» Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Deputy Prime Minister
Asked if the Prime Minister would react to being compared to Harold Wilson by the Deputy Prime Minister the PMOS said that he had not seen the DPM's comments and the comments are a matter for the DPM. The Prime Minister would be carrying on his job as normal. In response to further questioning the PMOS restated that the Prime Minister had set on his position on the matter and that he had nothing further to add.
Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Iraq
Asked if the Prime Minister was going to the United Nations next week the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that he had nothing further to add to yesterday's answer but it was important to bear in mind that we were still awaiting the report by Lakhdar Brahimi, due at the end of the month, which would set out the next stage of developments in Iraq. The PMOS reiterated that even though events were picking up momentum as 30 June approached it was still important to take the process step by step.
Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Prime Minister
Asked if he agreed with the Deputy Prime Minister that it was a question of if rather than when the Prime Minister fights the next election the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had set out his view of this yesterday at his press conference and as such he had nothing further to add.
Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)
David Hill
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with David Hill's alleged comments about the French airport disaster as reported in the press the PMOS told journalists that David had explained in his statement to the Daily Mail that his comment had been flippant and that this was where the matter should be left. Asked if David Hill would be apologising to the families of those who had died the PMOS said that as David had said in his statement as anyone who knows him would recognise that the last thing he would want was to cause offence to anyone. That was not his intention.
Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)
» Tuesday, May 25, 2004
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.]
Briefing took place at 17:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Iraq
Asked if the Prime Minister was intending to go to the UN to push the case for the draft Resolution, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said that as her colleague had told journalists yesterday in the light of an Evening Standard report, we did not recognise the scenario. There was nothing in the diary. Put to her that the report had appeared in another paper this morning, the PMS said that might be the case, but the repetition of something we had denied did not make it any truer or more accurate. Asked what she meant by the word 'scenario', the PMS said she was merely repeating what her colleague had told journalists yesterday. She was not going to get hung up on semantics and nor should they.
Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
» Monday, May 24, 2004
Lockerbie
Asked about the Prime Minister's meeting with relatives of the Lockerbie victims today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that it had been a private meeting. It had given the Prime Minister an opportunity to brief on his recent visit to Tripoli and his meeting with Colonel Gaddafi.
Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)
Iraq
Asked if Downing Street agreed with view of the German Ambassador to the UN who had reportedly said that the draft Security Council Resolution did not give Coalition forces the mandate to remain in Iraq for more than a year after the transfer of sovereignty, the PMOS said that the Resolution had not yet been circulated in New York and he was therefore unable to comment in detail on the text. That said, as Colin Powell and others had pointed out, the key issue was the fact that it would be the Interim Government which would give its consent to the continuing presence of the Coalition in Iraq. The principal point, therefore, was not the existence of some arbitrary deadline, but whether we were achieving the goal we had set out to achieve, namely the progressive Iraqi-isation of the security and political processes with the aim of working towards free elections.
Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Prime Minister
Asked if the Prime Minister would reply to the Leader of the Opposition's letter asking him if he intended to serve a full third term, the PMOS said that as a Civil Servant he was unable to comment on party political issues. In a spirit of helpfulness, however, he would refer journalists to the transcript of the Prime Minister's Frost interview last September in which he had answered the question.
Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
European Constitution
Asked for a reaction to the Dutch Foreign Minister's reported comments today suggesting that it was inevitable that Britain would have to give up some of its red lines, the PMOS said that he wasn't aware of the detail of the comments and it would therefore not be helpful to comment directly on them until he was, other than to say that our red lines remained. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said he had also learned from experience that it wasn't helpful to give a running commentary on ongoing discussions. As he had said last week, these were real negotiations. Equally, it was important for people to recognise that we had real bottom lines.
Briefing took place at 15:45 | 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.
Search
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | Jun » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
Supported by
Recent Briefings
- Briefings are now secret.
- Syrian refugee resettlement
- Syria
- Scotland
- Independence referendum
- Trade Union Bill (No.2)
- Syria
- Northern Ireland
- Syria
- Syria
Archives
- December 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 1970
- November 1900
- October 1900
- August 1900
- February 1900
- January 1900
- June 111
- May 111
- April 111
- March 111
- February 111
- January 111
- 111
- November 110
- October 110
- September 110
- August 110
- July 110
- June 110
- May 110
- April 110
- March 110
- February 110
- January 110
- 110
- November 109
- October 109
- September 109
- August 109
- June 109
- May 109
- 0
Links
Syndicate (RSS/XML)
Credits
Enquiries
Contact Sam Smith.