Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: PM’s Speech, Northern Ireland, Middle East, European Constitution, Iraq and ID Cards.
PM’s Speech
The PMOS advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be making a speech on the economy today at Goldman Sachs. He would reinforce the Budget message that the Government would hold firm to economic stability, but use the fruits of that stability to invest in education, skills and science to ensure that prosperity was entrenched and spread. He would argue that the macro-economic stability that we had, and flexible labour markets, had allowed the UK to close the productivity gap with Germany and France, as well as lifting many families out of poverty and delivering rising living standards. The majority of the speech would be ‘forward looking’ to the challenges ahead for the country. He would warn that the pace of globalisation - the truly astonishing economic development
of India and China, for example, which he had witnessed at first hand in the last two years - had given added urgency to the reform agenda facing the country. He would say that we would entrench stability only by a shift in how we developed the creative potential of our workforce. He would talk about the importance of the Budget’s investment in education, skills and science, at the same time as keeping to fiscal rules. He would say that education funding would have risen to 5.7% of GDP by the end of 2008, from one of the lowest in the EU to one of the highest since 1997. But he would also talk about the importance of reforming the system and in particular about the importance of vocational training. He would say, "Last week’s Budget demonstrated the clear unity of purpose across Government. This is the British path to prosperity, to keep our hard-won economic stability, but to add to it investment allied to reform in education, science and technology, not just in our schools but also across our workforce. That is the best guarantor of opportunity and security in a changing world. This is the way to win in the future. Take this path and Britain can be the most competitive and successful economy of its size in the world".
Asked if the Prime Minister would outline any new ideas about reforming the education system, the PMOS pointed out that a lot of reform was already going through the system. The Prime Minister would talk, in particular, about the importance of curriculum reform to ensure that that there was also a focus on vocational pathways, such as junior apprenticeships, in recognition of the need for vocational skills as well as academic excellence. He would also talk about the importance of understanding the way globalisation was changing the world and recognising that science was one of the ‘wellsprings’ of prosperity and of the future.
Asked if the Prime Minister believed that education was an area where there was more scope for private sector involvement in skills and training, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would not focus on public/private provision in his speech. However, in terms of ’supply side reforms’ for public services, there was clearly a role for the private sector to play. The Government was working hard to develop the country’s skills agenda, such as encouraging the 7 million people, whose basic adult literacy skills were poor, to use Learn Direct and other publicly funded training initiatives.
Northern Ireland
The PMOS said that the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach would be in Belfast tomorrow where he would meet with the parties. Both leaders wanted to inject some momentum into the process based on the clear need to end paramilitarism and a commitment to share power if that was achieved. Tomorrow should be seen in the context of playing to the work in progress. It was not a ‘make-or- break’ event which would run late on into Wednesday, but should be seen as reinforcing work in progress.
Asked for further detail about the Prime Minister’s visit to Belfast, the PMOS said that both the Prime Minister and Taoiseach wanted to inject some urgency into the process. The Good Friday Agreement review had been continuing for some weeks. The Prime Minister had met all the parties in Downing Street in recent weeks. He had also met the Taoiseach in Dublin a week-and-a-half ago. Both leaders wanted to meet up with the parties to discuss how we could move forward. That was the purpose of the Prime Minister’s visit to Belfast tomorrow. Asked if the Prime Minister shared the Irish Government’s ‘increasingly trenchant view’ on Sinn Fein, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister’s views relating to paramilitarism were well known and had been articulated many times - most recently in his doorstep in Dublin with the Taoiseach and, prior to that, in answer to a question from David Trimble in the Commons. Asked to predict where we would be tomorrow, the PMOS said that we would have a clearer view at the end of the day on how to move forward than at the beginning of the day.
Asked if any progress had been made about the publication of the Cory Report, the PMOS said the Prime Minister had told the SDLP in Downing Street two weeks ago that the report would be published at the end of March/beginning of April. We had made this public at the time.
Middle East
Asked for a reaction to the latest developments in Israel this morning, the PMOS said the Prime Minister believed that it was important for everyone to redouble their efforts to try to find a way forward in the Middle East. This morning’s events were clearly a setback. The Foreign Secretary had already commented in Brussels on what had happened. His words spoke for themselves. It went without saying that the Prime Minister also condemned today’s killing.
In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that we had made clear repeatedly our opposition to Israel’s use of targeted killings and assassinations. Equally, we recognised Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism. However, any steps they took must be within international law and should be neither disproportionate nor excessive. Most importantly, both sides should show restraint and to show through words and deeds their commitment to peace and rejection of violence. It was absolutely clear that the two-state vision, which had been articulated through the roadmap, was the goal towards which we should all be focussing our attention. Today’s events obviously took us no further forward on that path.
