Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Criminal Justice System, Chavez, DPM Questions and CBI Speech
Criminal Justice System
Asked about the Chancellor’s role in ensuring our security, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he was not aware of the reference because it was a party event. However, the fact of the matter was that the Treasury had always had a role in providing the funds for security. The Prime Minister often praised the role of the Chancellor in sustaining a strong economy and it was frequently part of what the Prime Minister said that the Treasury had provided the funds needed for security.
Asked when the Prime Minister had made his conclusion that the criminal justice system was the worst performing public service, the PMOS said that if journalists went back over many of the Prime Minister’s speeches they would see that he had repeatedly said that the criminal justice system, in his view, was the department in government which was "least fit" for purpose of any department. That was a view he had made repeatedly in recent years. Equally, just because you put forward proposals in one area did not mean that you had not made progress in other areas. A frequent theme of the Prime Minister’s had been that he viewed the criminal justice system as least fit for purpose in addition alongside the underlying theme of rebalancing the system more in favour of the community as a whole rather than the individual. In terms of recent events that had taken on a particular form in relation to human rights and so on but it had been a recurring theme throughout.
Put that last August the Prime Minister had talked about amending the Human Rights Act whereas today he had talked about interpretation and was there a difference, the PMOS said that the question was open ended: why did we have a problem with interpretation of our human rights legislation and the convention when other European countries, who were also signatories of the convention, who had their own human rights legislation, did not. The important thing was that the Home Office did the work between now and June. Then we would see where we had got to.
Asked if it was a requirement of EU membership to be signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the PMOS said that you needed to first ask yourself why other countries saw no contradiction between being signatories of the ECHR, as this country had been for many many decades, and getting the balance right between the individual and the community. Therefore the question to be asked was why did we have these problems of interpretation in this country. You needed to answer that first and foremost. Put that Lord Falconer had said that the ECHR was a condition of EU membership, the PMOS said that he was not a lawyer so he took things at a common sense level. The common sense question before you addressed big fundamental questions like that, was why did we have problems when other countries, such as France, did not.
Asked where we were with Memorandums of Understandings, the PMOS said to check with the Foreign Office, as he understood there had been progress with Algeria in recent days.
Asked if there was any antipathy from the judiciary to the Labour Government, the PMOS said that the question was party political. The important thing was to ask the question he had outlined and then see where it lead you and not pre-empt the outcome. Asked why the Prime Minister had not just asked his wife, the PMOS said that he paid tribute to ITN’s instinct to personalise every story, but in this case the government would take an overview.
Chavez
Asked if the Mayor was running his own foreign office, the PMOS said that the Mayor would speak for himself. In terms of President Chavez it was a private visit. Asked if he was welcome to Downing Street, the PMOS said that was a hypothetical question but the Prime Minister had acknowledged President Chavez at the meeting in Vienna on Friday.
DPM Questions
Asked whether the Deputy Prime Minister would conduct the parliamentary questions session on Wednesday and what would he be answering questions on, the PMOS said that the Deputy Prime Minister would answer questions on the role of the Deputy Prime Minister as a part of Cabinet Office questions. Journalist should speak to the Cabinet Office for further detail.
CBI Speech
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that the Prime Minister would, in his speech to the CBI tomorrow, deliver a strong defence of economic liberalism in a wide-ranging speech, which would say that the modernisation of public services in 21st century was essential. The speech would cover economy, education and skills, the NHS, energy policy, science, pensions, regulation, the WTO and the EU.
"We can either embrace globalisation or be engulfed by it."
"Continual modernisation is the only way public services in the 21st century will survive the constantly rising and changing demands and expectations of the public. The key question facing this Government and every government in the foreseeable future will not be whether to abandon public service reform but just how fast it can be driven as our world changes rapidly around us."
"We have to drive forward with vital education reforms that will equip people with the skills they need; that means more trust schools, more City Academies and higher quality vocational education."
"The changes to the NHS are painful and difficult. But they are nothing compared to the pain of the slow death the NHS would suffer in the 21st century if we left it frozen in time, trying to meet the hopes and fears of people in 2008 with the attitudes and practices of 1948."
"The British economy is still strong, despite all the challenges; still stable, with employment the highest and growth the most sustained since modern records began. We have interest rates on average half the level we inherited, with low inflation and income per head higher now than in France, Germany and Japan. But if we are to make this success story of the last decade the success story of the next century, we must continue to open ourselves to the world and fight to win."
"We have the weapons to win the battle of economic supremacy in the 21st century. We have economic stability, flexible labour markets, the English language a strong science sector. We are at the heart of the EU but a close friend of the US too. As the Olympics showed, the world now sees us as a dynamic nation, confident about the challenges of the future."
Asked if there would be any new announcement on energy policy, the PMOS said no. We had the review and the Prime Minister would be talking about the need to be open minded on the outcome of it and to take onboard the lessons of the review also. Asked if the Prime Minister had been referring to anything in particular when mentioning 2008, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was referring to the 60th anniversary of the NHS. He was also referring to the fact that people’s expectations were growing all the time.
Asked if journalists were being encouraged to see a tough message to would be critics of the Education Bill in the education passage, the PMOS said that he would be surprised if journalists were surprised by the Prime Minister’s message that he believed that trust schools, City Academies and higher quality vocational education were all necessary, as were good universities, simply because of the challenge of globalisation. That had always been the context in which he had placed the need for higher skills, whether academic or vocational skills. So the context was obvious.
Asked if the Prime Minister would talk about defence in relation to budget cuts, the PMOS asked where these defence cuts were since the defence budget was actually increasing. It was welcomed as increasing, by the then Chief of Defence Staff, as the biggest increase fro a considerable time. The Daily Telegraph had its own agenda, which was not a proper interpretation.
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