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» Monday, November 21, 2005

Nuclear Energy

Asked for the Government's position on nuclear energy production, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said it was well known that the Government was looking at all the options, it was also well known that we would be putting in place a process to do so and the Prime Minister would be making an announcement to that affect shortly. That consideration would have to take into account all the circumstances including the need to ensure that our energy supply was secure at a time when the very nature of energy supply was changing, both here and in Europe. In addition there was the impact of climate change to consider. Those were the circumstances that the review of where we were would have to take into account.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

EU Budget

Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans to use diplomacy in the run up to the EU budget talks in December, and also was there any response to people who had said he was "leaving it far too late" to negotiate the budget, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that in terms of the latter point, Hampton Court was about setting the whole context, and we believed it successfully did that. We also had to take into account that Angela Merkel had just become Chancellor in Germany. What we had was a well thought through approach and process.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

EU

Asked if our EU partners were perhaps not as optimistic as the Government about securing a budget deal by December 7th, the PMOS said that the reality was that at Hampton Court we had very successfully set out the broad context in which we believed the budget negotiations should take place. What the Foreign Secretary had announced this morning was the start of the process of turning that broad context into detail with a special meeting of foreign ministers on 7th December. He pointed out that the 7th December could not be called a deadline since there was a European Council meeting on 15th-16th December.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Terrorism Bill-ACPO

Asked if the Prime Minister thought the House of Lords should now accept the 28 days ruling from the House of Commons, and also were the comments about the death penalty regarding the police officer who died during a raid on Friday considered helpful, the PMOS said that given the horrific events of Friday, people were perfectly entitled to express their view. It was not one, however, that the Government agreed with. In terms of the Terror Bill, the Government's belief was that 90 days was the right solution, but the Commons had spoken. What the House of Lords would do was a matter for them.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Aircraft

Asked if the Prime Minister would like a Government aircraft at his disposal, the PMOS replied that the simple fact was, as we had tried to tell people, that we had not yet received Sir Peter Gershon's report, though other departments had. Therefore, it would better to wait and see what the report said. The facts were very simple: the present arrangements involved aircraft that were increasingly old and unreliable. Therefore, we had to do something about it, but it would be better to wait for Sir Peter Gershon's report.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Energy-nuclear

Asked if Professor David King had accurately mirror the Prime Minister's views on the need to restrict the issue on nuclear power, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister's view was that we needed to look at all the options. The important thing was that we looked at this both in terms of the energy security of this country, and that the energy market was changing, both in Britain and in Europe as well. We also needed to look at the issue of climate change, so both were guiding principles. With regards to a forward-look, there would be announcements soon, but the PMOS did not want to pre-empt them.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)

Councils

Asked for further clarification about a Daily Telegraph story regarding the abolition of county councils, the PMOS said: no. Ministers had taken no decisions about whether or not in some way to go for a reorganisation of the two-tier structure. We would be taking forward the vision for local government, alongside the work of Sir Michael Lyons' inquiry and in partnership with local government and key stakeholders. We also anticipated drawing the debate together over the course of the next year.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Statesman Award

Put to the PMOS that the Prime Minister had been named as the Statesman of the Decade by an American think-tank, and was he flattered, the PMOS replied that the Institute was entitled to make its award, and the Prime Minister would respond when he was ready.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

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» Monday, November 21, 2005

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