Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Local Government Finance Reform, Crown Prosecution Service, Iraq Attacks and Northern Ireland.
Local Government Finance Reform
Asked the current position on local government finance reform, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the Balance of Funding review was currently underway and was due to report later this year. Asked if the Prime Minister had ruled out the idea of introducing a local income tax, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had expressed his view recently both in the House of Commons and in an interview with the News of the World. His words spoke for themselves.
CPS
Asked if the Queen or the Palace had been consulted prior to today’s announcement concerning the renaming of the Crown Prosecution Service, the PMOS told journalists to check with the Home Office. Asked if the Prime Minister had bottled out of his weekly Audience with the Queen later today because she had not been consulted about this matter, the PMOS said he thought that this briefing was rapidly ‘drifting into the arena of the unwell’. He pointed out that the Prime Minister’s Audience with the Queen did not necessarily take place on the same day of the week every week, but was arranged around their respective diaries.
Iraq Attacks
Asked if the Prime Minister believed that the attacks in Iraq today were indicative of Sunni/Shi’ite hostility, the PMOS said it would appear that terrorists or Saddam loyalists were seeking to foment religious strife within Iraq and also to derail the political progress that was being made. It was certainly no coincidence that the attacks had come the day after the IGC had reached agreement on the Transitional Law which safeguarded religious freedom. Nor was it any accident that they had occurred on the day that Iraqi Shi’ites were marking the Ashoura festival for the first time in years, as they had been unable to do under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. The challenge for everyone was ensure that that the perpetrators did not succeed. We were determined that they would not. Asked if Downing Street was concerned that we might be seeing the result of internal tensions in Iraq rather than outright terrorism as today’s attacks would appear to suggest, the PMOS said the important thing was that the different tribes and religious traditions were able to form an administration. What had happened so far was a good indication that the will on the part of the Iraqi people was there and that such a thing was possible. It was obviously important for everyone to continue on that path. The political progress that had been made yesterday with the agreement on the Transitional Law should not be ignored. Asked if he would agree that internal tension was the inevitable result of religious freedom in Iraq, the PMOS said that the perpetrators of today’s attacks would like that to be the outcome. However, it was not right to suggest that its genesis was the Sunni/Shi’ite issue. That was the fundamental difference. It was terrorism, not ‘civil war’.
Asked again how we could expect the handover of power and elections to be held when there was clearly a security problem, the PMOS said that the UN Brahimi report had talked about elections taking place in 2005 at the earliest. However, we were continuing to work towards what was an admittedly challenging timetable that had been set out for the handover of power this summer. It had not changed. The PMOS added that the Prime Minister would shortly be doing a doorstep with the King of Jordan and that journalists should use his words.
Northern Ireland
In response to reports this afternoon that David Trimble had withdrawn from the Good Friday Agreement review, the PMOS informed journalists that Mr Trimble would be meeting the Prime Minister tomorrow in Downing Street where, no doubt, today’s developments would be discussed. The meeting had been scheduled before today. Asked if the Prime Minister would be seeing other Northern Ireland politicians, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was in regular contact with all the key players, as you would expect.
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