say we have to redouble our efforts to do what we can to help, not just the victims of the force of nature, but also the victims of the failure of man. And that is why I think it is important that we try to take some of that extraordinary spirit people have shown over the past two weeks and say how do we use that in order to awaken people’s feelings in respect of what can be prevented in terms of tragedy and catastrophe in our world, and that, as I am saying today, as Gordon is saying today, is really focused on Africa

People see you giving a presentation, and the Chancellor giving a presentation at the same time and they ask a simple question, what on earth is going on?

I am not sure that they do actually because I think most people think it is perfectly sensible for the government to carry on with its entire agenda. You know the reason I am having the press conference today is because I am making a statement on Monday. Actually yesterday I was talking about Africa, as well as the Tsunami, as again I am today. The important thing is that the whole of the government, you know I am not interested in what goes in and out of the newspapers, what I am interested in doing is getting things done. We have a position which has been I think developed over now the 7 or 8 years of this government in respect of Africa, started with the first G8 where we involved African countries for the first time. It has been built up through the remarkable work that Gordon did in getting debt relief agreed for the poorest African countries. We are now trying to take that further, a whole stage further, and get a proper defined plan for Africa agreed at the next G8. And there is a complete unity of purpose in doing that because this is what we care about, we care about improving the lives of people in this country, but we also believe that our obligations don’t stop at our own frontiers. So what is going on is an absolute unity of purpose in making sure that having responded in a remarkable way to the natural tragedy of the Tsunami, we then make sure we also respond in an equally remarkable way to the man-made preventable disaster happening daily out in Africa, literally daily.

A lot of people have said that the Tony Blair of 1997 would not have stayed on holiday through such a crisis, and people are saying that this shows you are tired and that you are losing the appetite for the job. Is there something in that?

No. What I have been doing this week is actually pretty much the same as what I was doing last week in terms of making the calls that are necessary, making sure that the structures are in place. I think that the British people have shown that they are not confused about their reaction to the Tsunami, they have shown they know exactly what it is about, it is a terrible disaster, it requires an immediate response of solidarity, they have given in the most incredible way, in every region of the country they have given in the most incredible way. What do they want their government doing? They want their government not talking, because they know what they feel about it, they want their government, alongside them, doing absolutely everything we can, sending the equipment out there, making the finances available, ensuring that in every single way we match their sentiment with our action. That is in my view what they want.

You have talked about wanting to mobilise the same generosity we have seen over the Tsunami for Africa for the UK’s G8 Presidency, but would you admit that there is concern that that might be undermined because of what is going on now?

I think that is one of the reasons why ourselves, and I met all the NGOs, the charities who are involved in the Tsunami appeal, but also obviously involved in Africa, and you know there is a concern, and this can go one of two ways, it can either go, well we have made this tremendous effort but that as it were as much effort as we can make, or alternatively, as I hope and believe it will, we can say look there is a different problem that maybe doesn’t have the same news impact as this terrible tragedy the Tsunami has had, but nonetheless is in its actual impact on the lives of people of a devastating nature and we need the same generosity and spirit of solidarity to inform our attitude to that as well, and that is the reason why I have set Africa and climate change as our two priorities for the G8, everybody who is involved in this is really anxious to make sure that we don’t end up saying right well that is as it were what we can do for the international community on the Tsunami, but actually saying it was necessary to do that, and right, but it is also necessary to tackle this other problem too. And I think you will find that is a very heavy commitment and statement on behalf of the government, the NGOs, everyone involved in the Make Poverty History campaign.

Look, you have just got to divide what comes in and out of the newspapers with what is actually happening. On childcare, this is a policy that has been developed together. He then outlined details of it in the pre-budget report based on agreements done across government, including between the two of us. I totally support the idea of childcare at the heart of what the government does. Likewise today we are in complete agreement on what should happen with Africa, we are both passionate about the subject of Africa, the government is. That is why this year the British people will be literally trebling their aid to the poorest countries in Africa. Now that is the reality. What I read I gave up bothering about a long time ago I am afraid.

I am likewise intrigued by your answer to Andrew Marr. Now you can hardly pretend, can you, and I am sure you won’t, that the relationship between you and Gordon Brown is trivial or irrelevant, because your spokesmen say it is the greatest strength at the heart of the government. Now you weren’t asked to name your entire Cabinet in a third term, should you win it, but you were just asked to guarantee one thing, and earlier you said that you would do nothing to endanger economic stability and yet you are not guaranteeing the position of the man you say is the architect of this economic stability beyond the middle of the year. Now are you relegating Mr Brown to the status in this regard at least to just A N Other Cabinet Minister or is there more to it?

No, and if there was any ambiguity about my answer to Andrew then you should just resolve the ambiguity. He has done a great job, he is doing a great job, he will continue to do a great job. On the issue of childcare, on the issue of Africa, we are united in taking this forward for the country.

No, I am not getting into a game that I can never win, which is being cross-examined on who does what job and all the rest of it. All I can say to you is he is doing a great job, he will carry on doing a great job, I have no doubt at all. Ity has been a strong loartnership. The very issue that you asked me about, childcare, the very issue of Africa that we have just been talking about, indicates the two of us absolutely working together on these things. Now what happens in politics is that you get all this stuff and it comes in and out, as I say, of the papers everyday, but the reality for people is a stable economy, massive investment in public services and the biggest commitment to overseas development and aid this country has made and we are collectively proud of it, I think the country should be proud of it.

It is going to be tough because you are two terms into government. And did I ask you to come back for another question? You know it is inevitably tougher as you go on in government, of course it is, and there have been difficult decisions that we have taken, some of those decisions unpopular, as you know.

Can I just switch to international affairs for a moment? You expressed guarded optimism at the end of your Middle East trip just a few weeks ago. We have got the backdrop of the Palestinian elections on Sunday, but there is concern in Israel, and I understand also in Palestinian circles, that Abu Mazen has not been able to get a grip of the terrorism, the on-going attacks on Israelis, and I am wondering what you can say, both to Israelis and Palestinians, prior to these elections which can renew the hopes for peace. And second of all, there have been continuing reports from intelligence sources, I know not where from, but indicating that the assurances that the EU received with regard to Iran’s nuclear capability are being ignored and that Iran is continuing its programme towards a nuclear capability. What is Britain and the EU going to be able to do if those reports are true?

Well we have to hold Iran to account obviously in front of the Atomic Energy Authority, but it is for them to make their report back, and they will do that I think shortly. In respect of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, once the elections are out of the way I think the important thing then is to prepare for the London Conference, because that will give us the opportunity of helping the Palestinians put in place the measures politically in terms of security, in terms of the economy, that will allow them to be not just a stable partner and a stable state next door to Israel, but also allow them to be a stable partner for the world community in helping to resolve this problem. I spoke a few days ago to President Bush about this again in detail. I have absolutely no doubt about his commitment to take it forward, but his commitment to take it forward is very, very clearly based on this premise, that we manage to put in place plans that do guarantee that the viable Palestinian state that we want to see is viable not just in terms of territory, but viable also in terms of its political institutions, its economy and its security measures, because that is essential on both sides.

Prime Minister, after the foot and mouth crisis you took some holiday in Cornwall in order to demonstrate your support for what was then an ailing tourism industry. Will you make a similar gesture of support for what is a vital industry in Sri Lanka, when it has recovered?

You have got me stumped on that one actually. I think the most important immediate priority is to make sure that we get the aid and the help out there and we can see what I and others can do to help the tourist industry at a later time.

Do you think it is looking like the biggest chunk of our aid will go towards Indonesia, and what sort of guarantees are being sought or received so far from the Indonesian government that they will behave responsibly and not reassert authority over Aceh while it is on its knees?

Well I think that is a very good point. I think first of all increasingly, it is not that all the aid will go, the aid will go to Sri Lanka as well and obviously to other countries affected, but I think people do recognise that Aceh Province is where the main problem has been, the biggest loss of life and the greatest devastation, and also it is complicated by the other factors you imply. I think within the next couple of weeks, you have got the Indonesia conference now, you have got the UN conference next week, you have got the World Bank Conference a bit later, we will then get a clearer picture both of the amount of money that is needed, which is one reason why I don’t think it is sensible to specify exactly how much money we or anyone else is going to contribute at this point, but I think we will see clearer what money is necessary. But there will be, I have no doubt at all, a real demand on behalf of the whole international community that we have a proper set of structures and systems in place to make sure that the money is properly used and that we enable the people of Aceh to rebuild their lives properly. Now of course there are sensitivities and Indonesia is a proud sovereign independent state, so we have to work with and through the Indonesian government, but I have got no doubt that that will be part of the discussion that the UN and other countries will be having with the Indonesians over the next few days.

