• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 September 2005

It is worth us investing some energy as a London authority in making progress in that area. My second question, though, is something I feel passionately strongly about personally, and may not be a Labour position. It is that, while I am not a pacifist, the history of war in the last century has shown increasingly attacks upon civilian populations and communities. I find it obscene ' this is a question ' that an exhibition of weapons which can be used, whether they are battlefield weapons or not, against a civilian community should be held in a built-up, residential area...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 14 September 2005

Apparently, there are massive public subsidies from the Government, through the Ministry of Defence, for this stuff. They include 600 civil servants in 18 countries. Can you imagine what we could do with 600 extra civil servants here?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 September 2005

I have two questions. The first one is one which will have some general consensus, and it is that there has been much discussion before about whether we can secure payments from third parties for policing, particularly in relation to football matches, of course. I am wondering what further progress we can make on this, rather than having a lot more hot air about it. Of course, it is easy to get wound up, but we want to see some progress.

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Who in the Muslim community should we be working with in order to defeat terrorism in London?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

I think all of us echo the sentiments on the achievements of the emergency services, but as the Mayor is chair of TfL, as well, I would like to echo your comments, Chair, at the beginning, because I think not enough tribute has been paid to the transport staff, who coped remarkably well in circumstances which are not the reason they joined the transport service, whereas it might be what people who join the emergency services would come to be trained for and expect. Therefore, I make a particular tribute to them. I do not think this is the time...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

A final question from me: will you support the Commissioner of the MPS (Sir Ian Blair) in his call for the creation of a criminal offence of glorifying terrorism, wherever that takes place?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Perhaps we should be careful about the term `backlash,- as well, because it implies that the effect is on those who are responsible.

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Mr Mayor, it is the sloppy use of language that we have which concerns me as much as anything. One of the words which we use both within this Chamber and outside is the word `Muslim,' as though they are a readily identifiable, readily picked-out group of individuals. I would defy anybody within this Chamber to join me on a Saturday afternoon in Southall, which is an incredibly important part of my constituency and ' if you will forgive the slang ' to spot a Muslim. What we have to recognise is that the whole of the Southeast Asian community...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

As I watched the incident unfold on television, I was struck, Mr Mayor, by the professionalism of the transport staff on the Underground, who managed to deal with the incidents as soon as they had happened, but what happened at central control was another story. It took some time before the Underground, as a whole, realised it was under attack. That is not necessarily surprising, because it is not something that had ever happened before, and they would not know, but I would just like to know: how long did it take before that realisation was there, and what have...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Nevertheless, you have no problem with the principle?