» Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Prime Minister’s Monthly Press Conference

Asked when the press conference was likely to be for this month as time was slipping away, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he wasn't sure if there would be one next week but that there would be one in April.

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

Iran

Asked if there were any plans to publish the GPS coordinates of where the British personnel were picked up, the PMOS said, as he had this morning, we were still at the stage of trying to discreetly talk to the Iranians, but leave them in no doubt that we expected the immediate release of our personnel. If that did not work then we may have to become more explicit. There are downsides to that as well as up sides and we have to take into account both sides of the equation.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Casinos

Asked if the Prime Minister would be voting on casinos, the PMOS said he wasn't sure but would check.

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

Sir Alistair Graham

Asked if there had been any response to Sir Alistair Graham's comments, the PMOS said no.

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

Iran/Kidnapped personnel

Asked what did the Prime Minister mean today when he said that the situation could move into a "different phase" if the Navy personnel were not released, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that he still hoped people would remain very careful about what they said about the situation. We had been clearly stating that we were utterly certain that the personnel were in Iraqi waters. So far, we had not made explicit why we knew that because we did not want to escalate this. We might have to get to the stage where we do become more explicit about why we know, and we did not want to do that too soon, as we would prefer this to be resolved quietly and privately. That was all that the Prime Minister meant; he did not mean anything else, so people should not over-interpret what he said.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Crime Statistics

Asked what the platform was for the crime statistics, the PMOS said that it was to show how crime had fallen since 1997, and it underlined the basic message of what the Prime Minister was saying this morning. Whether that was fear of crime, victims of crime, or crime itself, it showed the statistical breakdown of just how much they had fallen since 1997, and it was useful as a reminder whenever the stats came out. The top line of what the Prime Minister was saying, however, was that for the 100,000 repeat criminals who committed 50% of all crime, we had to devise a way to deal with them, and to deal with them in such a way, not as some coverage today was suggesting that we went soft on them. Rather, that we actually combined prison, where it was appropriate, with rehabilitation, as so much of repeat crime was related to drugs. Therefore, if the drugs issues were treated, the repeat offenders would be stopped. Where that had happened in a pilot scheme involving 7000, we had seen a 62% reduction in court convictions over 17 months, so that showed that it worked.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Child Poverty

Put that the figures attached to Jim Murphy's announcement today showed that they were getting worse, the PMOS said it was better to wait for the announcement to come out. The PMOS said that the majority of the rise in relative child poverty this year appeared to be accounted for by a rise in the number of self-employed households in poverty. There was a considerable error in recording the incomes of self-employed households. It was the trend over time that mattered for children, and under this Government, it had declined substantially.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Casino Orders

Asked if the Casino order was lost tomorrow, would happen next, the PMOS said that the question was a hypothetical one, but the important thing was that the Government had set out the process when we made the announcement. We would therefore, go through that process and we believed that we should follow the recommendation put forward by the Commission.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Downing Street Says...

The unofficial site which lets you comment on the UK Prime Minister's official briefings. About us...

Search


March 2007
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
« Feb   Apr »
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Supported by

mySociety.org

Disruptive Proactivity

Recent Briefings


Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries

Contact Sam Smith.

This site is powered by WordPress. Theme by Jag Singh