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At-a-glance: MPs grill Tony Blair | | The key points from Tony Blair's appearance before the Commons liaison committee of senior MPs FUTURE MEETINGS WITH BLAIR Opening the session, committee chairman Alan Williams made clear that although Mr Blair has said he would stand down this year, this would not be his final twice-yearly appearance before the committee. He said the prime minister had agreed to one last evidence session after he had announced the date of his departure. ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT In opening comments Mr Blair said without a global agreement, Britain could not significantly reduce overall carbon emissions. A "carbon price" had to be set and governments had to "engage the citizen". Questioned by MPs, he said UK had done "better than most countries but we haven't done enough" to reduce carbon emissions. But annual targets were not "practical", with longer-term ones providing more "flexibility". There had to be a "stabilisation goal", he added. Increasing aviation tax had to work alongside continued research into more efficient fuel and lighter plans. It was not "practical" to ask people not to travel by air. It was important not to "hit" UK consumers too hard. Asked whether he was right to claim some of the credit for the London congestion charge, Mr Blair said he had played a part by creating the London Assembly and the position of London mayor. Pressed again on having failed to show leadership on the congestion charge, Mr Blair said it had been "groundbreaking". He said he had been "dubious" about it but he took his "hat off" to Mayor Ken Livingstone for introducing it. Mr Blair said there had to be an international agreement to set a "carbon price" that "incentivises" businesses to develop new technologies. Energy security and climate change will be "as big issues" at the next election as defence was in the 1980s, he told MPs. But telling people "what lightbulbs they can have in their own home" was not practical. The fuel protests of 2000 had shown that policies "however radical", still had to be "practical". PUBLIC SERVICES AND THE STATE Mr Blair, asked if there was evidence that giving patients choice improved health outcomes, said a lot of the quality of healthcare, from patients' point of view, was "speed of access". He said Accident and Emergency departments at hospitals were "significantly better" than they were 10 years ago. He said without a "centrally driven approach", the "quantum leap" of improvements would not have been achieved, nor would there have been such a big change in waiting lists without targets. He supported electronic patient records, saying rather than being "a Big Brother thing", they could save lives - particularly when people were taken ill in another part of the country, away from their GPs, by allowing instant access to their records. He said, provided there were safeguards, it would be "bizarre" if technology was being used to make things easier in every other walk of life except for public services. He included identity cards in that argument, saying they would hold the same information that passports currently do, and less than storecards do. He also highlighted the fact that things like Google Earth allowed people to zoom into pictures of people's property. Mr Blair said he wanted to see voluntary groups play a greater role in the state. But asked by the Public Accounts Committee's chairman Edward Leigh how this would work when faith groups objected to laws on conscience, Mr Blair said: "These types of debates are always difficult. I think people are sensible about it we can find a way through it." Asked whether discrimination "trumps conscience", Mr Blair said that was not the case, but difficult judgements had to be made, otherwise, for example, one group might argue that women were not suitable for particular things. Mr Leigh asked whether it was "state organised hypocrisy" that Mr Blair's government had not tackled the Act of Settlement stating that should a Royal marry a Catholic, they would be removed from the Royal Family. Mr Blair joked that would be a question for his successor. CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER LAWS On whether corporate manslaughter laws should be extended to cover prisons and police, Mr Blair said: "The worry here is whether... you end up causing a real problem for the way the prison and custody system will work." He rejected suggestions the government may withdraw its Corporate Manslaughter Bill following Monday night's defeat in the House of Lords, as had reportedly been suggested by the Home Office. "I think it's important that we have the Bill but we're going to have to make up our minds on this. And you know our desire is to try and accommodate reasonable opinion as much as possible. It's just that, as often happens in government, we've got two very diametrically opposed views as to what the right thing to do is and we have to try and make a balanced judgement about it". SECURITY, CRIME AND JUSTICE Mr Blair said one of the major questions facing the government over the next 10 years would be how to tackle the small number of dysfunctional families, whose children were going off the rails as early as age six. The Home Affairs Committee's chairman John Denham asked him if offenders on community payback schemes should wear a recognisable uniform, Mr Blair replied "I think it's perfectly sensible for them to do that." Mr Denham asked why, when there were 30,000 extra police officers since 2000, about 10,000 extra community support officers and more police staff, less criminals were being brought to court. Mr Blair said the nature of crime was changing, and organised crime, particularly people trafficking and drugs, as well as anti-social behaviour, meant police were facing a much tougher task. Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee Alan Beith asked what civil liberties safeguards were taken into account when new laws were brought in - for example on keeping the DNA of anyone who comes into contact with the criminal justice system (even if they have committed no offence) on a database . Mr Blair said thousands of crimes, including some rapes and murders, had been solved because of DNA advances and that while he understood it was a "difficult thing" for some people, without it people who had committed such crimes would still be walking free. On Anti-Social Behaviour Orders he said people's concern was not about whether they should exist, but how they can get them and enforce them. He said lawmakers had to ensure they were living on the "same planet" as the general public. Mr Denham asked him if he backed plans to split the Home Office. Mr Blair said a decision would be taken in the next few weeks, but added: "I do think we will need to change the basic structures within government as to how we handle terrorism." He said most people realised the fight against terrorism was a "generational struggle". But he said the Home Office was now "an infinitely better functioning" department than it was ten years ago, with significant improvements in the way it dealt with immigration and asylum, and law and order. FOREIGN AFFAIRS Mr Blair said countries traditionally distinguished between their interests and their values. But with increasing globalisation "values-based policies and interest-based policies coincide". He added: "If you want to tackle terrorism worldwide sensibly then I think to tackle poverty in Africa is a major part of that." Asked if the European Constitution was "dead" as far as the UK was concerned. Mr Blair said it was not diplomatic to talk about the "deadness" of the Constitution, when so many countries had signed it. But he said the best thing for Europe was to focus on what rules would make a more effective, expanded European Union. The big question was how to put the UK's relationship with Europe and with the US together. "I think this is a huge debate for us as a country... before we distance ourselves from America either as Britain or as Europe we need to work out whether this is very sensible." He said we were a small country, occupying a small geographic space and added: "For us to have weight and power and influence, we need these big two alliances to be kept strong." Defence committee chairman James Arbuthnot asked Mr Blair whether Britain was losing the battle for "hearts and minds" among Muslims, following the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Blair said it was "ridiculous" to suggest that removing Saddam Hussein or the Taliban was fuelling Muslim extremism. "The people who are killing innocent Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan are these Muslim extremists," he said. Winning the battle for hearts and minds was not just about "reaching out", but also about standing up to extremists and saying their values were wrong, he said. Mr Blair said that every time he had met Chinese leaders he had discussed human rights, and that the reply had been that there was "not an issue" on the "direction" but the "pace" of reform. It was important to manage the rise of this "colossal" political and economic power, which was "practical politics". Sir Patrick Cormack asked what was the "proper" constitutional solution for Kosovo. Mr Blair said people should not "ignore the fact" that the Balkans today provided a possibility of peace "probably for the first time in 100 years or more". Countries had the prospect of EU membership, he added. Mr Blair was asked if the use of intervention had "undermined our ability to reach hearts and minds". He replied that the UK's relationship with the US had "opened doors everywhere", including the Middle East. Some countries had "retreated to a soft power approach only", but he was "confident" his successor would continue the current approach. Tony Blair played down talk of military action being planned against Iran. He said no option was being taken "off the table" but "nobody is talking about or planning military intervention". But he warned Iran's nuclear programme and attempts to stir up sectarianism in the Middle East was causing serious concern to the international community.
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