Downing Street Says » 2006 » September

» Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Thailand

Asked whether the Thai Prime Minister had been in touch with the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said no. He believed that Prime Minister Thaksin was on a plane that would land in London later today. He also understood that Prime Minister Thaksin had relatives in London and was coming in a private capacity. We were not aware of what his intentions were beyond that. There had, as yet, been no requests for meetings.

Briefing took place at 6:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Memorial Service for Victims of Terror

Asked to comment on demands for compensation for victim's families, the PMOS first said that the memorial service would be to remember thirteen British people who had been killed last year in terrorist attacks in Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. Tessa Jowell had been working with those who had lost loved ones to support them and better see how we could support British people who might be victims of terrorist attacks overseas. We were looking at possible options to help those who were injured or had lost loved ones. Our scheme compensated people who were injured in this country no matter where they were from. Many countries had similar reciprocal agreements. The problem arose where such schemes did not exist in certain countries. We were looking at the options to bridge that gap. It may take some time as it involved working with other countries. In the mean time we had introduced a £1 million charitable fund to provide immediate financial help for those caught up in terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world.

Briefing took place at 6:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Policy Reviews

Asked if there was any more detail on the policy reviews following the Political Cabinet, the PMOS said that the party side of the office would be able to brief on the Political Cabinet. His understanding was that today had been about agreeing in principle the process. There would then be a further discussion as to how that would translate into the actual process at a later Cabinet. It was at that point that it would become part of the government process. Asked whether the policy reviews were new, the PMOS said that the four working groups were new. Today had been a political discussion about the need for such for such a process. Questions about that crossed over to the political side and were not for him to answer.

Briefing took place at 6:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

DFID Aid

In response to the suggestion that Paul Wolfowitz had accused Hilary Benn of holding back money because of domestic political leadership reasons, the PMOS said that if journalists looked at the quote it had come from an anonymous source not Paul Wolfowitz. Hilary Benn had last week set out very clearly the reasons why he was taking the steps he had. In response to the suggestion that this highlighted the danger that anything could be viewed in this way now, the PMOS said that we would set out our reasons for decisions and no doubt the press would report those reasons and that would then deal with any confusion that might arise.

Briefing took place at 6:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Police Inquiry

Asked whether the Police had contacted the Prime Minister, the PMOS said there was no change from what he had said yesterday and the day before.

Briefing took place at 6:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Dorneywood

Asked whether a decision had been taken on Dorneywood, the PMOS said that there was no change on that matter either.

Briefing took place at 6:00 | 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...

» Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Thailand

Memorial Service for Victims of Terror

Policy Reviews

DFID Aid

Police Inquiry

Dorneywood

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries