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Prime Minister’s Questions Moves Online With MSN Messenger

Category Uncategorized | Permalink | 13. March 2007

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What one question on Africa or climate change would you ask the Prime Minister?

Prime Minister Tony Blair and MSN Messenger teamed up to take Prime Minister’s Question Time online in a unique competition which gave members of the public the chance to put questions live to the PM.

On 4 April, the winners held live video conversations over MSN Messenger with the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, the first time he has taken questions via live video over the internet.

If you missed the chat you can watch video shot in Downing Street here.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister was unable to answer all questions on the day, largely because of technical difficulties. However, he has been kind enough to provide responses to those questions which you can read below.

I’m 13 years old but that’s old enough to understand about climate change. Why aren’t you doing enough to stop it?
- Kevin Bromwich, Swinton

Tony Blair: Kevin,

I am sorry that, largely because of technical difficulties, I didn’t get round to answering your question. But as promised, here’s a brief reply.

I completely agree with you that we need to do more to tackle climate change. As I have said, it’s the biggest environmental challenge the world faces and it’s right that younger people should be in the forefront of pressing politicians like me to raise our game. After all, it is your generation and your children who will have to live with the consequences if we fail to act.

So I can promise that I am determined to do more both at home and abroad to tackle this problem. We are investing in renewable energy at home so we can cut further our greenhouse gas emissions. We are already one of a very few countries who are on track to meet our Kyoto target. We will, in fact, reduce emissions by twice our target but I want us to do even better.

It’s important we do what we can at home and show a lead. But the real efforts have to be made internationally. Our greenhouse gas emissions make up something like 1.5% of the world’s total and that’s going to fall even further as the economies in countries like India and China continue to grow.

So what’s really important is that we get international agreement including all countries on cutting greenhouse gases and also find ways to share new green technologies so countries can continue to become more prosperous without harming the environment. I am absolutely determined to do all I can to ensure we make progress towards this goal.

We all have to play our part as individuals as well, turning off lights when we leave rooms. I have turned down thermostat in No 10 and Government has just announced plans to offset all emissions from flights.
,
What action are you taking to ensure fair and open trade, debt cancellation and aid for African countries? 6,000 people die of Aids every day in Africa. This is an emergency, the more time we waste, the more lives we lose.
- Lucy Macnamara, London

Tony Blair: Dear Lucy

I am sorry that, largely because of technical difficulties, I didn’t get round to answering your question. But as promised, here’s a quick reply to your questions.

I agree completely with you that what is happening in Africa is an emergency and a scar, as I have said, on the conscience of the world. But while I know we need to do more, I am also proud of the progress we have made – progress which was made easier by the pressure from the Make Poverty History campaign and millions of people who made clear to their leaders just what a priority they thought a fairer world was.

It made it easier, for example, for me to win agreement at the G8 summit in Gleneagles for a doubling of aid for Africa by 2010. Importantly, we are already seeing the promises made at the summit being delivered.

The UK is giving a lead. Our annual aid budget is now £6 bn and we are on track to achieve a 0.7% contribution of our GDP. This will be a huge achievement. And on debt, we have already cancelled our bilateral debts in Africa.

More importantly at Gleneagles, we got agreement to cancel $50 billion in multilateral debts of the poorest countries. IMF debt has already been cancelled and World Bank and African Development Bank will be cancelled before the summer. So that’s real progress.

At Gleneagles, too, the G8 also agreed to provide universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010. The UN will produce a detailed blueprint in the summer on how this can be achieved. I know it will take a great deal of political will to deliver this ambitious target but it’s a huge step that the richest countries have signed up to play their part.

Trade is a separate and, in some ways, more difficult problem. If we can get a deal which is fair to Africa and the developing world, it will be more important than either aid or debt relief. We didn’t make the progress we wanted last year but we can’t give up. It would be a disaster for everyone but particularly the world’s poor if we fail. So I am working hard now with other leaders to rescue the talks, to deliver an ambitious deal for Africa and other developing countries. We must open our markets to poor countries and cut our agricultural subsidies while ensuring we allow developing countries time to build their own capacity to trade.

How can we help developing countries with climate change and co2 emissions, when we can barely reach agreement on them ourselves?
- Barry Coatesworth, Lancashire

Tony Blair: I am sorry that, largely because of technical difficulties, I didn’t get round to answering your question. But as promised, here’s a brief reply.

The short answer to your question is that it is going to be difficult but we really have no choice for the health of our planet but to succeed.

And consensus is growing. We did a lot last year to build this. We are not going to be successful in tackling climate change unless any future agreement includes not just all developed countries – including the US, Australia – but also the big developing countries like China, India and Brazil. It is a big step that we are all talking now about a post-Kyoto settlement.

This is absolutely vital. We must do what we can at home – and will – but the real solution lies in international agreement and action. Our greenhouse gas emissions make up something like 1.5% of the world’s total and that’s going to fall even further as the economies in countries like India and China continue to grow.

It wouldn’t be right – even if they would listen to us – for the developed world with our high living standards to say to developing countries that your economies can’t keep growing. So we have to help them grow sustainably and that means developing and sharing the new technologies needed so they can continue to become more prosperous without harming the environment. With the right help and investment, they can leapfrog some of the older technologies which have contributed so much to greenhouse emissions. I am absolutely determined to do all I can to ensure we make progress towards this goal. We also need to help them adapt to the inevitable impact of climate change which is already happening.

Why after all these years of people giving and donating money to Africa haven’t things got better? Does the money go straight to the needy or in someone’s back pocket?
- Tracey Caswell, Silsden, West Yorkshire

Tony Blair: I am sorry that, largely because of technical difficulties, I didn’t get round to answering your question. But as promised, here’s a brief reply.

I understand why people can look at some countries in Africa and feel very pessimistic, even angry, about the progress. There is no doubt that Africa has received a lot of aid in the past and too much of it has been wasted or been siphoned off to pay for arms or enrich leaders rather than their people.

But there are other examples where when aid is well targeted, it is making a huge difference..Nine out of ten children, for example, now go to school in Tanzania compared to just four out of ten in 1999. The numbers attending school in Mozambique has doubled over the same period while the mortality rate among the under-fives has halved in the last decade. In Uganda, aid has been used to make health care free. In Kenya, 1.2 million children enrolled in school after the government introduced free primary education recently. Polio has been eradicated in all of Africa, except Nigeria.

So there is real progress. But you are right that aid by itself is not the answer. It must go hand in hand with rooting out corruption, good governance and conflict reduction. We are careful to make sure aid does not go into the wrong pockets. In countries where we can’t trust the government, aid goes directly to the needy. In countries governed better, it is better to give the money to the governments to help them to help the needy.

As an African origin I feel strongly concerned that there is lack of support by large population of the British people for initiatives such as the Make Poverty history due to the belief that African wealth and resources get squandered by despots and dictators. I would argue that lots of the ill-gotten wealth ends up in the west such as the UK and Switzerland. Have you thought of any law to prevent such depositing stolen wealth into Europe? Do you agree that the west have encouraged this stealing of wealth for ages in view of the immense benefit towards their development? Thanks for listening PM.
- Nii Oble, Surrey (African origin)

Tony Blair: Thanks for your question as well, Nii. I am sorry I didn’t have a chance to get round to answering it during the webchat but for largely technical reasons, I didn’t reply to as many questions as I hoped. So I hope you don’t mind this brief answer.

You are right that corruption is a huge obstacle to development. An African Union report from 2002 estimated that the direct and indirect costs of corruption to Africa’s economies was something in excess of $148 billion a year - or 25% of Africa’s entire GDP. So it is something that has to be tackled and I am glad to say it is.

The UK is one of the countries which has ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption while the Proceeds of Crime Act criminalised money laundering and enabled the UK to prosecute people here even if their ill-gotten gains were made overseas. The arrest last year of a Nigerian State Governor for money laundering shows how seriously we are now taking this. It was a shame he fled the UK while on bail but he is now facing justice in Nigeria. We have also agreed an EU-wide approach to money laundering last year which will make it much more difficult for people to move money around when it comes fully into force in 2007.

As for aid projects, they are now subject to independent and systematic audit. If we discover that funds have been misappropriated, our aid agreements provide for a return of the money lost.

Source:

www.msnfind.com

http://www.msn.co.uk/htx/tonyblairmessengerchat/

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