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» Monday, February 28, 2005

Fathers for Justice

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about security after a campaigner dressed as Batman climbed a wall overlooking Downing Street earlier today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said it was entirely a matter for the Police.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (57)

Terror Bill

Questioned as to why the Home Secretary seemed to be making further concessions on the proposed counter-terrorism legislation, the PMOS said he did not recognise the word concessions. In terms of the substance of the proposals, in extreme cases, where the Security Services or the Police deemed someone to be such an extreme threat that they needed to restrict that person's liberty in a considerable way then the key question was that we were able to act quickly. Concerns had been raised about the speed of judicial input into that process with regards to the most severe end of the control orders where it might be necessary to restricts someone's liberty to such an extent that it would mean derogating from the ECHR. The Government had listened to those concerns and had now come up with a method which allowed us to achieve the end we wanted, allowing the possibility of detaining someone, whilst at the same time immediately getting the judicial process underway. It was the best way forward. The important thing however was that the substance had not changed. The substance being that if we had intelligence that someone was a threat to national security then we could act on that intelligence immediately.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Palestinian Conference

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) briefed journalists on the details of the meeting on Palestine tomorrow. He said that this meeting would be one of the largest international gatherings on the Middle East for some time, with a total of 23 states and 6 international organizations being represented. The PMOS listed the countries sending Foreign Ministers which included: Algeria, Bahrain, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordon, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Morocco, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Russian Federation, Spain, Tunisia, UAE, and the United States. The cast list would include Kofi Annan, Javier Solana, Condi Rice, the Heads of the World Bank and IMF, and showed the high level of delegation attending.

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

Terror Laws

Put to him that the Prime Minister had signalled possible "compromises" on Friday, and was it now correct that today was not seen by the Government as a day to alter its proposals, but rather to explain them further, the PMOS said that what was important was, first, to set out why we believed we needed these range of measures to protect this country. Second, why the Home Secretary had such an important role. But, thirdly, it was also vital that we acted speedily if the circumstances required. The PMOS said he did not want to pre-empt what the Home Secretary had to say this afternoon in the House of Commons.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Northern Ireland

Asked about the implications of and the Government's attitude's to the demonstration yesterday in Belfast, the PMOS said that we had always believed that anyone who carried out a murder should be brought to justice. That was a very simple demand from the family, but the PMOS thought that demand was put forward more eloquently by the family. All we would say was that those responsible for the murder of Mr. McCartney should be brought to justice, and we supported the family in that.

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

Smoking

Asked if the PMOS could "shed any light" on a debate amongst Cabinet colleagues about John Reid's smoking in public places proposals, the PMOS said he was not aware of any debate on the matter.

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

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» Monday, February 28, 2005

Fathers for Justice

Terror Bill

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Terror Laws

Northern Ireland

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