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» Friday, July 16, 2004

Honours

Asked for a reaction to Sir Hayden Phillips' report on the honours system which had been published today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman reminded journalists that this report was different to that published by the Public Administration Select Committee earlier in the week. We would look carefully at the conclusions of both and issue a joint response.

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

Iraq/Butler Report

Asked for a reaction to the by-election result in Leicester South in which it seemed that the public had delivered a protest vote against the Government because of the war on Iraq, the PMOS said that as a Civil Servant, he was unable to comment directly on party political issues. That said, as the Prime Minister had made clear once again in his Statement this week, he recognised that people on both sides of the argument held strong views about the war. In his own opinion, the policy of containment had not been working and, post-September 11, it had become clear that the calculus of the threat had changed. He accepted that other people took a different view. However, people needed to start recognising that we had now had four inquiries which had found that the accusation that the Government had acted in bad faith did not stand up. Put to him that the voters still appeared to want to punish the Government for the war, even after four inquiries, the PMOS said the Prime Minister hoped that people's views would change as they saw progress being made in Iraq in terms of the interim Government taking charge, the continuing move towards democracy and the Iraqi-isation of the security effort. In the Iraqi Government's view, those who were carrying out acts of violence were clearly doing so against the wishes of the Iraqi people. They were determined that progress would continue. No one could deny that Iraq was better off now that it had been under Saddam.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (6)

Five Year Plans

Asked if the Prime Minister would be involved in the publication of the Home Office and Transport five year plans which were expected to come next week, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was closely involved in the development of the all the five-year plans, as you would expect.

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

Reshuffle

Asked if the widely anticipated reshuffle would take place over the weekend, the PMOS said that it wasn't our policy to answer reshuffle questions, as journalists were well aware.

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

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