Last June at this press conference here you were asked about Darfur and you said that you thought your government was doing everything it could for the people of Darfur, depending on how you count since then 30, 40, 50,000 people have died. Does that tell you something about the nature of the crisis in Darfur, about the limits of international intervention, or is there another lesson there for you.

Well what it does tell you is that there are unfortunately other areas of the world that are undergoing real tragedy, and the Sudan and Darfur is one of them, and actually there has probably been since that press conference, I should imagine there has been probably more than those number of people killed. The point is that the key lead in this is the Africa Union, and what we have been trying to do is to work, and I have had many conversations with African leaders and with the Europeans on this, what we are trying to do is provide the logistic support for the Africa Union peacekeepers in Darfur and Sudan, and that is the main thing. Until you manage to keep aside the warring factions, you will continue to have that problem. That is one reason incidentally why the problem of Africa is not just about money, the problem of Africa is also about the resolution of conflict and good governance, and the whole purpose of this Africa Commission is to try and make sure that you bring everything together. But the Sudan, and of course the Congo, are perfect examples of countries where, however much aid you put in, if you don’t actually resolve the conflict and have proper peacekeeping mechanisms following that through, then you are never going to succeed in achieving a solution.

You mentioned your faith, which I know is something you have not always been that comfortable in talking about, can you tell me whether you think what is happening in Africa, in Iraq, perhaps even at home, is a battle between good and evil?

I didn’t mean to get too much into talking about my faith, to be honest. I don’t think there is much point in talking in those terms particularly, except to say obviously what is necessary, it is evil that you have preventable death on such a huge scale in Africa, that it is the only continent in the world in the last 30 years that has gone backwards, where 6,500 people die every day through Aids alone in Africa, 3,000 children die under the age of 5 from malaria alone in Africa. That is an evil and what would be good is to do something about it.

Prime Minister, you don’t want to put figures on the amount of Tsunami aid that is going to be forthcoming, but obviously pledges have already been made, and you have also talked about trebling the amount of aid to Africa’s poorest countries. Where is this money going to come from? And you have also talked about how well the economy is doing, but can we assume that this will not come at the expense of existing projects, or that there won’t be other budgets that are being shaved, so how is this going to work, it would be useful to know about that. And also as a sort of related issue, has the UK already met its full funding commitments to Iran in the wake of the Bam earthquake, and also in Afghanistan?

I will have to get back to you on that latter point, I don’t know the answer to that off-hand. In respect of the Tsunami, the reason I have spoken in the way that I have is, you know we had £15 million and then we upped it to £50 million, but as everybody has explained, there isn’t a ceiling on this and we haven’t obviously spent the £50 million yet. Now what I am saying is that if you add up everything we are likely to be doing over the coming months in respect of the fall-out and the consequences of the Tsunami, my best guess, I am not as it were putting a specific figure on it, is that it will run into several hundreds of millions of pounds, because I think that is just where you will be. The aid, and it will come from different parts of budget, for example the £50 million is coming from the DFID reserve, if we get the debt relief, the debt relief for the UK for example in respect of Indonesia I think is £40 million in one year alone, right, and then we are saying we will put in place longer term measures to help, and that would obviously come from the Treasury. There will be other things that will come from different budgets, for example the expenditure that you are going to make on military equipment that will be done, every time we are sending ships and helicopters and planes, these things don’t come cheap. So I think every country feels itself in the same position, we don’t want to get into some sort of daily bidding war about who is spending most money, there is a general commitment on behalf of the international community, all the world leaders I have spoken to say look we will have to do what it takes to sort this out. Now we don’t know precisely how much it is going to be, and I think it will only be probably over the coming weeks, particularly after the World Bank has done its assessment, that we will really know what the situation is, and maybe not even then, but we will probably have a clearer idea and then we can say exactly which budget it needs to come from. But I think already you can see fairly clearly what the contours of that are.

Prime Minister, there is wide concern in the region of the Gulf and the Middle East at large about the instability and the future of Iraq. Certainly the Palestinians are very unhappy about your idea of a conference in London because they say that you have ignored the main reason and the cause of conflict, which is the occupation.

Well first on Iraq, there is a battle between democracy and terrorism and democracy has got to succeed and we need to go ahead with the elections and do that, and what we want is for every single part of Iraqi society to participate, and we are the people, and the Iraqi people are the people who want democracy to go ahead, and that the murderous and barbaric activities of terrorists and insurgents shouldn’t stop it, and I hope the whole of the region makes a very clear statement in support of democracy in Iraq. Secondly, I don’t think you are right in saying, there are voices within the Palestinian movement that have been questioning about the London Conference, but as I said to the Palestinian leadership when I was there, it depends whether people want my sympathy or they want the actual reality. I am deeply sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people, but the reality is that we are not going to get this issue back into any form in which you will have final status negotiations, which is what the Palestinians want to see, until we have done the preparatory work, and the preparatory work is what the London Conference will do, and it is necessary work. If Europe is going to put in money, we need to know that money is properly used; if there are going to be changes in the security and political structures of the Palestinian Authority, which the Palestinian Authority itself wants to see, we have got to make sure the international community is signed up as a whole to that, and that is the only way back into the road map. And I said before Christmas, and I say it again to you now, there is no point in me trying to promise you something I can’t deliver you, I can’t deliver you final status negotiations, right, except in the circumstances where we have made it absolutely clear that as disengagement goes ahead there is a proper plan in place for the Palestinian side to take advantage of it, then we have got a chance of getting back into the road map and those final status negotiations. It won’t happen in any other circumstances, and I think the Palestinians have had enough sympathy, but it is not sympathy they need, they need people to act and that is what I am trying to do. And I am doing this in help and support of the Palestinian people because they have suffered, and frankly they have suffered under the intifadah, so it is time that their suffering stopped, but they won’t stop finally until we get this under way again.

You have repeatedly made it clear this morning, Prime Minister, that you are determined not to let Africa fall off the budget in the wake of other Tsunami, but of the people of Darfur and Bam, as has been pointed out this morning now, the international community often talks a bigger game than it can deliver. I wonder if you have considered is there any possibility, given the scale of your ambition to solve poverty, that perhaps we ought to have a new revenue source, we ought perhaps to put a penny on income tax which can be ear-marked for events of this kind, if we are going to do all the things you want to do. And secondly, you have said the Tsunami was natural, but there were man-made elements of it. Were you as surprised, as many of us were, that the earthquake monitors in Hawaii knew what had happened immediately, but picked up the phone and either didn’t know who to phone, or got no telephone replies, and what lessons do you draw from that?

On the first, the money that we have set aside is there and allocated already in the spending review and there is no need for an additional call on public finances for that. On the second point, I think that is a good point. It is a natural disaster, but then the warning systems that weren’t in place, and were in place in other parts of the world, also the poverty of particularly the parts of Sri Lanka and Indonesia obviously contributes to people’s inability to deal with the consequences in the way that they can, and I think that shows the importance of a broader development agenda, so I do think there is something in that.

The government … is said to have hesitated to tell its people for fear of upsetting the tourist industry.

Well I don’t know whether that is true or not and I wouldn’t want to speculate on it. But I think what is quite interesting when you talk about development though, if you take India and Thailand that have essentially said, not that they don’t want any outside help but that they believe that they are capable of dealing with the consequences of this issue, I think it is quite interesting if you look at India and Thailand and you went back 30 years for example, you would not have found India and Thailand in quite the same position. And I think sometimes what is difficult with this whole aid and development issue is people kind of say, it is like 20 years on from Band Aid, they sort of say well isn’t this an inevitability, these countries never really get better, there are always the problems there and there is nothing we can do. What is interesting is to point to examples of countries that with all the difficulties of poverty actually have made real progress over the past couple of decades, and that is why it is important that we have a plan for Africa that helps those African countries too.

Are you aware of increasing police suspicions, north and south of the border, that the IRA are responsible for the theft of the £22 million from a bank in Belfast, but there is a possibly … view that this might even be to pension off some of their members. But if those suspicions are hardened, what does it do for your relationship with Sinn Fein and your attempts to actually restore power sharing with Sinn Fein in an Executive in Northern Ireland?

