• 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.

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

You referred to the issue of train versus high-speed rail. Surely, one of the greatest users of Stratford to the continent would be people in Canary Wharf? It is going to be far easier for them to access the Channel routes by trains if there are frequent services via Stratford rather than having to come to the centre of London and go out again. This is an opportunity we should be following up, is it not?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

A huge amount of money has been spent on the station at Stratford, and as well as some reassurance to Olympic committee members when they visited London that there would be an international link there, is this not likely to be worrying news for them to hear that this is now in doubt?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Are you not disappointed that this may have been an overspend on the station given the amount that it is going to be used for? The Olympics are supposed to provide us with a legacy for afterwards, not just with something that is being used at the time.

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

Do you intend to close City Hall that day?