Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Boris Yeltsin, Iraq/Challenger Tank, EU Treaty and Civil Society
Boris Yeltsin
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) gave journalists some words from the Prime Minister regarding the death of former President Boris Yeltsin. The Prime Minister said that:
“It is with sadness that I learned of the death of former President Yeltsin. He was a remarkable man who saw the need for democratic and economic reform, and in defending it, played a vital role at a crucial time in Russia’s history”.
Asked if it was likely that the Prime Minister would attend a state funeral, the PMOS replied that we would take events one step at a time.
Iraq/Challenger Tank
Asked how great was the concern that a Challenger tank was penetrated in the latest attack in Basra, the PMOS said that we obviously tried everything we could to protect our troops as best we could in a operational environment. Beyond that, the PMOS said that he did not want to comment further in case it made their lives more difficult.
Put that in the past, the finger had been pointed very firmly at Iran, and were there any indications that that had happened in this case, the PMOS replied that what we had said in the past was that the technology involved did point in that direction, but he was not going to get into details in this instance.
Asked to confirm that the PMOS was therefore not talking about this particular case, the PMOS said: no. The Prime Minister had been saying since October 2005 that that was the case, but again, the PMOS said that he was not going to get into this case further as it would be investigated in due course.
Asked if there were any thoughts were being taken into further measures that could be employed in terms of protection, the PMOS replied that that was an operational matter which was no doubt at the forefront of the Army’s mind. However, it was a matter for them, rather than us.
EU Treaty
Asked what the UK’s position on new arrangements of the EU 27 was, the PMOS replied that what the Prime Minister had said when he was with the Dutch Prime Minister last week was that what we should aim for was an amending treaty, rather than a treaty that had the elements of a constitution. What that meant was that this would be a treaty which like all the treaties there had been in the EU of that nature, did not seek to replace all the existing treaties, but rather, added amendments to allow it to work for 27, rather than for 15 or for 6. That meant that there would be a President, but that President was simply a Chair of the EU Council, and did not have independent powers. The same caveats would apply to the foreign representative, whatever that foreign representative was called, bearing in mind that in Javier Solana, there was already was such a person. We had to take into account the reality that both the French and the Dutch electorates had rejected the proposed constitutional treaty.
Civil Society
Asked if there was any response to David Cameron’s speech about civil society, and that the Government was overseeing a “de-civilised culture and was treating people like children”, the PMOS said that as a civil servant, he was not going to respond directly to the Leader of the Opposition. However, the PMOS pointed people to the recent report on ASBOs from the NAO in December 2006. That report recognised that our policy in tackling antisocial behaviour through a twin attack approach of support and sanction was effective, as well as being effective in cracking down on other things such as dispersal zones and acceptable behaviour contracts. We had also put in place parenting classes and advice to address poor parenting. Therefore, in terms of a society in which people took responsibility, we had set out measures to try to achieve that.
The PMOS reminded journalists of the support that we had given teachers by giving school staff statutory powers for disciplining pupils for the first time. All of those were measures of civic support. In terms of the overall picture, nobody was going to pretend that these problems arose when this Government came to power; they had been there for a long time. The important thing to ask was had we taken measures to back neighbourhoods or teachers and parents? The answer was that the Government had.
Put that there was an international report published that said that the UK was the worst place to bring up children, and didn’t David Cameron have a point, the PMOS replied that with regards to various reports, it depended on what they were measuring. The important thing was how was the performance of children measured? For instance, if they were measured by school results, then they were performing better that ever before, therefore, it did have to be put into the mix. People also had to resist the temptation to smear an entire generation of children by the misbehaviour of some.
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