» Tuesday, January 11, 2005Tsunami
The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that from today at around 11am, the FCO would be updating its website with the latest figures from the tsunami disaster. The latest figures from the Met Police Casualty Unit for today were 416 presumed to be victims of the tsunami, of which 51 were confirmed dead. That figure was down from 453 yesterday, but the number of confirmed dead remained the same. For those unaccounted for, the figure was down from 871 yesterday to 701 today. Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Northern Ireland
Asked what the government's basic position on the DUP's suggestion that the peace process should go ahead without Sinn Fein, the PMOS said that as always with Northern Ireland, we could only move forward on the basis of cross community agreement. Therefore, any suggestion depends not on the Government's attitude, but rather on the attitude of other parties. The SLDP, the PMOS believed, had already gone on the record as saying they believed the approach had to be all-inclusive. That inevitably put certain parameters on what was possible. Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Chancellor
Asked if the Prime Minister expected the Chancellor to withdraw his remarks about not believing "a word he said anymore", the PMOS replied that it was a matter for the Chancellor and the Treasury to deal with. The Prime Minister had said on Sunday he was not going to comment further on the book other than what he had said in September, and that still remained the case. Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Guantanamo Detainees
Asked if the "Guantanamo Four" were going to be released, the PMOS said people would have to wait for the Foreign Secretary's statement later. There was a very strict procedure in place with these cases, and the PMOS could not pre-empt the Foreign Secretary. Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Prime Minister/Government
Asked how the Prime Minister's general mood could be characterised, the PMOS repeated what he has said during yesterday's press briefing which was that the Prime Minister believed what the public wanted was for the Government to get on with is business. The Prime Minister also believed that the backbenchers also wanted the Government to get on with business, and therefore thought it was right that the Government concentrated its energy, authority and time on getting on with business. Briefing took place at 11:00 | 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. |
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