• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 21 February 2006

Ken, would you agree with me on a couple of things? That it is really quite strange that at least two people who have addressed this question were at the meeting where this statement was made, and said nothing at the time and did not get involved in the debate then, and it is only now that they feel able to be raising this issue and asking this question of you? I find that really quite strange. The other aspect of this is: would you not agree with me that Damian (Hockney, AM) needs a point of correction identified to...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 21 February 2006

One final question: this is not the first time the Metropolitan Police chief ' this particular one ' has had to apologise after he has opened his mouth and only engaged his brain later. How many more times is he actually going to have to apologise for unfortunate statements before somebody suggests that he might want to keep his mouth shut most of the time?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 21 February 2006

What we had after the war, Mayor, was a situation where newspapers dared not print, for example, that Churchill was senile when he was still prime minister, where they dared not report something within a fortnight that was going to be in the Parliament, because that was too important. We do not really, seriously, want the situation to return to that of the 1940s, when journalists had to say `sir, sir' to everybody, do we?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 21 February 2006

Damian Hockney (AM): That is an extreme version of what the Mail would say, surely? The Mayor: I have read it. Damian Hockney (AM): But it is not racism. The Mayor: I have opened the Daily Mail ' or the Mail on Sunday ' and, in the first 10 pages, seen eight devoted to the issue of asylum. Damian Hockney (AM): That is because their readers are interested in the subject, but it is not a racist thing. Similarly, highlighting one or two articles by certain individuals does not mean that the media, surely, is institutionally racist. By saying that...

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 21 February 2006

Just very briefly, Mayor, I just wanted to make a point arising from what Jennette Arnold [AM] just said, and that is that many of us, when we heard Sir Ian's remarks, were so surprised and so shocked, we did not really know what to say. Certainly, I did not want a brawl, in public, in front of the media, with Sir Ian, over such a remark. I know my other colleagues felt the same. My background is as a journalist and not only would I find it offensive to hear such a thing ' and I did ' but...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 21 February 2006

Mr Mayor, do you think, therefore, the job description for Sir Ian Blair should include giving the Dimbleby Lecture and appearing on Question Time and every other media opportunity going?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 06 December 2006

So you would consider that to be a rather unattractive option?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 06 December 2006

Thank you. You have covered the main schemes but you have not mentioned the Oxford Street proposal that the Mayor surprisingly announced on a radio programme, in the middle of August I believe, which seemed to come as some surprise to the Cross River Tram design team. Why did you not feature the Oxford Street tram in your list?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 06 December 2006

OK. So you are proposing tram schemes right across London with the exception of the Thames Gateway and Greenwich water front area which, in the Mayor's Strategic Plans, are featured as priorities for regeneration and, presumably, modal shift. There is quite a lot of concern on the Assembly that there is not a tram proposal on the table. The Mayor has said he is pretty sure that once the transit buses have been running a year or two, we will be able to propose a tram, whereas Dick Halle (Director of Strategy for Surface Transport, TfL) told the Transport Committee...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 06 December 2006

I am glad to hear the Cross River Tram already has a good business case from a passenger point of view, but I think it would be helpful to see more enthusiasm from TfL for the Cross River Tram. It was very striking that Barry Broe (Director Group Planning and Transport Policy, TfL) referred to the trams in general as only providing potentially 1% of the capacity in London at the briefing. Do you not think that, given that the tube system is at congestion point and the train lines and the train stations are at congestion point, the addition...