Well we have to wait for the authorities to make their judgment on this, but be under no misunderstanding at all, there can be absolutely no place, not merely for terrorist activity, but for criminal activity of any sort by people associated with the political party. There is no way that this thing is going to work, or other political parties will accept such a thing, rightly. So we will have to wait and see what happens. But the ban on terrorist activity includes a complete prohibition on criminal activity as well.

You just reiterated earlier that you were placing your faith in the Iraqi elections going ahead, and draw the contrast between terrorism and democracy, but surely that isn’t really what is worrying most people about the situation in Iraq, what is worrying them is that there is no sign of the insurgency abating, indeed it appears to be getting worse, and that the presence of the coalition has not prevented that from happening. So are we not getting closer to a point when we would appear to be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution, and ought you to be addressing yourself to that in terms of looking to a timetable for disengagement?

Well on the first point, I think inevitably as you build up to the elections, it is very, very clear that the majority of the attacks that are now taking place are against Iraqis, and as many of them as possible of the attacks are taking place against Iraqis involved in the electoral process. So I think inevitably up to the elections, I mean what do these people want, they want to frustrate the elections. Now I think once you get past the elections I think you are in a different set of circumstances. I am not saying the insurgency will stop, it won’t, but that is why it is important to have the elections because that is a major defeat for the terrorists. And incidentally I should tell you when I was in Baghdad and I spoke to the remarkable people, both in the Iraqi Electoral Commission and in the UN election team there, the UN election team, the people there made it clear to me that they thought that in every part of Iraq, if the people were free to vote they would vote in very large numbers. So that is the issue there. And yes they will carry on fighting right up to the election, but I think that once the election takes places we are in a different set of circumstances.

Because I think once that happens, and remember there are many Sunni candidates who are on the election list, there are scores of political parties that have signed up for this, there are candidates that will be standing, candidates from all sections of the community, they will then have a democratic mandate, and that obviously makes a difference. I am not saying, as I say, that it will stop after that, it won’t, these people are very, very determined. There is effectively a new and different conflict going on in Iraq. The conflict in removing Saddam was over reasonably quickly, what has happened is that the terrorists around the Middle East and those people that want to stop democracy taking a hold in the Middle East are absolutely determined to stop Iraq getting its democracy. Now the other aspect of this, which is the coalition forces, the multinational force that is there, my very clear understanding of this is that the Iraqi people are necessarily, and entirely understandably, in two minds about this, they know that until they have their own security capability they require the multinational force, but they are a proud independent people, they want to be running their own country themselves completely, and so they should. Now what we have got to make sure therefore, and I think we will be able to give some more details on this in the coming weeks, is that we put in place a very clear set of plans for the Iraqiisation of the security forces, for the building up of those security forces throughout the course of the coming months, and that then will give us a clearer view of what then happens to the coalition, the multinational forces. But as I keep saying to people, we don’t want to stay a moment longer than is necessary, we want the Iraqis to be in charge of their own destiny and that is what they want. And I think there is a clearer understanding of that in Iraq now, I think people do believe that, and that is why it is important to realise this, if these terrorists and insurgents really thought they had support from ordinary people in Iraq, they would be standing for election in the Sunni areas, or in the areas around Baghdad where they are most active, but they are not, and the reason they are not is because they know that actually there isn’t support amongst any part of the community for what they are trying to do, and why should there be? The fact is if the violence stopped, the reconstruction would go ahead, the country is potentially wealthy, the Iraqis are well capable of handling their own affairs, the Ministers I have met from the Iraqi government, they are confident serious people. Prime Minister Allawi is a man of great courage and also great intelligence. It is a wealthy country. If you go down to the south of Iraq you can see that port down there become a major commercial gateway for the whole of Iraq, the whole of the region. So I am not saying it is not difficult, it is going to be very, very difficult, and you are right in saying that in a sense the sooner we are able to be relieved of this obligation the better, but it can only be done when the Iraqi capability itself is built up in the way it needs.

Going back to the London Conference, if I may, the Palestinian Prime Minister criticised the meeting or conference you are going to host in March saying, and I quote, "What is needed is a peace conference, not a conference on reforming the Palestinian Authority, and we say these suggestions are unacceptable, and we were hoping that Mr Blair would ask to rehabilitate the Israelis because we do not want Cambridge or Oxford." How would you respond to that?

