Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Sports Reception, Crossrail, Home Office Five-Year Plan/Crime, Council Tax, Butler Report and Reshuffle.
Sports Reception
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be hosting a sports reception in Downing Street this evening to celebrate grassroots and young talent as the future of sport and to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to the 2012 Olympics bid. The guest list would include Sir Roger Bannister, Lord Coe, Steve Cram, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Sven Goran Eriksson. Asked if the purpose of tonight’s reception was to underline the Prime Minister’s support for the bid in the light of the stories at the weekend, the PMOS pointed out that the reception had been arranged some time ago and was therefore not a response to the weekend reports. The Prime Minister remained very closely involved in the thinking around the bid and in promoting it. That would become even more obvious over time.
Crossrail
In answer to questions about the report in today’s Times about Crossrail and the possibility that it could be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics were London to win the bid, the PMOS said that Alistair Darling would be making an announcement tomorrow which he had no intention of pre-empting, other than to advise journalists to treat the Times story with caution.
Home Office Five-Year Plan/Crime
In answer to questions about the launch of the Home Office’s Five-Year plan, the PMOS said that as David Blunkett, Lord Falconer and the Attorney General had all underlined at last week’s Cabinet, they detected a new feeling of change within the criminal justice system. As the Prime Minister would say in his speech today, in 1997 the criminal justice system had been the public service that had been "most unfit for purpose". In his view that was now changing. The Home Office’s Five-Year plan was designed to drive that change through in all aspects of the criminal justice system, whether it was policing, in the powers which communities held or in the way we tackled offenders.
Asked if the Prime Minister sincerely believed that the previous Administration presided over a 1960’s "liberal, social consensus on law and order", the PMOS said that as a Civil Servant he was unable to comment on political issues. That said, there was a clear analysis which stated that, while the 1960s provided a welcome end to discrimination and a welcome opening of personal freedoms, the downside of such a development was the loss of a sense of responsibility. It was the reinforcement of that and the idea that communities were not alone when they faced important issues such as crime that had been behind the anti-social behaviour legislation and other measures relating to law and order which had been put in place by this Government. Put to him that the Prime Minister’s speech did not ‘fess up to the fact that this was an important break from what had been the consensus on the liberal left - of which the Prime Minister had been part, the PMOS said the Prime Minister believed that this was an evolution of his experience - both as Shadow Home Secretary and as Prime Minister - of the interface between Government and communities in terms of what Governments could and should do, and indeed had done, and what communities wanted in terms of law and order. He was perfectly open about the fact that there had been an evolution in both his thinking and in the Government’s thinking about these issues. Within that, however, it was important to recognise that it did not in any way repudiate the good things about the 1960s, such as the end of discrimination, but went back to the basic idea of respect for law and law enforcement. Asked if the Prime Minister would be able to say today that prison worked, the PMOS said that in the Prime Minister’s view, any crimes relating to drugs - either directly or indirectly - should result in the offender participating in a rehabilitation scheme or else face a more draconian punishment. In this way, offenders were offered a chance to stay out of prison. If, however, they refused that option, they had to understand that the ultimate sanction would be used against them.
Asked to give examples of the sort of thing the Government’s legislation would ban, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had identified various changes in society which had resulted in the breakdown of parental discipline in certain areas, for instance. That was why he believed it was important to reinforce a basic respect for the law, hence the proposals today. This whole issue should come as no great surprise to anybody in the light of the Prime Minister’s speeches in recent years and the measures which the Government had taken on anti-social behaviour. This was an obvious evolution of thought. It was not some sudden break with the past. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that politicians had a responsibility to ensure that respect for law and order reflected what society actually wanted to see - namely, a tougher attitude that reinforced basic values.
Asked to point to a policy example which the Prime Minister was announcing today that had anything to do with reversing the effects of the thinking in the 1960s, the PMOS said that we recognised the need for a tougher attitude. He pointed to the measures we had implemented on anti-social behaviour in terms of how we were intending to treat drug offenders and how we were providing extra police and community support. All this was designed to re-assure local communities that we would not tolerate anti-social behaviour and the sort of low-level crime that afflicted many housing estates around the country, and that we did not believe that the only solution to drug-related problems was to either ignore them or send offenders to prison. Asked about the policy to decriminalise cannabis, the PMOS pointed out that it had been accompanied by a determination to place a greater emphasis on tackling Class A drugs. It had not made possession of cannabis legal.
Asked if the Prime Minister believed that preventing miscarriages of justice was a bad thing, the PMOS said no, of course not. The point he was making in his speech was that we had to be careful not to ignore the victims of crime or jeopardise the enforcement of the law. In our desire to prevent miscarriages of justice, we had to be careful not to do anything that might prevent justice being done. It was important to strike the right balance.
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that the European Convention on Human Rights would have an impact on the changes the Prime Minister wanted to make to the criminal justice system, the PMOS pointed out that it hadn’t prevented us from carrying out recent legislation on anti-social behaviour. To place the ills of the criminal justice system at the door of the European Convention on Human Rights was wrong.
Council Tax
Asked about reports at the weekend suggesting that the Government was thinking of widening the existing council tax bands so that people living in bigger houses would pay more council tax, the PMOS said that it was important be clear where this story was coming from. A paper on this issue was due to be published tomorrow. However, it was a report to Government, not by Government. That meant that it contained no Government proposals other than a statement of existing Government policy on this issue. Any suggestion that we had opted for any particular course was plain wrong. As we had pointed out, coverage in the media yesterday had treated a proposal by an outside body as if it was either being put forward by the Government or had been endorsed by the Government. Neither was right. All the paper included was a range of options which needed to be examined in more detail. We were only at the start of the process. There was obviously much more thinking to be done on the issue.
Butler Report
Asked to comment on reports that Downing Street had been given an early version of the Butler Report and had subsequently altered the text of it before publication last week, the PMOS said that as we had told journalists at the weekend, there was only one Butler Report - and the final version of that was what had been given to the Prime Minister last Tuesday by Lord Butler. Asked if Downing Street had seen the part of the Report referring to the Prime Minister before last Tuesday and had suggested any changes, the PMOS said that it was not for us to discuss the processes of the Butler Inquiry. The final Report had been sent to the Prime Minister last Tuesday. That was the one and only Butler Report there was.
Reshuffle
Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans for a Government reshuffle before recess, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to respond to reshuffle questions.
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