» Wednesday, February 21, 2007Miscellaneous
Asked if there was a cast list for the Crime Summit tomorrow, the PMOS said no. All announcements would be made tomorrow morning. Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Prime Minister’s Statement on Iraq and the wider Middle East
Asked for further information on the Prime Minister's statement to the House of Commons today on Iraq and the Middle East, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he was not going to pre-empt the statement. He summarised it by saying that what the Prime Minister believed was that in line with the policy of Iraqiisation which we had announced as long ago as April 2004, we had now reached a stage where the next chapter of life in Basra could be written by the Iraqis themselves. What was important was that we took the steps towards that. It was a conditions-based approach, and that meant that while we would be announcing certain steps today, future steps would depend on conditions on the ground. That was consistent with the approach that we announced in April 2004. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Afghanistan
Asked what the Prime Minister would say about Afghanistan, the PMOS replied that Afghanistan was mentioned, but nothing about troops. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Pensions
Asked what the Government's response was to the High Court ruling on pensions this morning, the PMOS said that both sides were appealing with the judgement. The PMOS noted that the judgement had said that there was no causal link between the leaflet and the difficulties that people had got into. Because both sides were going to appeal, the PMOS said he was very limited as to what he could say about it. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Police Inquiry
Asked for further information about Ruth Turner being questioned by police, the PMOS replied that Special Advisors were temporary civil servants and he did not comment on civil servants, temporary or otherwisw. The only reason he had commented before was because of the particular circumstance of an arrest. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) E-Petition
Put that the No10 website showed the Prime Minister replying to an email by writing on a pad, and was that how the Prime Minister thought emails happened, the PMOS replied that he realised this may not surprise journalists, but the Prime Minister himself had confessed that his internet capability was somewhat limited! Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) Margaret Thatcher Statue
Asked by the Daily Mail if the Prime Minister would attend Baroness Thatcher's memorial, the PMOS asked if the journalist meant memorial or statue?! Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0) » Tuesday, February 20, 2007Road Pricing
Asked to comment on the story in today's Times that Councils were complaining that access to money to fund transport projects would only be given if linked to road pricing, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that without commenting on the story, what we had said all along was that we were going to carry out 10 pilot schemes, and discussions about those were ongoing. It was important to keep stressing that these pilots schemes were precisely to work out what was possible in tackling congestion, how we go about it, and to learn from the experience. This was not a one step to a national road pricing scheme. Doing nothing was not an option. If we did nothing, the figures showed that there would be a 25% increase in congestion by 2010, a 30% increase in congestion by 2015, and a 40% increase by 2025. People needed to recognise that doing nothing was not an option. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (19) Road Pricing
Asked to comment on the story in today's Times that Councils were complaining that access to money to fund transport projects would only be given if linked to road pricing, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that without commenting on the story, what we had said all along was that we were going to carry out 10 pilot schemes, and discussions about those were ongoing. It was important to keep stressing that these pilots schemes were precisely to work out what was possible in tackling congestion, how we go about it, and to learn from the experience. This was not a one step to a national road pricing scheme. Doing nothing was not an option. If we did nothing, the figures showed that there would be a 25% increase in congestion by 2010, a 30% increase in congestion by 2015, and a 40% increase by 2025. People needed to recognise that doing nothing was not an option. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (13) Mental Health Bill
Asked what the Government was going to do now regarding the Mental Health Bill, the PMOS replied that we would reflect on the votes that had taken place and then announce our intentions. There would be a period of reflection first. Briefing took place at 9:00 | 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. |
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