Downing Street Says » Afghanistan

Asked why Des Browne was not able to give the Statement to the House of Commons, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that his understanding was that Des Browne was in his constituency in Scotland, but they should check with his office. It was important to bear in mind that there was a process where the military commanders on the ground assessed the situation and then reported back to their superiors in London. Then the Secretary for State for Defence and Prime Minister were given the appropriate advice. People needed to take into account that process rather than jump ahead of that process. Without giving a running commentary the PMOS suggested that journalists were in danger of jumping ahead of the process.

Put that the Defence Secretary should be back from his constituency by now, the PMOS said journalists could speak to the MOD about Des Browne’s schedule. Nobody, more so than the government, regretted the deaths of the two British soldiers but it was important that we spoke to Parliament when there was something new to say rather than simply on the back of the tragic loss of two of our soldiers even though they were deeply regrettable. It was important that we took the proper decision making processes and announced those results at the right time.

Asked if we were saying that there had been no request for additional troops from commanders on the ground, the PMOS said that he was saying that there was a process to be followed. He would not be giving a running commentary of that process but people should be wary of jumping ahead of it.

Put that both the MOD and No10 had been suggesting that Des Browne would be making the statement, the PMOS said that he was not sure who "No10" was, but we had not been aware that there would be a statement until after the morning press briefing. Asked whether we were saying it was a logistical problem or that the statement was not important enough for it to be the Secretary of State, the PMOS said they should talk to the MOD for precise details, but in terms of the statement he did not anticipate it making any significant new announcements.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

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.

» Monday, July 3, 2006

Afghanistan

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries