Downing Street Says ... Every day the Prime Minister’s Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as ‘the lobby’ for a topical chat, or ‘briefing’.

Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'.

Downing Street Says... is an unofficial site that lets you read summaries of these briefings and add your own comments. Want to know more?

» Friday, May 9, 2008

Scotland

Asked if it was correct that the Prime Minister had not replied to David Cameron’s recent letter on Scotland, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that this was correct. Asked why the Prime Minister had not replied, the PMS replied that we were still considering our response, but the Prime Minister gave a fairly clear and [...]

Economy

Asked for the Prime Minister’s view on the rise in mortgage costs and house repossessions, the PMS replied that the Government’s view was set out by Caroline Flint in terms of what we were doing in order to help people who were finding it difficult to meet their mortgage costs at the moment. Repossession rates [...]

Burma

Asked for more reaction on the situation in Burma, the PMS replied that on Burma, clearly this was a very significant crisis and urgent access was essential. We were pressing the Burmese authorities as a matter of urgency to address the barriers to rapid access for staff and suppliers, and to allow international agencies to [...]

Environment Agency

Asked if was the Prime Minister’s decision to appointment Chris Smith to Chair of the Environment Agency, and did this not look like cronyism, the PMS replied that there were well established processes for making these appointments. Whoever gets appointed to these jobs did so on the basis that they are the best available candidates [...]

» Thursday, May 8, 2008

Northern Ireland

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) began by giving the assembled press a flavour of the Prime Minister’s speech that he would be making later that day. The speech would be made to an audience of American investors and would be setting out in very strong terms, the case for them to invest in Northern Ireland. The [...]

Scotland

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Wendy Alexander’s comments this morning, the PMS said that the Prime Minister’s position was set out very clearly in the House of Commons yesterday. We went round this course at great length yesterday and the PMS was more than happy to go round the course this afternoon, but [...]

Embryology Bill

Asked for briefing on the Embryology bill, the PMS said he did not have any specific information on that at the moment. The PMS said it would be best to check with the Leader of the House. original source.

Northern Ireland Investment Conference

Asked if the Prime Minister would be meeting with Michael Bloomberg at the conference, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that there was nothing specific in the Prime Minister’s diary, but he did not know whether he would meet Michael Bloomberg at the conference. Although they did meet in New York a few weeks ago. Asked [...]

Scotland

Asked if the Prime Minister had responded to David Cameron’s letter on Scotland, the PMS replied that the response was released last night. Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Wendy Alexander ahead of First Minister’s question time later today, the PMS replied that it was not for him to answer questions on conversation between [...]

Burma

Asked for any more information on Burma, the PMS replied that Foreign Office consular officials had been alerted to 17 Britons whose friends and relatives believed to be in Burma and who had not made contact since the typhoon struck. The Foreign Office have said that the non-contact could be down to a number of [...]

» Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Scotland

Asked if the Prime Minister backed a referendum on Scottish independence, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that the Prime Minister answered that question at PMQs today. As he said there was the Calman Review underway looking at how we can strengthen devolution and we needed to review progress in light of that. Asked if Wendy [...]

Fuel Prices

Put that the Prime Minister had said that it was unacceptable that fuel prices were going up so sharply, and asked if he could do anything about it, the PMS replied that we could continue to work with our international partners to put pressure on OPEC and oil suppliers to increase the supply of oil, [...]

Scotland

Asked whether the Prime Minister agreed with what Wendy Alexander had said on the issue of independence for Scotland, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that we had gone round this course many times yesterday and as he had said, there was a debate taking place in the Scottish Parliament on the [...]

International Development

Put that the Prime Minister had been speaking about development quite a lot this week and was there any new thinking in what the Foreign Secretary would be saying in his speech that evening, the PMS said he thought it would be best if people spoke to the Foreign Office regarding the Foreign Secretary’s speech. [...]

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Friday, May 9, 2008

Scotland

Economy

Burma

Environment Agency

» Thursday, May 8, 2008

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Embryology Bill

Northern Ireland Investment Conference

Scotland

Burma

» Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Scotland

Fuel Prices

Scotland

International Development

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