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» Monday, May 17, 2004

NHS Modernisation Board

The Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister and John Reid would be hosting a breakfast in Downing Street tomorrow for the NHS Modernisation Board who would be publishing their annual report. It was an important report as it represented the views of professionals and patient groups about where the NHS was going. It followed the Crisp Report, which had shown good progress on waiting times and staff levels, acknowledging, however, that there was still a lot more to do.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (8)

Turkey

The Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister was visiting Turkey today for the first time in what would become a series of annual bilateral summits. He would be meeting the Turkish President and Prime Minister.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)

Iraq

The PMS advised journalists that the Prime Minister had added his condemnation to that voiced by Iraq's leaders and citizens over this morning's explosion in Baghdad in which several Iraqis had been killed, including Izzedim Salim of the Iraq Governing Council (IGC). The Prime Minister's thoughts were with the families and friends of the victims. Mr Salim had been working with his colleagues for the last year to give Iraq a future of freedom, democracy and security, all of which were goals were rejected by the terrorists. But we would continue to help the Iraqis attain what they had been denied for decades. The PMS also drew journalists' attention to words from the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zubari, today who had said regarding the attack, "This shows our enemies are still there and will do anything to intimidate Iraqis to derail the political process. This will strengthen our resolve to continue the political process....This will not derail the process".

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Prime Minister

Asked the Prime Minister's take on the continuing speculation about his position, the PMS said that she had absolutely no intention of participating in all the froth about this issue. The Prime Minister and the Government were focussing on the things which really mattered to the people of this country. As people were no doubt aware for example, both unemployment and crime figures were falling; the recent Crisp report had shown that NHS waiting lists were being cut; education and childcare services had also been improving, as Margaret Hodge's announcement today demonstrated. Clearly the investment the Government was putting into our public services, allied to reform, was making a difference. Asked if she would agree that this message was being drowned out by the issue of Iraq, the PMS said she would not deny the fact that there were some real challenges in Iraq. Needless to say, we would continue to face up to them, as we had underlined once again this morning.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Monday, May 17, 2004

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