Downing Street Says » 2007

» Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Africa Progress Panel Meeting

Asked what policies were being discussed and what did we hope would come out of the Africa meetings, the PMOS said that there would be an inaugural meeting of the Africa Progress Panel (APP). The idea between the APP was that Gleneagles genuinely was a landmark for Africa, but what we needed to ensure was that both sides of the equation lived up to the commitments that they made at Gleneagles. The African nations had to deliver on governance, fighting corruption, support for the Africa Union training troops and that the donor countries delivered on their overall aid levels to Africa, as well as specific issues such as countering HIV/AIDS. There had been real progress in terms of Africa, but we needed to see that delivered within the timescale that was set out at Gleneagles which was up to 2010. If people looked two years on from Gleneagles, the increases in global aid were up from $79 billion in 2005 to $103.9 billion this year. Aid to Africa was up by $10 billion. Those figures included significant levels of debt relief, especially to Nigeria and Iraq, but even without taking into account that debt relief, aid was still up from the Gleneagles baseline. If the debt relief was taken out, global aid was up by $8 billion, and aid to Africa by $2 billion. The PMOS said that we had seen real progress, but we needed to have a mechanism that drove that through to 2010, and this was what the APP would do.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Bin collections

Asked if the Prime Minister would mind having his bins collected fortnightly, rather than weekly, the PMOS said that this was a matter for local authorities, and he was sorry to disappoint the Daily Mail.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Boris Yeltsin

Asked who would be our representative to Boris Yeltsin's funeral, the PMOS replied that it was not yet decided.

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

Chairman of Committee on Standards in Public Life

Asked who would be the Interim Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the PMOS said that it would be Rita Donaghy whilst we waited for the report from the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) on ethics and standards. We would not express a view until we had seen the PASC report.

Put that was it not strange to wait for a Select Committee to publish their report before implementing what the position was, the PMOS said that if it was the other way round, he could write the Standard's piece: "The Government today ignored the views of members of Parliament"! The PMOS said that he knew that journalists were paid to have their cake and eat it, but that was "pretty rich cake".

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

Freedom of Information Bill

Asked if the Prime Minister had a view on the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill, the PMOS replied that it was the Government's position as this was a matter for Parliament.

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

» Monday, April 23, 2007

Boris Yeltsin

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) gave journalists some words from the Prime Minister regarding the death of former President Boris Yeltsin. The Prime Minister said that:

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

Iraq/Challenger Tank

Asked how great was the concern that a Challenger tank was penetrated in the latest attack in Basra, the PMOS said that we obviously tried everything we could to protect our troops as best we could in a operational environment. Beyond that, the PMOS said that he did not want to comment further in case it made their lives more difficult.

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

EU Treaty

Asked what the UK's position on new arrangements of the EU 27 was, the PMOS replied that what the Prime Minister had said when he was with the Dutch Prime Minister last week was that what we should aim for was an amending treaty, rather than a treaty that had the elements of a constitution. What that meant was that this would be a treaty which like all the treaties there had been in the EU of that nature, did not seek to replace all the existing treaties, but rather, added amendments to allow it to work for 27, rather than for 15 or for 6. That meant that there would be a President, but that President was simply a Chair of the EU Council, and did not have independent powers. The same caveats would apply to the foreign representative, whatever that foreign representative was called, bearing in mind that in Javier Solana, there was already was such a person. We had to take into account the reality that both the French and the Dutch electorates had rejected the proposed constitutional treaty.

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

Civil Society

Asked if there was any response to David Cameron's speech about civil society, and that the Government was overseeing a "de-civilised culture and was treating people like children", the PMOS said that as a civil servant, he was not going to respond directly to the Leader of the Opposition. However, the PMOS pointed people to the recent report on ASBOs from the NAO in December 2006. That report recognised that our policy in tackling antisocial behaviour through a twin attack approach of support and sanction was effective, as well as being effective in cracking down on other things such as dispersal zones and acceptable behaviour contracts. We had also put in place parenting classes and advice to address poor parenting. Therefore, in terms of a society in which people took responsibility, we had set out measures to try to achieve that.

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

EU Treaty

Asked if the Prime Minister's visit to Poland at the end of the week was primarily about the EU Treaty, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that a lot of forthcoming European visits would undoubtedly cover the issue and the Prime Minister had set out his view of the way forward last week with the Dutch Prime Minister.

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

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» Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Africa Progress Panel Meeting

Bin collections

Boris Yeltsin

Chairman of Committee on Standards in Public Life

Freedom of Information Bill

» Monday, April 23, 2007

Boris Yeltsin

Iraq/Challenger Tank

EU Treaty

Civil Society

EU Treaty

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