Morning press briefing from 7 May 2008
Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Scotland, International Development and misc
Scotland
Asked whether the Prime Minister agreed with what Wendy Alexander had said on the issue of independence for Scotland, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that we had gone round this course many times yesterday and as he had said, there was a debate taking place in the Scottish Parliament on the timing of any referendum on Scottish independence. The Prime Minister had always been confident of the strength of the argument in favour of the Union and believed that a referendum on Scotland leaving the Union would be defeated.
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with the timing of an early poll, the PMS reiterated that there was a debate taking place between the various political parties in Scotland at the moment. Asked if the Prime Minister would be joining that debate at any point, the PMS repeated that the debate was taking place in Scotland.
Put that the Prime Minister might want to comment on the issue if he was in Scotland, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister's physical location was neither here nor there.
Asked whether the Prime Minister thought that the rest of the UK should have a say on Scottish independence, the PMS replied that at the moment there was no particular proposal for a referendum and when there had been previous votes on the issue, they were votes that had taken place in Scotland. The PMS added that people were getting slightly ahead of themselves, as the position at the moment was that there was still a debate going on in Scotland about the timing of any potential referendum.
International Development
Put that the Prime Minister had been speaking about development quite a lot this week and was there any new thinking in what the Foreign Secretary would be saying in his speech that evening, the PMS said he thought it would be best if people spoke to the Foreign Office regarding the Foreign Secretary's speech. The issue in relation to food prices was not only an issue about development; it was an issue that had relevance for the UK as we were seeing. The Prime Minister was focussed on what more we could do globally on dealing with the issues of rising food prices and that was why he had been pushing for the matter to be on the agenda for the G8 meeting in July.
Misc
Asked what the Prime Minister's mood was following a poll in the Times that morning, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was getting on with the business of Government, dealing with the issues of the day and preparing for Prime Minister's Questions.
Asked what the position was regarding a Madame Tussauds waxwork, the PMS said that the last we had heard from Madame Tussauds was that they had sent a letter inviting the Prime Minister to sit for them. This was not something that the Prime Minister or anyone in Downing Street was spending any time focussing on at the moment, so this was the end of the matter.
Asked whether the Government were ignoring the report on the classification of drugs, the PMS said that Jacqui Smith would be making a statement to the house at 1230 and it would not be right for him to pre-empt that.
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