Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq-Troops, Northern Ireland, Veils, Naval contribution to UN Forces, British Airways, Faith Schools, Ruth Kelly meeting and President Barroso meeting
Iraq-Troops
Put that when he was asked last week about any contact the Prime Minister had had with the White House regarding General Dannatt’s comments about troops in Iraq, but Tony Snow said there had been, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that the suggestion he had responded to was that we had had a conference call with the White House, and we had not. The Prime Minister had not had any contact with the White House, either.
Put that on the No10 website last week, the PMOS had said that there had not been any contact, the PMOS said that as far as he was aware at the time in St. Andrews, there had not been any contact.
Northern Ireland
Asked if tomorrow was the first time that Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley had sat around the same table for talks, the PMOS said that they had sat at the same table at Stormont, and at St. Andrews at a plenary session. The difference this time was that this was the committee that was preparing for the restoration of Government, and there would be discussion through the Chair. At the two previous occasions mentioned, people made statements, not a discussions.
Asked if the Prime Minister had had a meeting with Gerry Adams, the PMOS replied that we were keeping in touch with all the parties. Obviously, as we moved forward, people would be very conscious of the deadline of the 10th November to signal their agreement, and therefore, the discussions were part of that on-going process.
Asked if they would come back in the same spirit as the talks last week, the PMOS said that as he had said last week, people were working to go forward. The meeting tomorrow was a symptom of that, but people would make up their own minds whenever they had consulted their grassroots.
Veils
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed that the teaching assistant at the centre of the current debate regarding the wearing of veils should be sacked, the PMOS replied that what the Prime Minister believed was that there was a debate going on, and that these were matters which should be resolved locally.
Asked if that meant that the Prime Minister thought that Phil Woolas should not have spoken his mind about it, the PMOS said again that there was a debate going on, and people were perfectly entitled to contribute to that debate from all points of view.
Put that in terms of responsibility, was there a "loosening of the reins", the PMOS said that there was not. As the PMOS had said last week, issues such as this were matters of personal view, not Government policy. Therefore, people were entitled to express their personal view.
Naval contribution to UN Forces
Asked to confirm if the UK would be making a Naval contribution to the UN forces, the PMOS replied that there was a discussion going on at the UN, and that discussion should be allowed to take place. This would be a matter for the UN to decide how it enforced the sanctions.
British Airways
Asked for a response to the passengers on the British Airways flight sixteen years ago in Kuwait and for which there was now a call for a public enquiry in a letter from Norman Baker, the PMOS replied that we would wait for that letter from Norman Baker, and then we would reply.
Faith Schools
Asked if Alan Johnson’s move on quotas for faith schools amounted to a change in heart by the Government, the PMOS replied that he was not going to get into the detail of it, as it was for the department to make their announcement. People would have noticed that we welcomed the Church of England’s announcement last week to make a quarter of their places in their schools available to non-Church pupils. In general, we supported an extension of that principle.
Asked if the Prime Minister was convinced that people would want to go to these faith schools when they opened, the PMOS said that there was a demand for places in schools of this character, but people should wait for the announcement.
Ruth Kelly meeting
Asked for further information on Ruth Kelly’s meeting today, the PMOS said that Ruth Kelly was meeting with the local authority leaders. She would be addressing the issue of extremism across the board, and she would say that extremism was not just a problem for Muslim communities, but rather, for all of us, and we all had a shared responsibility in taking it on. In terms of the Muslim community, we must proactively support the work being done by many moderates within the Muslim community and elsewhere to take on such extremists. The PMOS said that action already taken by the local authorities in fighting extremism since 7th July included the setting up of forums against extremism, and other education programmes which taught the rejection of violence etc. Therefore, there was already a lot of work underway.
Asked if it was true that some schools had been given training on how to spot potential extremists in classes, the PMOS replied that he was not sure if individual schools had. However, in general, what people were trying to do was encourage a situation where there was education about the benefits of pluralism, and about why we needed to reject violence. That was all part of the education programmes that had been set up since 7th July.
Asked for comment on today’s Guardian story about universities being encouraged to spy on students, the PMOS replied that there was a misunderstanding in that the approach in universities was to teach the positive case for pluralism, rather than spying.
Put that the story had quoted a document, the PMOS said that they had misunderstood the document, but suggested the journalists checked with the Department for Education for more information.
Put that the Muslim community leaders were not at the meeting with Ruth Kelly, the PMOS pointed out that this was a meeting for local authority leaders, and we had separate meetings with Muslim communities.
President Barroso meeting
Asked what was on the agenda for the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Barroso, the PMOS said that it was in the run-up to the EU Informal Summit. Therefore, it would be those issues that would be discussed.
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