Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Northern Ireland, Cabinet, Middle East, Afghanistan, Local Elections, Mobile Phones and Europe.
Northern Ireland
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) operationally advised journalists that the Prime Minister and Chancellor would be visiting Northern Ireland this afternoon, alongside John Reid, David Trimble and Mark Durkan. The focus of the visit was the economy and living standards. The Prime Minister had been to Northern Ireland many times over the past few years, primarily for ‘knife-edge’ talks and crisis management. No one was saying that there might not be moments like that in the future as we continued to try to resolve all the outstanding issues.
However, the fact that today’s visit was focussing on the economy was clearly one of the dividends of the Good Friday Agreement. Over the last thirty years, for understandable reasons, the focus on Northern Ireland had been directed towards conflict resolution and dealing with the situation there rather than on its infrastructure. Today’s visit was a recognition that there was a backlog of work to be caught up on in that field. An announcement expected to be made today would give the Executive some new financial flexibility and responsibility and would also hand over to them some of the sites which were a legacy of the past.
Cabinet
The PMOS said that the Prime Minister had chaired Cabinet this morning. Discussion had focussed on next week’s business, the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Local Elections.
Middle East
The PMOS said that Jack Straw had briefed Ministers on the situation in the Middle East. He had told Cabinet colleagues that the deal which had been brokered so carefully over the last couple of weeks was now in place. The six Palestinian prisoners had now been transferred from Ramallah to Jericho. Under the terms of the deal, the Palestinian Authority had prime responsibility for keeping the prisoners in custody, while the supervisory wardens, whom we had sent to the region, would act as monitors. Mr Straw had pointed out that we had first raised this plan in November. The fact it had happened was a result of the quiet diplomacy which had been ongoing since then. He said that although what had happened was obviously important, attention should now be focussed towards restarting the peace process. Getting Chairman Arafat out of Ramallah had been a significant step forward because without that, there would be no chance of making any progress. Now that Mr Arafat was able to move around more freely, people had to look at what could be done to move forward from here. The Prime Minister had told Cabinet that Mr Straw had done extremely well to help broker the deal. He had also emphasised the difficulties of the situation, underlining that it was extremely volatile and could well get worse before it got better.
Afghanistan
The PMOS said that both Jack Straw and Geoff Hoon had briefed Ministers on Afghanistan. Mr Straw had said that the interim Loya Jirga was now moving forward. Mr Hoon had told colleagues that a substantial offensive operation had begun overnight inside Afghanistan. The territory in which our forces were operating was very difficult, as it was a mountainous region. The action followed a pattern which had been established previously - rooting out Al Qaida remnants, clearing the area of equipment, re-inforcing the political process inside Afghanistan and helping to bring stability to the country. He had pointed out that, as with any operation like this, there were very real risks involved. However, our formed forces were well trained and extremely professional. The Prime Minister had reiterated the fact that they were going into a situation where the plan was to clear the ground and clean the place of Al Qaida remnants. He pointed out that until they went through it, they wouldn’t necessarily know what they might find there. Regardless of that, the very fact it was happening was extremely significant. Engagement with the enemy did not necessarily mean that this operation wouldn’t be successful. Quite the contrary.
Asked to explain the Prime Minister’s comment about engaging with the enemy, the PMOS said he been making the point that our troops didn’t know what they might find until they got there. Put to him that their remit was to ‘mop up’ any Al Qaida remnants and therefore they ought to be engaging with the enemy, the PMOS said that until they reached the area, it was impossible to predict what they might find there. The point was that the operation should not be deemed a failure if they didn’t find any Al Qaida remnants because they were continuing to move forward through the country with the purpose of rooting them out, clearing the ground and keeping them moving. Asked to explain the point of the operation if Al Qaida members were slipping away before our troops reached them, the PMOS said that this was an ongoing operation to drive out any Al Qaida members still in Afghanistan and destroy any bases that might be discovered. The point was that our troops did not know for certain what level of engagement might be required until they were actually there. No one should be under any illusion that this operation was extremely important. Equally, no one was pretending that this was the end of it. Clearly it wasn’t. Nor, of course, was he indicating that we knew what the likely outcome of the operation would be. Asked when it had begun, the PMOS said that as he understood it, it had started overnight.
Asked about the Prime Minister’s meeting with Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon and the Chief-of-Defence Staff this morning, the PMOS said that they had updated the Prime Minister on the situation in Afghanistan given the developments overnight. It had been an opportunity for them to sit down and assess where we were and how things were shaping up in relation to the military campaign.
Local Elections
The PMOS said that there had been a 20-25 minute discussion in Cabinet about today’s Local Elections, which had been mainly political. Stephen Byers had pointed out that turnout was looking pretty good in those areas which were piloting an all-postal vote scheme. This was clearly encouraging. Other pilots were also taking place in these elections, including e-voting, mobile phone text messaging and internet voting.
Questioned as to whether Ministers had discussed fears about the far right and extremism, the PMOS said that the issue of the far right had not featured prominently in the discussion. Asked what they had spoken about, the PMOS said that it had been political so he couldn’t talk about it.
Mobile Phones
The PMOS advised journalists that John Denham would be introducing a Bill this afternoon which would make it illegal to reprogramme mobile phones. Asked whether the purpose of the Bill was to help get street crime under control, the PMOS said that it was part of the action we were taking against street crime. At the moment it was not an offence to reprogramme mobile phones. This Bill would ensure that it was.
Europe
Asked for a reaction to the Prince of Wales’ reported comment that he wouldn’t be concerned if the UK left the EU, the PMOS said that these reported remarks were just that - reported. Our views on Europe were well known. Questioned as to whether that meant the Prime Minister stood by his statement that it would be an act of supreme folly to leave the EU, the PMOS said he had already answered the question. As the journalist himself had attested, this was a reported comment.
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