Well I would respond to that very simply. First of all the Palestinians will participate in this conference and are obviously critical to it. We are not going to get a peace conference with the Israelis until we do the preparatory work, now that is the reality, it is not going to happen. Until there is a clear understanding that the right measures are in place, particularly on the security question, that conference is not going to happen. Now we can help in the international community empower the Palestinians to put in place the measures that they want to put in place, because the Palestinian leadership want this to succeed, then we have got a chance of actually getting into that peace conference with the Israelis. But that won’t be for me to do, that will be for President Bush and the Americans to take forward, and obviously we will give them every support in that, but this preparatory work is vital. Let me just tell you what the problem is. The problem is, supposing you got into a negotiation now, and then supposing you got another terrorist attack in Israel, not in the occupied territories but actually in Israel, what would then happen? The Palestinians would say we have done everything we could to prevent it, and the Israelis would say you haven’t, the international community goes, we don’t know. And so at the moment what we done is deliver into the hands of the terrorists the opportunity to let this process go forward or to stop it, and actually they want to stop it, so they can. The purpose of what I am doing is to provide us with such a clear and agreed set of structures on behalf of the whole of the international community that we get an insurance against the suicide bomber or the terrorist who goes and causes destruction to wreck the process, so that we can say no, the structures are in place, everyone is agreed, and those structures are operating properly. Now without that, believe me, people can call for peace conferences, demand peace conferences, pass resolutions for peace conferences, but you are not going to have one, except in the circumstances where the preparatory work is done, and that is my role. And what I want to do with this is actually to make progress, I am not interested, I said this before Christmas, I am not interested in having a peace conference simply for the sake of saying I have done something on the Palestinian issue, I am not interested in that, I am only interested in something with a practical impact as a consequence of it.

Was Jack McConnell right to accept a holiday from a BBC presenter, and do you have any words of advice for him over his current holidaying difficulties?

I think if he came to me for advice it would be a serious error. I am afraid you have got me there, I haven’t heard about Jack and his holiday. Probably ignore it is my response.

Just to clarify a point that you were asked about earlier, can you categorically deny there were any health reasons for continuing your holiday?

Two questions, if I may, Prime Minister. One is regarding Europe. Are you very keen in the next election manifesto to include Europe, and also of course the new constitution, and are you going to be very enthusiastic in favour of it? That is the first question. The second one is on international politics as well, in that case Indonesia. There have been reports regarding the refusal of Indonesia in accepting your offer of Gurkhas. Could you comment on it please?

In respect of the first, yes of course I am going to be enthusiastic about our acceptance of the constitutional treaty because it is necessary for Europe to function at 25, 27, 28 and more members. There is absolutely no way that Europe can function effectively under its present system. And incidentally one thing that is becoming really clear at every European summit I now attend, where you have got 25 different countries and their Foreign Ministers sat round a table, there is no way that you can do business in the most effective way with such a large number of people. And having a full time President of the European Council is absolutely essential to getting the business done properly. So that is on that. Secondly, let me just explain to you, what has happened is that the Gurkhas that are based in Brunei made an offer, which we passed on to the Indonesian government, of either a company of Infantry troops or the helicopters that are attached to their company, and the Indonesians have said, for the moment, we don’t have a requirement for more Infantry troops, but we do have a requirement for airlift and therefore yes, thank you for the helicopters. That is all that has happened.

Just going back to Iraq for a second, is there not a danger, you talked about how on the ground most people would vote if they were free to do so, is there not a danger that the security situation could get so bad that people are not actually able to vote and that the results are then not regarded as legitimate and it just fuels the situation further?

Well that is what the terrorists want, isn’t it? They want to deter people, kill them if they want to participate, and we have got to stop them, and I believe we will stop them. I think that you will find that people do participate, and the people in charge of the process are the UN people and they are determined that the election goes ahead.

Just before Christmas an application for four wind turbines outside your home was turned down after the intervention of your agent. Would you have been happy to see those wind turbines outside your home in Durham in terms of your support of wind turbines, or did you breathe a private sigh of relief, and will you be buying your agent a pint the next time you see him?

Well I think he was representing the views of the local community, who weren’t too keen on having them there, and I should imagine I will be buying him many pints in the future.

Going back to the Tsunami, should someone lead and co-ordinate all the international efforts there, and if yes, then should it be the UN or should it be a coalition of the willing?

