» Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Hungarian Prime Minister
Asked if it was true that the Hungarian Prime Minister had come to say goodbye, the PMOS said that he was not aware of that. There were real issues such as the EU Constitution to talk about, and if people remembered what the Prime Minister had said in his press conference this week about wanting to work towards an amending treaty, and not a constitutional treaty, then that was part of that context. This was a debate which was picking up right across Europe as we approached the June Council, and as we approached the point where there would a new President in France. Therefore, there was a renewed emphasis on this debate, and the Prime Minister and Prime Minister Balkenende tried to shape that debate during their press conference.
Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
» Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Britain in the World
Asked why Iraq was number four in the list of achievements behind things like the Gleneagles Summit, Africa, poverty, Bosnia and Sierra Leone, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that it was not a question of putting achievements in a ranking order, just as it is not a foreign policy that says that you can take out one element and say that it is more important than another. In the combination of hard power and soft power you have to respond to the reality of the world out there. The reality of the world out there is that you do have to address the question of Africa and climate change, just as we did at Gleneagles and since just as you have to address the question of terrorism, as we are doing in Afghanistan and in Iraq. They are different pressures, different demands but it does not mean that it is either or, or a ranking system. It is simply that they are different elements of how you respond to an international situation.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Mongolian President
Asked what the Mongolian President and the Prime Minister discussed at their meeting today and if it was their first meeting, the PMOS said it thought it was their first meeting and they discussed regional issues. Asked if they discussed Russia, the PMOS said that they discussed region issues therefore Russia would come into that. Asked if there were any specific bilateral issues, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any specific bilateral issues but the regional picture was one that they discussed.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Vote
Asked if the Prime Minister would be voting tonight, the PMOS said we did not generally brief in advance. Asked which way the Prime Minister would vote, the PMOS said the lobby were just being mischievous.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Troop Withdrawl
Following on from Muqtada al-Sadr's announcement that his followers should pull out of the Iraq government the PMOS was asked if the British Government were in touch with the Iraqi Prime Minister about the comments and if this changed our timescale for the withdrawal of troops, the PMOS said as it happened and by coincidence the Prime Minister was due to speak to Prime Minister Jawad al-Maliki today. In terms of internal events in Iraq, that was a matter for Iraq, what we would say is that there is a democratically elected government and that government has our full support. Asked if the Prime Minister was calling to talk about troops, the PMOS said that all he would say was that the Prime Minister answered the question in the same way that the PMOS had yesterday, no.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Shootings in US
Asked if the Prime Minister had been in contact with the American President, the PMOS said that as reporters knew they are in regular contact and they will be in contact at some point this week but we fully understand the shock and the horror that this has caused in America and we do not want to intrude on that. At the same time the Prime Minister thought it right that he expressed his sympathy and the sympathy of this country.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Inflation and Interest Rates
Put to him that Tony Woodley had warned employers across the UK to expect pay claims this year in excess of 4.8 percent to reflect the rise in cost of living in Britain, did the Prime Minister think this was helpful, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would point to the full content of the letter from the Bank of England which predicted confidently that inflation would go down and that is what people should draw reference to. Put to him that the Bank of England is only saying that inflation will go down if interest rates go up, the PMOS said that it was not for him to interpret the words of the Bank of England but what the Prime Minister was also referring to was one of the reasons for the rise in inflation was the rise in energy prices and those are the way down, particularly household gas prices.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
» Monday, April 16, 2007
EU Treaty
Asked if the commitment to the referendum still stood, or was it a "entirely new matter", the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that this treaty would be a different kind of animal if the rest of the 27 agreed. The PMOS explained that this would be an amending treaty, like we had seen in the past. Therefore, those rules would apply. The important thing was the context you started from, i.e., instead of beginning from the starting point of constitutional theory, where we should start from was what was practically needed to make a Europe of 27 work. A Europe of 27 could not operate by the same rules as a Europe of 6, 12, or 15, and anyone who had attended a European Council meeting recently knew it just did not work in the same way it should, Therefore, the way in which the EU operated had to practically change, so that was the starting point, and that was the starting point of the Dutch. What we were saying to the rest of Europe was that we had to recognise that just as we did on the morning after the French and Dutch referendums, there was a reason why the voters spoke, and we had address those reasons.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Police Inquiry
No. Asked if we had any idea how long "this" was going to go on for, the PMOS said that it was a matter for the police and the CPS.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Hilary Benn
Put that Hilary Benn had talked about "soft force" in his recent speech, which appeared to be the opposite of the Prime Minister's speech a couple of months ago where he had spoken about "hard force", the PMOS replied that if people read the Prime Minister's speech in Los Angeles, it said that where necessary, people had to be prepared to use military force to protect democratic governments, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, against terrorism. At the same time, they had to recognise that politics had to be used to win the battle of ideas, and that had been a key theme in the Prime Minister's speech for quite some time.
Briefing took place at 15:00 | 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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