• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Therefore, no doubt the details of the GLA involvement and costs could be obtained.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Mayor, I think it would be very helpful if you would confine the update on your reports to matters of concern to Londoners. Quite rightly, the Chávez visit can feature, but rather than a political diatribe I think it would be helpful to all Members and then we can have an orderly discussion.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I think we are all fascinated by the confirmation that the [Morning] Star column is alive, well and being paid for out of City Hall. Can I just ask about this? Will you be raising this interesting offer of cheap energy with ministers in the British Government?

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

It is a bit like Mr Chávez, is it not?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Are you telling us, Mayor, that the Prime Minister has expressed no view on the fact that the capital of the fourth richest economy in the world is going to receive foreign aid from a South American country?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I see, and when you do next meet Government ministers, and I am sure you will, will you, I take it, be passing on to them Mr Chávez's views that the Third Way does not work?

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

Mayor, you are right to compare Chávez with the `butcher of Caracas', Pinochet, and remind everyone the extent to which the Tories actually accommodated him during the 1980s and 1990s. It is quite clear many Londoners wanted to see him when he passed through. I am sure if you had booked the Albert Hall on Sunday it would have been packed out. In his speech on Sunday he made an interesting offer about the oil concession for the poor in London and I just wondered whether there has been any movement on this?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I think Londoners do not expect this Assembly to turn into a political diatribe, whether it is from one party or another. They expect a discussion on matters of relevance to Londoners.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I do not know. I see a certain silence in some parts of the Chamber. Can I just ask one final factual question? How many City Hall staff were involved in the organisation of the event at Camden that you and President Chávez spoke at?

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

Do you discuss it with the Chair of the London Labour Party, Len Duvall? He sits here and is part responsible for London as well.