Asked if he was suggesting that the Coalition’s targeted assassination of Osama bin Laden would also be considered an ‘unlawful killing’, the PMOS said he thought it would be better to deal with the reality in front of us rather than hypothetical scenarios. Asked if the Prime Minister would consider today’s events an act of terrorism, the PMOS said that we condemned what had happened. It was not the first time we had made clear our opposition to targeted assassinations. We would urge both sides to show restraint and do all they could to de-escalate the conflict. It was only through dialogue - and the creation of space free from violence for that dialogue to take place - that we would be able to make the progress that everyone wanted to see.
Asked what impact today’s events would have on British efforts to kick-start the Middle East peace process, the PMOS pointed out that there wasn’t a British plan per se. We had been discussing proposals on Palestinian security measures for some time. That would continue. This would be a plan designed by the Palestinians and would be for them to implement. We would provide whatever advice and support we could. No one was pretending that the events of this morning helped that process along in any way. Questioned as to whether this morning’s events might have been designed to discourage progress, the PMOS said that we understood and recognised Israel’s right to security. Equally, however, it was important that whatever steps were taken were not disproportionate. It would not be particularly helpful for him to provide commentary on today’s events in terms of what they had or had not been designed to do. What was most important was to see restraint on both sides and a de-escalation. Asked why he was not being more forthcoming in condemning the targeted assassination today, the PMOS repeated that Jack Straw had already made a statement condemning this morning’s events. His first words this morning had been to do the same on behalf of the Prime Minister. Questioned as to whether a targeted assassination was compatible with Israel’s right to security, the PMOS said no one was under any illusion that the issues relating to the Middle East were incredibly complex. Obviously they were, otherwise they would have been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction a long time ago. No one was therefore trying to play down or under-estimate the difficulties that existed. However, it was clear that if things were going to move forward, it was necessary to create a space that was free from violence on both sides. We would continue to do all we could to work towards that goal.
Asked if the Prime Minister was planning to speak to President Bush about getting the Middle East peace process back on track following the events this morning, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister and President spoke regularly. There was no specific phonecall relating to what had happened today that he could point to at this stage.
European Constitution
Asked if we were anticipating any progress on the European Constitution at the European Council in Brussels at the end of the week, the PMOS said that the stumbling block at the previous European Council last December had been the issue of vote-weighting. The Irish Presidency had been conducting talks with the countries at the sharp end of that particular debate. People would have to be patient and wait for their report to the Council. No one had ever anticipated that there would be an agreement on the issue or conclusion of the IGC this week. Asked if he was indicating that it would be a ‘reporting’ rather than a ‘decision-making’ summit, the PMOS said that by the end of the Council, he thought there would be a clearer sense of whether the Irish Presidency considered it worthwhile to push for the conclusion of the IGC in the first half of this year.
Iraq
Asked for a reaction to Jimmy Carter’s comment in today’s Independent’ that the war in Iraq had been based on lies, the PMOS pointed out that several inquiries into the Iraq war had taken place, not least the Hutton Inquiry which had looked very carefully at the issue of integrity. The Butler Inquiry on intelligence matters was currently carrying out its work. He drew journalists’ attention to the fact that UN Resolution 1441 had been the considered view of the entire international community. Whilst there might have been disagreement regarding how the issue of Iraq’s WMD should be dealt with, there had never been any disagreement about the fact that the issue should be dealt with.
ID Cards
Asked for a reaction to reports over the weekend about the introduction of ID cards, the PMOS said the Home Office had said yesterday that it would not comment on leaked papers in the Sunday press. The position remained as we had set out on previous occasions - a draft Bill would be published in due course. The Cabinet believed in principle that an ID card scheme could bring major benefits to the UK. However, given the complexities, a number of issues would have to be addressed before such a scheme could be brought forward. Regarding the issue of leaked documents in general, the PMOS added that the fact that members of the Government were able to have discussions and correspondence with one another was a strength of our democracy. It shouldn’t always be characterised as splits, rows or division, although that obviously made far better headlines. Asked if the Cabinet would need to approve any ID card scheme, the PMOS said yes. We had already stated that we would proceed by incremental steps, with the final decision to a compulsory card scheme being taken later when all the conditions had been met. He pointed out that there had already been two lengthy Cabinet discussions about the issue in recent months. No doubt it was something the Cabinet would return to in due course.
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