Well that is a very good question. What is going to be essential, and this is what we are actually working on and discussing with other leaders at the moment, what is essential is to get a proper structure in place in Indonesia in particular. Now I don’t think we can be quite clear what that is now. I spoke to Kofi Annan, I spoke to him a couple of times over the past few days, I know he is in discussion with the Indonesian government about this at the moment. I think what you will want is a UN-led effort, but I think you will need to make sure that the number of participating countries is sufficiently small and tight that you get effective action taken, and then the liaison with the Indonesian authorities and the Indonesian military is obviously extremely important. So I will be in a better position to answer that question probably within the next few days, but I do think the structure in place will be very, very important indeed.

The Tsunami and general elections, how will they impact on your chair of the G8 this year? In the first case, they change radically the picture which was more focused on Africa and debt relief and so on? The second one, we may have two Chancellors, one before and one after the elections if the elections are during the spring of this year?

Well in respect of the first part of your question, let me just explain something to you. I am sure that the G8 will be able to play a supportive role in any way it can for the UN effort in relation to the Tsunami, but I, and I have discussed this obviously with Prime Minister Berlusconi, I don’t think that the G8, and neither did he incidentally, was ever the body to be in the lead on this, the body to be in the lead is the United Nations. I don’t think it is going to impact at all on having Africa as a priority for us. Obviously there will be a real concentration on the decisions necessary in the coming months as a result of what has happened with the Tsunami, but on the other hand, and this is why I have seen this as very different right from the very outset, the Tsunami is not a political issue, we are all agreed we have got to do whatever we can to help. Africa is a political issue, that is an issue of real political leadership, and I think the G8 members accept that, as I say starting with our own G8 in Birmingham, what is it now, 7 years ago, we actually invited African countries there, I think virtually every succeeding year Africa participated, that has become a part of the G8 network and that is where we are going to need to exercise real political leadership, and I don’t believe that what has happened with the Tsunami will affect that. And as I say, in relation to Africa, this is an issue myself and the Chancellor have worked, and will continue to work, very closely on.

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Blair was (and always is) very good on Africa, and as you’d expect he dealt with the Tsunami really well. I liked the way he neatly sidestepped the attempts to embarass him about God, Gordon Brown, windfarms, botoxing and vests. He’s a very gifted operator.

Given all this, I was absolutely shocked at just how incoherent he was over Iraq. This is true of almost everything he says on the subject. The first thing he says is almost stream of consciousness stuff:

"Well first on Iraq, there is a battle between democracy and terrorism and democracy has got to succeed and we need to go ahead with the elections and do that, and what we want is for every single part of Iraqi society to participate, and we are the people, and the Iraqi people are the people who want democracy to go ahead, and that the murderous and barbaric activities of terrorists and insurgents shouldn’t stop it, and I hope the whole of the region makes a very clear statement in support of democracy in Iraq."

He really seems to be clutching at straws and just tacking on one clause after another. The first time Iraq gets brought up, he just doesn’t mention it. The Iraq/Palestine question is similar, he moves away from Iraq as soon as he can.

Whoever asked the asked the "things are getting worse, are we part of the problem?" question did a very good job. The PM seemed really very flustered, and has difficulty even verbalising "the insurgents want to stop the elections, so things will get worse approaching them, and then get better". And that’s really about the only response he has.

Haven’t we heard this before? Look at earlier Briefings. The problems used to be all due to ex-Baathists, and would die away as soon as we got Saddam. They then all used to be due to doubts on the part of Iraqis as to our intent, and would die away as soon as sovereignty was handed back and reconstruction got started.

It seems the only card the Government has is blind optimism – "we have to win, hopefully things will get better soon". He explicitly admits that "if the people were free to vote they would vote in very large numbers" (i.e. they’re not currently free to vote), he admits that violence has stopped the reconstruction, and he then (amazingly) says "you are right in saying that in a sense the sooner we are able to be relieved of this obligation the better". Let’s get out as soon as we can! I’m really stunned by the change in tone from the PMs earlier utterences.

I opposed the war, and have posted messages criticising the Government here. But I’m really saddened that things are going so badly that the one person who I’d think could be counted upon to be positive and proud about what’s happening says things that are so muted. Is there really that little hope for the future?
Comment by square peg — 7 Jan 2005 on 5:26 am | Link

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» Thursday, January 6, 2005

Prime Minister’s Press Conference

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