• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Andrew Boff (AM): Mr Mayor, can we ensure that, when talking about extremism, that we do not have a kind of feeding frenzy on the wrong culprits from both sides of the argument, whether or not we are talking about those supposed Islamists who took part in this dreadful event in Woolwich, and also the supposed responders to that extreme responses to that? Will you try and ensure that in the response, in trying to identify the roots of extremism, that we do not look at the orthodoxy of a particular strand of Islam as being an indicator of extremism...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Andrew Dismore (AM): On the 5 June, the Somali Bravanese Community Centre in Coppetts Ward in my constituency was burned down by arson in what appears to be a racially-motivated attack, which is clearly a great shock to the area where the community has lived harmoniously for 20 years and for Barnet as a whole where we are proud of our tolerant multi-cultural society. But the criminals responsible have achieved the direct opposite of their wicked objective of dividing our society as everyone has rallied around and in fact the first on the scene were Rabbis from the local Synagogues...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Roger Evans (AM): Thank you, Chair. AC Burns' proposals were based on work which was done with the police service of Northern Ireland, a place where there were predominantly two different cultures which could be at odds with one another. In London, we have a great many different cultures and a much more diverse city. Do you think that makes the approach which they used in Northern Ireland unsuitable for our city and we need to have other solutions?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Joanne McCartney (AM): I am glad in your last comments you said you want to help solve it because that is the first time I have heard you say you actually want to get involved with A&E matters. Can I raise my local hospital, Chase Farm? Its A&E is due to close later this year but in actual fact, some of the issues you have talked about on primary care not being up to scratch for example, one of the conditions of it closing was that the community services had to be there. They are not there and yet the...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Tony Arbour (AM): You have rightly said that one of the great hurdles for start ups with young people comes at the point when they take on their first employee when there is an enormous amount of red tape and an enormous amount of additional costs. You may know that my colleagues and I on this side have suggested that one way in which new microbusinesses could be helped to take on an additional employee is that for the first six months they need not pay the national minimum wage. Do you not think, in the light of what you...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Andrew Boff (AM): Tony Arbour's very sensible and measured suggestion does not stop us from being wholly supportive of the idea of pursuing the London Living Wage. I think I was actually the one who nudged Tony to bring that up because I think we do need to allow small businesses flexibility. You did however mention this idea about the gap between rich and poor. I do not care about the gap between rich and poor, Mr Mayor. I care that there are too many poor people. I do not care how many rich people there are. As far as...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Roger Evans (Deputy Chairman): I am pleased my colleague Tony Arbour asked this question because Street Pastors form a part of the infrastructure that is in place in Romford to keep people safe in the night time economy where they do not just reduce the incidence of antisocial behaviour and violence but they also provide care for people who have maybe drunk too much or missed the last bus home and are stuck in the town centre and would otherwise be vulnerable. I am not going to ask you for money like my colleague but would it be possible for...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Murad Qureshi (AM): Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, last time at Mayor's Question Time I brought up the impact in central London, in particular the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster. In both consultations, unanimously members of the public disagreed with your proposed cuts, and this ranged from councillors of both political colours, as well as members of the Conservative Party locally, black-cab drivers, as well as members of the Abbey, and I would not take Westminster Abbey on at all on this front. The reality is in nine wards in Westminster the time for...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Andrew Dismore (AM): On 21 February, Boris, there was a school fire in Strathray Gardens NW3. From Belsize Fire Station, which you are planning to cut, fire-fighters were there in under two minutes; the next pump took nine minutes. Luckily it was half term or the consequences could have been far worse. Belsize Ward's attendance times are going to go up by over three minutes to a second under eight minutes along with six other Camden wards, which will go over the six-minute target. Across the whole of London, only three wards will come down from outside to within the...

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 19 June 2013

Fiona Twycross (AM): Thank you. Boris, obviously we are at the next stage of the consultation now and in just under a month the recommendations are due to come back to the LFEPA. If the Fire Authority, having considered the responses to the consultation, do not agree with recommendations made to them, will you force through cuts to the fire brigade regardless?