Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Lord Mayor’s Banquet and ID Cards.
Lord Mayor’s Banquet
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) briefed journalists on the Prime Minister’s speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet which he was due to deliver this evening. The speech would contain an upbeat message about what the Prime Minister called the ‘twin pillars’ of this country’s foreign policy, namely our relationship with the US - which was particularly significant in the light of President Bush’s visit to the UK next week - and our relationship with the EU. His message to those who criticised the relationship with the US on the one hand, and those who criticised the relationship with Europe on the other was that he believed both were mistaken. In his view, the two relationships complemented each other and were vital in today’s world. It was in that context that he would discuss Iraq which, he would say, was of seminal global importance. He would say, particularly to those who would criticise President Bush’s visit to the UK, that he believed it was time to stop arguing about the conflict and to get on and win the peace. This, he would say, was vital not just for the Iraqi people themselves, although that was obviously of crucial importance, but also of the future of the Middle East, as well as the future of the relationship between the Muslim world and the West. In his view, that was exactly the reason why the US and the EU relationships were complementary because he believed that while one country could win a war, it took the international community to win the peace. The Prime Minister would therefore be using the occasion tonight to send a strong message underlining continuing support for the twin pillars approach.
Questioned as to whether the twin pillars approach had any bearing on our decision to sign up to the draft European Constitution and whether it would have an impact on our relationship with the US, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would talk about issues such as EU defence tonight as part of his overall theme. He would take the opportunity to emphasise once again that EU defence should be seen as complementary to - not in competition with - NATO. Asked if the Prime Minister would state whether the President wanted him to sign up to the EU Constitution, the PMOS said that he would not express a view on President Bush’s opinion of it. However, he would go out of his way to stress that those who supported the US relationship had nothing to fear in the EU relationship and vice versa.
Asked why the critics of the Iraq conflict should stop opposing it, the PMOS said that the basic premise of the Prime Minister’s case was that while people might have legitimate arguments against it, the fact still remained that had it not taken place, Iraq would still be under the dictatorship of Saddam. It was clearly in the interests of the Iraqi people that we combined our efforts to bring about a stable democracy with a secure economic future. Consequently, it was important for all of us - no matter what our views might be - to do whatever we could to help bring that about. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had never believed that it was necessary to have to choose between following a course in Iraq and trying to involve as many people in doing so. Yes, people had adopted different positions on the military conflict. However, that did not mean they should not join in helping to bring about the peace as well.
ID Cards
Asked what the Home Secretary would say in his Statement to the House tomorrow on ID cards, the PMOS said that the context had been set by the Cabinet’s statement last Thursday and the agreement that we should move forward via a two-stage process. The first stage should be a voluntary process, following which a further decision would need to be taken before moving on to the second stage, which would be compulsory. The Home Secretary would set out further details in terms of how the two stages would operate and would also outline the case as to why we believed that ID cards were, in principle, the right thing to do.
Asked to explain what the obstacles to ID cards were when they were already in operation in other countries, the PMOS pointed out that bio-metric technology had changed the context of the debate. Sir John Stevens had said in his David Frost interview yesterday that he had been ambivalent about ID cards five or six years ago, but his opinion was now different. People’s concept of what was technologically possible and what the advantages of an ID card were meant that their views were evolving. The proposal which the Home Secretary would outline tomorrow would indicate how we could overcome the practical issues which had stopped previous Administrations going down the ID card route, while at the same time exploit the new bio-metric technology as it became available.
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