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» Friday, July 21, 2006

Deputy Prime Minister-Ministerial Code

Asked if the Prime Minister would now have an enquiry into whether the Deputy Prime Minister had breached the Ministerial Code, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that John Prescott had set out his position, which was that he had thanked Sir Philip Mawer for his report. Mr. Prescott had registered his stay at the ranch, and he recognised that the procedure for registering gifts needed to be improved. The facts were known and the Deputy Prime Minister had responded.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (5)

Middle East

Asked if the Prime Minister was aware of the damage happening to British interests in the Middle East by the Prime Minister not appearing to call for a ceasefire, even if in practice, no-one would follow it, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister had made clear from the beginning that he wanted the conflict to end. What people appeared to want him to do, however, was to call for a unilateral ceasefire. That might make people feel good for a few hours, but not only was it unlikely to have any impact, but also, a quick-fix solution would not deliver a sustainable peace in the Middle East. What we had to do was to go back to where Kofi Annan started from yesterday, which was a recognition that this problem did not start with Israel, but rather, it had started with unprovoked attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah. The central problem we had was that we had two groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, who whilst they were elected, did not abide by democratic standards. Not only did they maintain militias, but they used them irrespective of the views of others, and the case of Lebanon, irrespective of the view of the vast majority of the government, even though they were actually part of that government. It did seem to be a very familiar issue in that in 1982, Sinn Fein were first elected, but it was not until the IRA called the final ceasefire in 1998 that Sinn Fein became part of the political process that led to the Good Friday agreement.

Briefing took place at 13:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

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» Friday, July 21, 2006

Deputy Prime Minister-Ministerial Code

Middle East

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