Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: David Mills, Council Tax, Bird Flu, Leo/Mrs Blair photos, and Media and Troops
David Mills
Asked if the Prime Minister and Silvio Berlusconi had discussed David Mills, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he was not aware of any discussions.
Council Tax
Asked if the PMOS recognised the front page stories today about council tax, the PMOS said people would not know the position on council tax until the end of next month, and that was the usual pattern of these things. It was part of the annual ritual that we had stories like this before we knew the final figures. What we had said was that our expectation was that the increase in most council tax bills should be below 5%, and if necessary, we were prepared to use our capping powers.
Asked if we were ever going to see an end to the annual ritual of council tax bills going up beyond the rate of inflation, the PMOS said that we had increased our grant from central Government by above the rate of inflation. We had also seen a trend in the last few years of the rate of increase of council tax bills going down, and we had made it clear that we believed that that trend should continue. In terms, however, of local councils, it still remained the position that it was councils that set the rate. The PMOS said he could not get into the party political side of it, but that remained the reality.
Bird Flu
Asked if people should be worried about bird flu, the PMOS replied that it was common sense that as the incidences of bird flu on the Continent moved closer to the UK, so the level of concern increased. We recognised that, and that was why DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) had issued new guidance to poultry farmers that they should prepare plans to bring their flocks inside.
It was still not inevitable that bird flu would come to the UK, but clearly the risk must be higher today than it was. What we had to do, therefore, was to be sensible about it. If people looked at the overall balance of expert opinions, and as the UK Veterinary Association had said today, we were doing what we should be doing.
Leo/Mrs Blair photos
Asked if Downing Street, or the Prime Minister and Mrs. Blair planned on taking any action over the photographs of Mrs. Blair and Leo at the Winter Olympics, the PMOS said he was not aware of any such plans.
Asked why not, and would that not mark a change in policy, the PMOS replied: no, it would not, because we recognised that this photo was taken in a public place.
Media and Troops
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with John Reid that media organisations should exercise restraint when reporting about "what our troops got up to", the PMOS it was important to distinguish between what John Reid was and was not saying. What the Defence Secretary in no way was saying was that we should condone, or that we did condone abuse. Equally, however, what he was saying was that we should keep those cases in perspective, and the fact that there were 5 cases of abuse in Iraq. That was 5 cases too many, but given the number of troops, that was the perspective it should be seen in.
The PMOS said it should not become the only thing that people thought our troops were up to in Iraq, as our troops were helping Iraqis achieve democracy. The allegations of abuse, were serious, and quite rightly should be investigated, and if people were found guilty, then the appropriate action would be taken. That should not, however, obscure the greater part of what our troops were up to. Equally, we needed to be aware that the terrorists that we were up against did use the media to manipulate not only public opinion in Iraq, but also in this country. Therefore, we had to be aware of that, and that was modern day reality. It was quite right and proper for John Reid to point that out as something that we had to address in all seriousness.
Put that if journalists had asked the question two weeks ago, the PMOS would have told people that only 4 cases of abuse in Iraq were being investigated, and rather, did the PMOS mean that there were 5 cases of abuse that were known about, the PMOS said that that was precisely an example of the problem. Nobody was trying to downplay, obscure or hide where abuse came to light, and it was investigated seriously.
Equally, however, what we asked was that people equally recognised that abuse was only one part of the story of what our troops were doing in Iraq. They should be equally aware of the rest of that story and that there was a conscious effort to bring democracy to Iraq, and there had been three elections, and that we did have a new democratic government in place performing in Baghdad. Therefore, we should look at the picture as a whole, not to condone any abuse that took place, not to deflect attention away from abuse that took place, but to get it into perspective.
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