London, Wednesday 12 May 2004
Interviewer:
The Prime Minister has been trumpeting job figures at Question Time today saying a new job has been created for every two minutes that Labour has been in power. Tony Blair said employment now is at a record high, with nearly 2 million more people at work than 7 years ago. Mr Blair joins me now. Can I put it to you that maybe the perception here in Lancashire is very different, we have had over 100 job losses announced yesterday in the shoe industry, that is now almost defunct. Recently 600 call centre redundancies, so the perception is that maybe traditional modern business is suffering, and especially manufacturing.
Prime Minister:
Well I think the problem is that in today’s world and today’s economy jobs do tend to come and go, and that is part of the difficulty, and we face that along with every other country. But the main thing is there are almost 200,000 more people in work in the north west than there were 7 years ago and unemployment has halved. So of course when people lose their jobs, or factories close, or workplaces close of course it is a tragedy for the people involved, but I think the difference between now and say 10 - 15 years ago is that there are other jobs for people to go to, and we also put in place a very comprehensive package of help for people to do that.
Interviewer:
Moving on to Iraq, you have apologised for the abuse highlighted by the Daily Mirror photographs of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, even if it is the case now they do turn out to be fake, but do you believe that there is a wider abuse within the British military and what should be done about it?
Prime Minister:
Well I don’t, no, and I actually get very angry on behalf of British troops when what has been happening over the past few days is a whole lot of allegations just swirling around which as soon as we answer one, we are presented with another. And as far as I am aware, any allegations of abuse in respect of British troops have been properly investigated and there is no evidence whatever of systematic and widespread abuse; on the contrary, as the Mayor down in Basra was saying yesterday, the British troops should be very proud of what they have done there.
Interviewer:
What then do you make of the photographs, because the latest rumours up here in Lancashire are that if these turn out to be fake, they may well have involved members of the Territorial Army, what do you make of them?
Prime Minister:
Well I don’t know, I only know what has been discussed in the public, and I think the view of the Army is that they almost certainly are fake, but we are still trying to make the final checks on it, and I can’t think why anyone would do such a thing, because The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, all the regiments that have been out in Iraq, have actually done a fantastic job for people there, and they have done it with soldiers protecting themselves and protecting the local population in very difficult circumstances. And I think it is just worth pointing out, you know every single day, none of this obviously ever gets to the headlines, but every single day down in the south of Iraq, people there are being helped to a better life. And you only have to talk to some of them, and I sometimes wish some of the voices from that part of Iraq were actually heard in our own media. If you talk to them then they will tell you we have our freedom, our lives are improving, we are trying to repair the infrastructure and the only problem are these remnants of the old guard who come along and try and kill anyone who helps us.
Interviewer:
What then were you apologising for?
Prime Minister:
What I was saying, which of course is what I have got to say, is that if there have been any situations of abuse then we do apologise. And some of the cases for example that we have investigated, long before all this stuff hit the headlines, there are recommendations which the Military Police will make about action to be taken. So I am not sitting here saying, and I never have, there will never be a case of abuse that happens. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship however is not that in a democracy bad things don’t happen, but when they do happen the thing is investigated and people are held to account, and that is what has happened and it was happening inside the British military long before any of this hit the headlines. What there isn’t evidence of however, there are these isolated cases, what there isn’t evidence of at all as far as I am concerned is evidence of widespread systematic abuse; on the contrary, the latest Red Cross report on the detainees held by the British is actually favourable.
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