Blair returns to chair tsunami disaster committee
Tony Blair has arrived back in the UK from his holiday in Egypt to chair the Cabinet committee on the Asian tsunami.
Speaking this morning the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman rejected criticism that Mr Blair should have returned earlier, saying that he had been in daily touch with the response operations, and had written to other G8 leaders to urge a co-ordinated response last week.
Mr Blair has apparently also being in contact with George Bush and the UN General Secretary Kofi Annan.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has chaired the disaster committee in his absence.
Both Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy have suggested that the Prime Minister ought to have returned sooner from his family holiday in Egypt to take personal control of the response.
The Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary, the International Development Secretary and the Deputy Prime Minister are all expected to be key figures in the emergency committee. Ministers from the Department of Health and the Cabinet Office, along with representatives of the police also attended this morning’s meeting.
In a sign that the Government is stepping up its response to the crisis, the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will visit the disaster-hit region personally. He will attend a conference called by the Indonesian government in Jakarta on Thursday and will then travel to Phuket, Thailand.
Today, the Chancellor Gordon Brown also put forward a plan to freeze all debt repayments from the hit countries. This is likely to curtail some criticism that the UK, in its new position as G8 president, is not doing enough to respond to the crisis.
Public donations to the appeal have continued to soar, with the figure currently standing at £76 million, and charities predicting that the eventual figure will top £100 million.
This is dramatically in excess of the £50 million promised so far by the Government.
However, Mr Straw has given a strong indication that the British Government would match the final figure raised from the public. Speaking yesterday, he said such a gesture was “almost certain.”
The Government is also supporting plans for a three minute Europe-wide silence on Wednesday.
In Scotland, the SNP suggested that the Scottish Executive has the opportunity to do more – especially in helping the devastated fishing communities.
Shadow Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead, said: “As one of Europe’s leading fishing nations, Scotland is ideally placed to assist with the long term reconstruction of fishing communities in Asia wrecked by the tsunami. Fishing was one of the few economic lifelines in most of the affected communities and the SNP is calling on the Scots Government to work with aid agencies to identify how we can lend our expertise to help Asia’s devastated fishing communities get back on their feet.
“In Sri Lanka and Indonesia, thousands of fishermen have been killed and their industry’s infrastructure including fishing fleets has been decimated. Scotland can help replace lost and broken equipment as well as offer appropriate advice and training. It may even be possible to secure fishing boats that could be donated.”
