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» Thursday, February 24, 2005

Attorney General’s Advice on Iraq

Asked about the meeting between Lord Falconer, Lord Goldsmith and Baroness Morgan, the PMOS said that he would neither comment on leaks nor on private meetings. Asked about whether the Parliamentary Statement on the legality of the invasion of Iraq reflected the Attorney General's view, the PMOS said that he would refer people to the Attorney General's statement over night in which he said that in his "Parliamentary answer on 17th March I explained my genuinely held, independent view that military action was lawful under the existing Security Council resolutions. It was certainly not a view expressed as a result of being 'lent on' in any way. Not as he had already made clear was it written by anyone at Number 10." Those were Lord Goldsmith's own words and own judgment in this case as was his answer on the 17th March. The reality was that nothing that had been published in the last few days, changed this story one iota. Asked if it was appropriate for the law officers to be meeting with Baroness Morgan, the PMOS said that he didn't comment on internal discussions. Asked if perhaps someone else had drafted the words for the Attorney General from his own office, the PMOS said that he wasn't going to get into processology.

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

MRSA

Asked what the Government's response to the NSO report that MRSA deaths have doubled since 1999, the PMOS said that as the ONS itself set out, firstly we recognised that this was a serious issue, but the ONS believed the increase was in part due to increased reporting. We did recognise that was not the only reason. It was an issue which the Government took very seriously and John Reid had set out in the last six months new measures that were being taken to address the issue. The figures were for 2003 so they would not in any way reflect these new measures. The important thing about these figures was that because they had more detailed information, it allowed us to try and identify the range of measures that would help to counter it. There was no single cause of MSRA that you could just address. It confirmed what we knew, that this was a serious issue, but it also underlined the rationale for the series of measures which John Reid had introduced.

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

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» Thursday, February 24, 2005

Attorney General’s Advice on Iraq

MRSA

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