• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Which ones did you save?

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

The Deputy Prime Minister, and Charles Clarke, and indeed Tessa Jowell (Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport), and (Peter) Mandelson (former Cabinet Minister), Formula 1 racing. None of these issues came up on the doorstep, Mayor. However, there is an old saying that `Greater love hath no man than he lays down the life of his friends for his own.' Do you have any form of guilt over laying down the lives of the Labour councillors in Ealing in the route of your tram?

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

If you look at the wards along the route of the tram, Mayor, I think of places in Ealing such as Hobbayne and Elthorne, where we have never held Conservative councillor seats, which we took, and Acton Central where there were clear issues around the tram and it was there. I would have thought you would have appeared just once, either carrying a red flag or a white one.

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

That was without your presence. I wonder why, Mayor, you did not visit any of those three boroughs during the course of the local elections to indeed argue in favour for your tram?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Your faith in opinion polls is most touching, Mayor.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

It worked though, did it not?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

The fact is that nobody apart from Richard Barnes predicted that Ealing would fall to the Conservatives. The predictions I saw were that Labour would squeak in or that they would get no overall control. In fact, the Conservatives got a resounding majority.

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I was just wondering, yes you have had the polls, you have had the verdicts of a local election, but to what extent did the TfL consultation process not help actually? I think there have been some grievances about the way the issues have been discussed and put to the public.

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

In Ealing we had the largest swing against Labour. The Conservatives had 17 seats and they went up to 37. The outgoing councillors said that the tram had been a huge factor. The Ealing North Member of Parliament, Steve Pound, said the tram had been a huge factor. In the meetings I attended, I witnessed people going up to the Labour councillors and saying, `I am sorry, we are not voting for you this time and it is because of your support for the tram.' You are the only person in denial here. If you want to bury your head...

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

They were predicted three years ago.