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» Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Faithworks Speech

Asked whether the Prime Minister was effectively blaming single mothers for inner city crime when he had said they were "piling up problems for the future", the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said she had not seen the quote, but she was sure that the Prime Minister was not blaming any particular group for the problems within communities.

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

China Arms Embargo

Asked if the EU was considering dropping its proposal to lift the Arms ban on China, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said no. The EU position was that we were in discussions with the United States. As the spokesperson for Javier Solana had said yesterday: "This issue is now more difficult and more complex both in substance and as regards the timeline." That was indicative of an EU discussion rather than a UK led discussion. That was how it should be. We said the EU would have consultations with the United States about this and that was what we were doing. Asked what the UK's position was, the PMOS said that the position was that we wanted a consensus in the EU on this issue. We had never made a secret of the fact that we believed the EU code, provided it was strengthened, could meet US concerns. However that was a matter which was part of the discussion and therefore the EU would take the lead on this.

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

Inquiries

Asked for further comment on the appointment of Alan Budd to hold the inquiry into David Blunkett, in the wake of comments in Alistair Graham's annual report, the PMOS said, as we had said at the time, we believed it was better to fit the individual who leads an inquiry to the nature of that inquiry, rather than have a standing group of people who would be made to fit a particular set of circumstances.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

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» Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Faithworks Speech

China Arms Embargo

Inquiries

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