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» Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Flu vaccinations

Asked what the Prime Minister would say if he was asked whether he had had a flu jab, the PMOS said that it was not actually relevant whether Ministers had or had not had flu jabs because we believed it was right that organisations should encourage staff to have the vaccination. However since it had been asserted in one newspaper this morning that the Prime Minister and his wife had had the jab he would like to make it clear that that was simply not true. Normally we did not comment on these matters but since it was asserted to the contrary we wanted to set the record straight. Asked if it was irresponsible for the Prime Minister not to have a flu jab, the PMOS said that it was funny but on the way over a colleague predicted that self same question. He was pleased that one journalist had the courage to do ask what the others had not.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Northern Ireland

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned at the message the "On the Runs" legislation might send to future home grown generations of terrorists, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said absolutely not. This applied only to those who committed offences before 1998, and it was prefigured by the agreement that was part of the Good Friday Agreement to release prisoners early. We recognised fully that it did not in any way take away from the pain of those who lost relatives to the IRA, but as we said at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, we believed the prisoner release scheme was the necessary part of getting the agreement, and the legislation for "On the Runs" that was agreed two years ago in a joint declaration, was necessary as a logical extension. The PMOS said we had to accept that it did not in any way take away the pain of those who had lost relatives, but we believed it was necessary as part of bringing the conflict to an end.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Energy Supply

Asked about concerns raised in the House of Commons with regards to the availability of energy for the coming winter, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the DTI would be releasing a detailed list of the meetings which had taken place on the issue.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Mirror

Asked why it was thought necessary threaten the use if the Official Secrets Act in last night's case, the PMOS said he was certainly not going to give a running commentary on legal proceedings.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Licensing Laws

Asked what the Government's message was to people taking advantage of the new licensing laws coming into force tomorrow, the PMOS said that as we had said all along this change in the law was designed to do two things. Firstly it allowed those who were responsible to enjoy a drink when they wanted and secondly to allow the police, local authorities and local neighbourhoods to take action against problem premises. The Prime Minister hoped that both things would happen.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Angela Merkel Meeting-Europe

Asked what the expectations of her meeting with the Prime Minister were, and also, was there an expectation that she would be more conducive to business than her predecessor, the PMOS replied that obviously, this would be a chance for the Prime Minister and Angela Merkel to go over the ground. That included the WTO round, budget negotiations, and the general state of affairs in Europe, and all of those matters would probably be part of that discussion. The Prime Minister looked forward to doing business. The PMOS also said it was generally not a good idea to give other political leaders marks out of ten, either when they were in office, or out of office! It was not conducive to diplomatic negotiations or relations.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Northern Ireland

Asked what the Prime Minister would be saying to the RUC widows he was meeting today concerning the 'on the run' legislation, the PMOS said that Sylvia Hernon asked them to meet today and the Prime Minister was happy to accede to that request. They had said that they were primarily concerned about 'on the run' legislation. The Prime Minister acknowledged that there was nothing he could say which would lessen the pain of those who were affected by this legislation and who lost relatives killed by the IRA. In the same way that there was nothing that we could say to lessen the pain of those who had relatives who were killed by prisoners released early.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Flu vaccinations

Asked to clarify the figures regarding flu vaccinations that the figures rather than being 11 million at risk were more like 14 ½ million, the PMOS gave some statistics to journalists. Last year, 13 million flu jabs were ordered, of which 11.7 million were used, i.e. there were 1.3 million that were not used. On top of that, this year, we had ordered an additional 1 million, (a 25 per cent increase in total), because of our anticipation that there would be more take-up. Therefore, in total, we had over 14 million available. As things stood, because of the increased awareness, partly because of the fact we had one of the most successful vaccine systems in Europe, along with the media stories on bird flu, meant that we had a 2 million increase in the take-up. Clearly, therefore, the Department of Health (DH) were now looking actively at the figures, and they were trying to put together a way where those practices which were having problems could get additional jabs from reserves that had not run out, but also from practices where there was a surplus. The PMOS said we were also trying to get from manufacturers an additional 200,000 jabs by December.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Angela Merkel

Asked if we expected more progress with the EU budget from Angela Merkel then from her predecessor, the PMOS said that it didn't do much for public diplomacy to mark foreign leaders out of ten either when they were in office or when they had left office. Angela Merkel would come with her views, the Prime Minister had his views, and the whole point of tomorrow was to provide an opportunity to share them.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Flu vaccinations

Northern Ireland

Energy Supply

Mirror

Licensing Laws

Angela Merkel Meeting-Europe

Northern Ireland

Flu vaccinations

Angela Merkel

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