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» Monday, January 23, 2006

Schools White Paper

Put to him that the Prime Minister had been bullish on the white paper and had seemed relaxed about winning with the support of the Conservatives, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said the Prime Minister was quite happy to put forward the positive arguments for the white paper. The fundamental core of that argument was that we had seen what had already worked to improve schools and what had resulted in substantially better figure figures in the last few years, even in the most deprived areas. We needed to learn from that experience and what the Prime Minister wanted was for people to address the substance of that issue. There was a period now to do this. There had been this argument about selection but it was not something which would be changed by this white paper. Therefore the Prime Minister hoped that people would address the fundamental issue, which was how do you learn from the experience of schools that had shown what worked.

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

Welfare Reform

Asked if the welfare reform green paper's priority was in the same order as the schools white paper, the PMOS said it was a separate issue that was distinct for its own reasons, which were to encourage people back to work. 90% of those surveyed on IB said they wanted to get back to work. Therefore you had to address how best to do that. The green paper would set that case out. Put to him that there was a suggestion that it would also include an announcement on the CSA, the PMOS said that was not something he was aware of. Asked if there was any indication yet of the timescale for developing the green paper into a white one, the PMOS said he would check but did not think we had given an indication yet. Asked if it was correct that the Government thought that changing the name of IB would help the process of reform and change attitudes, the PMOS said that John Hutton had indicated yesterday that there would be a new name.

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

British Nuclear Fuels

Asked if the Government had a view on the sale of Westinghouse, the PMOS said hat it was largely a commercial matter and as such it was best dealt with by the DTI. Asked if he had read that on Teletext, the PMOS said that he was amused to see that Sky had translated Teletext into TV Text.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)

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» Monday, January 23, 2006

Schools White Paper

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British Nuclear Fuels

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