Downing Street Says » 2005

» Wednesday, March 2, 2005

UN report

Asked by the Daily Mail if there would be a Government drugs strategy in light of the UN Report the PMOS said that no doubt the correspondent's paper would want to recognise that the UN report also praised this Government's approach. This was not an area where there could be complacency in any way. There were 3 strands to this, firstly in Afghanistan; we were the lead country in the counter-narcotics approach. Here the important point was that President Karzai had identified that this was a priority. His government had set out a five-point plan to counter narcotics, he had engaged with local governors to see that plan implemented and the international community was supporting him in doing that. This was beginning to take effect, not just with eradication programmes but also with replacement economy programmes and so on. Secondly, here, with the drugs bill we had given the police new powers and also put in place compulsory testing and so on. So we were addressing both sides of the coin here. Thirdly, in relation to EU and EU enlargement the fact was that there was always a vulnerability in terms of accession countries but now that they had joined the EU they had to bring up to standard their police and customs activity against drugs and organised crime. So across the three areas nobody was claiming that the problem was solved, there was still much to do but we had reason to believe that progress could be made in the medium term.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Terror

Asked about the accuracy of the Prime Minister's assertion that there were hundreds of terrorists in Britain, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that this was not new information. The Prime Minister had in fact said the same thing in the House of Commons last week. As he had made clear then, there were distinctions to be made between different kinds of threat and the threat different people posed. There were different levels of monitoring required but it was accurate to say that there were that number of people there were concerns about. There were different degrees of concern but concern none the less. The Security Services and the Police needed to be able to respond to those concerns in the appropriate way. It was simply a statement of fact. Put to him that saying there were hundreds of terrorists out there might be considered alarmist, the PMOS said what the Prime Minister was most concerned about, as always, was that people should focus on the substance and not interpretation or speculation. The substance, as we had said consistently since 9/11, was that this country did face a threat. That threat varied but it was serious. It was right and proper to underline repeatedly that we should not be complacent about the level of that threat. Questioned further about whether it was right to say we were concerned about these people, the PMOS said that there were levels of concern about potential terrorist action so it was right to say that was why we were concerned. We were not concerned about these people because they were behaving in an anti-social way or some other reason. We were concerned about them because, potentially, they were planning or considering potential terrorist action. Put to him that the Prime Minister had implied that these people were actively engaged, not merely considering terrorist action, the PMOS said that if someone was in any way suspected of being part of a potential terrorist action, no matter how small that part may be, that was the correct phraseology.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (5)

Comic Relief

Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans to participate in Comic Relief, the PMOS said that on the same day of Comic Relief the Commission for Africa would publish its report. The two events would be complimentary. The Prime Minister's focus on that day would be the Commission for Africa.

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

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» Wednesday, March 2, 2005

UN report

» Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Terror

Comic Relief

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