Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: EU Referendum, Big Brother and Deputy Prime Minister
EU Referendum
Asked to comment further on what Chancellor Merkel had said regarding the European Constitution referendum, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he had nothing further to add to what he had said earlier in the day. It should be taken step by step, and the first main issue that Europe would have to address was what the responses of the French and the Dutch were following their referendum.
Put that Chancellor Merkel was proposing not a complete treaty, but rather, a bureaucratic "tidy up", and her suggestion was that it would not require national referendum and that it could be agreed at parliamentary level, the PMOS replied that it was unwise to get drawn into running commentaries, and he added this topic would run from now until the EU Council in June. It was therefore better to see what actually was proposed and what the response of countries was.
Big Brother
Put that the Big Brother situation appeared to be getting more serious, and was it turning into a diplomatic incident, and therefore, was there any more that could be done at this end to address the issue, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had not seen Big Brother, and therefore, none of what he said would be a commentary on the Prime Minister’s view of the programme, as it would not be right for him to offer an opinion. What clearly was to be regretted, and countered, was if there was any perception abroad that in any way we tolerated racism in this country. What the response to the programme had shown was precisely the opposite and that there was no level of toleration in this country for anything which rightly or wrongly was perceived as racism. Therefore, the message should go out from the UK loud and clear that we were a tolerant country and that we would not tolerate racism in any way.
Asked if that was the Prime Minister’s view, the PMOS said that as people could see from the Indian media coverage, there was a lot of tension on this, and therefore, what in no way did we want was the perception that in any way racism was tolerated in the UK.
Put that given the furore at PMQs today, would the Prime Minister now find the tape and watch the programme, the PMOS said that it was not the Prime Minister’s job to act as commentator on programmes. What his role was, however, was to say what was fact: that this country did not in any way tolerate racism. The PMOS added that that was not in any way a judgement on the programme itself, as the Prime Minister would not be getting involved with it. Asked if the comments about the Big Brother programme could be attributed to the PMOS, speaking for the Prime Minister, the PMOS said that that was what it said on the tin!
Asked if there had been any contact at an ambassadorial level in India, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any. However, the Indian Government was well aware of our position.
Asked what had changed since 1100 this morning and PMQs, and had the Prime Minister been made aware of what was happening, the PMOS replied that there was not a difference in our message, and that was that this country in no way tolerated racism. It was important that in India, that message was being conveyed loud and clear, and indeed, the Chancellor had done that in his visit there.
Asked if any prominent businessmen or sportsmen had expressed their concerns, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any.
Put that Paddy Ashdown had suggested that one way that the UK could express their support would be to vote for the alleged victim, the PMOS said that that would involve watching the programme.
Asked if the PMOS thought that it was absurd that the Chancellor on an important visit to India had to make an apology for what had gone out on Big Brother, the PMOS replied that he had not doubt that the Chancellor would be speaking about other matters at length. What was important was that people did not believe that people in the UK tolerated racism. That was the serious side of this issue, and therefore, people would make up their own minds about the programme, but they should not be in any doubt at all about our opposition to racism.
Deputy Prime Minister
Asked if the Prime Minister had anything to say about the Deputy Prime Minister’s words on his department being broken up, the PMOS said that these decisions about departments and their responsibilities were always fine judgements, and people would always have different perspectives. In the end, the Prime Minister had to make these difficult decisions.
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