Downing Street Says » 2005

» Tuesday, November 29, 2005

CBI Speech

Put to him that given how security conscious we all were these days how concerned was the Prime Minister about this morning, the PMOS said that security was a matter we took very seriously, but this was a matter for the police and those whose job it was to look after security. The Prime Minister's main concern as you had seen was, thanks to those at the CBI, to be able to deliver his speech. He had received a standing ovation at the end of it so what was there to complain about!

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Smoking

Asked if the Prime Minister thought a total ban on smoking in public places was wrong in principle, the PMOS replied that what we had was a situation where there was a balance between the rights of non-smokers and the desire for people to smoke. What we had to try and do was achieve a balance, and that was what the Government had done. As people knew, what it would result in was a situation where smoking was banned in most public and working places. Therefore, what we had tried to do was approach this in a way that balanced the two rights.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Reshuffle

Asked when the rest of the reshuffle would happen, the PMOS said that we had not forgotten even if they thought we had. The PMOS said it was take as long as it took.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

» Monday, November 28, 2005

Baghdad deaths

Asked if the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) was able to confirm that 2 Britons had been killed by gunfire near Baghdad today, the PMOS said that as always, we had to be cautious, and deal with the facts as we knew them at this stage. The PMOS said the most up to date information he had was that one British national was in hospital, and further investigations were going on.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Pensions

Asked if there was any prospect of re-opening a deal on public sector pensions, the PMOS replied that people should be clear about the parameters of this discussion. Two different things should be differentiated: one was the state pension, and the other was the occupational pension. In the private sector, 40% of occupational pensions were for people who retired at 60. If the pattern of new agreements in the private sector was looked at, many of them had a situation where existing employees would still retire at 60, whilst new entrants would retire at 65. That was precisely what was proposed in the new deals which was agreed a month ago.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Terrorism Bill

Asked if we held out any hope on reaching an agreement on the draft legislation defining terrorism, the PMOS said: yes. We believed that there was a consensus that everyone condemned terrorism, and that everyone wanted to do more to tackle terrorism and its causes, and to take action against extremism and incitement towards dialogues and moderation. We would find out by the end of the day whether we had reached agreement, but we believed that there was still a prospect of doing so.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Kiev-Tallinn-Budapest

Asked for any guidance on the Prime Minister's trip later on in the week, and what was the Prime Minister hoping to get out of it, the PMOS said that we were at a significant point of the budget negotiations. It was important that the countries in Eastern Europe and central Europe understood where we were coming from. Every leader that we had met, which included the Maltese Prime Minister and others, had all said that the key point for the new accession countries was stability, and knowing what their budget was going to be, and being able to plan accordingly.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

CAP-EU Budget

Asked whether the PMOS could say whether today's FT story regarding demanding budget cuts all round was "completely wrong", the PMOS replied that he did not want to give a running commentary. However, firstly, it was no secret in June that we believed the budget proposed by Luxembourg was too big. That remained our view, and therefore, that was one of the ways in which we were approaching this negotiation.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Friday, November 25, 2005

Uganda

Asked if the Prime Minister would raise the trial of Dr. Kiiza Besigye with the Ugandan President, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that Hilary Benn and Lord Triesman had already raised this issue with the Ugandans here in Malta this week. The EU, yesterday, issued a statement calling for due process to be followed and for it to be followed quickly. The Ugandan elections were next March. As it happened because of the alphabetical order in which the leaders sat, the Prime Minister would in fact sit next to President Museveni during the Commonwealth conference. As such he had no doubt that the Prime Minister would use that opportunity to reiterate the UK and EU's view that due process must be followed.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Pensions

Asked in regard to the leaked letter from the Chancellor to the Turner Commission whether he could deny that it had come from No10 and if it had what would the consequences be, the PMOS said that he could categorically deny, as far as his knowledge and those he had spoken to at No10, that we were not responsible for the leak. Our position on this was, and had been all week, that nothing was ruled in, nothing was ruled out.

Briefing took place at 17:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

The unofficial site which lets you comment on the UK Prime Minister's official briefings. About us...

» Tuesday, November 29, 2005

CBI Speech

Smoking

Reshuffle

» Monday, November 28, 2005

Baghdad deaths

Pensions

Terrorism Bill

Kiev-Tallinn-Budapest

CAP-EU Budget

» Friday, November 25, 2005

Uganda

Pensions

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries