Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: PM’s Speech to Congress, Hong Kong and Lords Reform.
PM’s Speech to Congress
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) briefed journalists on the Prime Minister’s speech to the joint meeting of Congress which he was due to deliver in Washington on Thursday. His basic message would be that the US and Europe had shared values. These were not western values, but universal human values. The US and Europe should do all they could to act together because the world was a more secure and prosperous place when they did. He would underline the need for the Coalition to finish the job in both Iraq and Afghanistan so that we could see states of terror transformed into nations of prosperity. He would once again emphasise the crucial importance he placed on achieving a Middle East settlement. He would say that terrorism could not finally be defeated without one. He would also express strong support for the WTO round, and, while acknowledging our differences over Kyoto, he would emphasise the need to address the issue of climate change without restricting economic growth.
Asked if the Prime Minister would say anything about the need for justice to be seen to be done, referring in particular to the Guantanamo Bay detainees, the PMOS said he was not aware of any plans to refer to the issue of Guantanamo Bay in his speech. However, as his colleague had indicated earlier in the week, it would be surprising if the issue was not raised during discussions between the Prime Minister and President Bush. Put to him that the need for justice to be done - and to be seen to be done - was an important principle in transforming nations of terror into nations of prosperity, the PMOS said that anyone who read the speech would be in no doubt about the Prime Minister’s adherence to those principles. However, this was a speech which covered a lot of ground, rather than being aimed at a specific issue which could be dealt with in private discussions.
Asked if the Prime Minister was using his speech to strengthen the case for achieving a Middle East settlement, in contrast to previous efforts to portray what we were doing in Iraq as a balance to what we were doing in the Middle East, the PMOS said that we had never seen the need for a settlement in quite the quid pro quo way being suggested. Both issues were part of an overall strategy and vision for the Middle East in which we needed to address issues like Iraq, but also do what we could to help achieve a settlement between the Israelis and Palestinian if we wanted to see stability in the region. It was a fact of life that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians was one of the factors which lay behind international terrorism, given that groups like Al Qaida used the issue to justify their activities. Of course that was not to suggest that we condoned what they did or believed that they were justified in doing it. He was simply making the point that such conflicts provided a fertile breeding ground for those who wanted to exploit them.
Asked which of the Prime Minister’s predecessors had addressed Congress in the past, the PMOS said that Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee and Baroness Thatcher had all delivered speeches to Congress.
Hong Kong
Asked whether the ministerial resignations in the Hong Kong Government today would affect the Prime Minister’s plan to visit, the PMOS said that the resignations had only happened recently and we were studying the reports. At this stage, however, there was nothing to indicate that the visit would not go ahead.
Lords Reform
Asked for further detail about the Cunningham committee on Lords reform which was meeting today, the PMOS said that they were discussing the Government’s response to their report on Lords reform and would decide whether to publish it or not. It was up to them to decide what to do next, not us.
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