Downing Street Says » 2005

» Monday, February 21, 2005

President Barroso meeting

Asked for further information about the Prime Minister's meeting this morning with President Barroso, and also if they had discussed the low turnout for the Spanish referendum, the PMOS said he thought the question was highlighting two different issues. President Barroso and the Prime Minister would not comment on the turnout in another country, but both would obviously welcome the result. The meeting was very good, and the Prime Minister congratulated President Barroso on the Commissions strategy for its term and also on the Spring report on the Lisbon agenda.

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

Northern Ireland

Asked if Paul Murphy would comment any further tomorrow about putting sanctions on Sinn Fein, the PMOS said the IMC had said two things. One was that it recognised that when dealing with a robbery on such a scale as this was, financial sanctions etc seemed relatively paltry in comparison to the size of the robbery. However, it thought that sanctions did have a role in expressing disapproval. No doubt Paul Murphy would want to reflect that balance in his response to the IMC's report. At the same time as doing nothing to divert attention from the substance of where we were, which was saying to the IRA and Sinn Fein that the time had now come for a choice to be made: either be involved in politics or criminality and paramilitary activity. They could not do both.

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

» Monday, February 14, 2005

Immigration

Asked why Charles Clarke had said that Britain needs more immigration, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said that he hadn't seen the precise comments but people should look at what the Prime Minister had said in his speech. In that speech he had made it clear that in the case of economic migrants that this country needed, those people should be able to come here. That was why we were putting forward the "points system" as a way of prioritising what our economy needs. There were an estimated 650,000 job vacancies in the UK, and there were many parts of the country where there was a shortage of skilled workers. You therefore had a choice, you could either allow migration to fill those posts or you have to make do with the consequences of not being able to fill those posts.

Briefing took place at 16:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (16)

Northern Ireland

Asked whose responsibility it was to decide whether sanctions should be imposed on the IRA, the PMOS said that the IMC made recommendations which the two government's then took forward or not depending on their view. Asked if the two governments would both agree on what should be done, the PMOS said that there were certain things which were in the British Government's remit but as always we would seek consensus with Dublin.

Briefing took place at 16:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Terror

Asked if he would characterise the meetings between the Prime Minister and leaders of the two main opposition parties this week as a negotiation, the PMOS said he would not characterise it in that way. No one was in any doubt that the issues of house-arrest and the use of intercepts as evidence were serious issues with many serious difficulties that lay behind them. This meeting would be a chance to discuss those serious issues, but the Government had not put forward its' proposals lightly on either matter. Therefore he would not anticipate any big announcement following Friday's discussions. He would anticipate a serious discussion about serious issues.

Briefing took place at 16:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Iraq

Asked of the Prime Minister had any reaction to the results of the election in Iraq, the PMOS said that the results of the election in Iraq first of all underlined that this was a genuine election. It had resulted in a genuine democracy. Clearly the turnout in some areas was lower than we had wished. However we should not exaggerate that because Sunnis had voted and voted in large numbers in certain areas. The reasons for the low turnout in other areas was a direct result of intimidation. What we had now was politics. That was a welcome change from what we had had before. Asked if the Prime Minister was disappointed that a secular Government hadn't been elected, the PMOS said that the shape of Iraqi Government was entirely a matter for the democratically elected parties in Iraq. What had been encouraging was that all those who had spoken so far had spoken of the need for a truly representative Government, a truly representative body moving forward, and a constitution that guaranteed that the Government of Iraq in the future would be representative of the country as a whole. Therefore what we had seen was not just a democratic election taking place but a recognition that Iraq was made up of different elements and all those elements needed to be represented in the future.

Briefing took place at 16:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

mySociety launches WriteToThem

Just a quick announcement: today mySociety is launching the first of five projects we’re building during 2005: WriteToThem is a new and extended version of the well-known FaxYourMP.com service. Type in your UK postcode and send a letter to any of your elected representatives — councillors, MPs, MEPs, MSPs or assembly members — instantly and […]

Briefing took place at 10:31 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Thursday, February 10, 2005

Royal Wedding

Asked if he could clarify any of the constitutional details of the Prince of Wales recent announcement of his intention to marry Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that as he understood it there were no plans for legislation at this stage. Put him that she might automatically become Queen without legislation, the PMOS said that at this stage, the Palace did not see a reason for any legislation to be made.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (8)

Northern Ireland

Asked about the Independent Monitoring Commission's report and whether the un-named senior member of the IRA should be named, the PMOS said that this was a serious report. While it didn't say anything which the Governments had not already said it should be taken with due seriousness by all involved. We could get into the Pantomime show of the UK, Dublin, the 2 Chief Constables and now the IMC all saying that the IRA did carry out the robbery and the IRA and Sinn Fein saying it didn't, or we could approach this with the attitude of public opinion North and South of the border which was that the Northern Bank robbery had had serious implications for the Peace Process. It did mean that people had to think very seriously about those implications on both sides. People should approach this in that spirit. Above all this was a report coming from the Independent Monitoring Commission who's raison deter was to give an objective analysis of what had happened, and that they had done.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Prince of Wales Marriage

Asked what the Prime Minister's response to the Prince of Wales's announcement about his forthcoming marriage, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said he was delighted by the news and would be passing on the best wishes of the Cabinet.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (9)

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» Monday, February 21, 2005

President Barroso meeting

Northern Ireland

» Monday, February 14, 2005

Immigration

Northern Ireland

Terror

Iraq

mySociety launches WriteToThem

» Thursday, February 10, 2005

Royal Wedding

Northern Ireland

Prince of Wales Marriage

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