• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Absolutely. If you could, just succinctly outline the benefits to outer London and the rest of the country.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Okay, but my question remains. It specifically says there is to be a review of this Paragraph 17, or perhaps the whole memorandum of understanding, this summer - the summer of 2005. I am asking you again: is that review, to your knowledge, going on? If not, when is it going to take place?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

That is good. Looking at the Athens Olympics, they had statements in their original bid document, but because of time pressures, budget pressures, and so on, a lot of those were jettisoned. How do you ensure that we do not jettison the long-term benefits from this?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

I absolutely agree, and we need central Government to step up to the plate. If I can just have one last question: in terms of the Thames Tideway Strategic Study Group, of which the GLA is a member, when your local Liberal Democrat MP, Sarah Teather, asked the Minister about this a couple of weeks ago, he said that there had been five meetings of that group, and the GLA representative did not attend any one of those five meetings. Are you seriously committed to getting this tunnel built?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Finally, how are you going to manage the finances of such a large project to ensure that the benefits are maximised and not squandered?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

We do not live in North Korea. It is perfectly acceptable, is it not, to flag up things if they are not all perfect, or are you suggesting that we should only ever say that things are absolutely wonderful? I do not think we live in that sort of society.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Firstly, congratulations on the phenomenal achievement. Given your key role now in the project, can you personally ensure that the environmental proposals in the bid document will not be watered down in any way, and even if there are significant budget overruns, delays, or whatever, that these parts of the bid will not be sacrificed?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

Obviously, many congratulations. Can I just ask you first: which person do you think was the X factor, at the end of the day, in Singapore that clinched the bid for us? Was it Lord Coe? Was it Tony Blair, or was it even yourself?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

I would like to move on now to some of the questions about how it is going to impact on London for which I have not really had answers in the past, but now that we have won the bid, perhaps we will get some answers now. Whatever my colleague Dee Doocey says, I am actually going to draw your attention to the memorandum of understanding and the bits of it that specifically address the way that any overspend is going to be passed around. It is quite clear that it goes in stages. If the overspend is this, then...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 July 2005

I would like to move on now to some of the questions about how it is going to impact on London for which I have not really had answers in the past, but now that we have won the bid, perhaps we will get some answers now. Whatever my colleague Dee Doocey says, I am actually going to draw your attention to the memorandum of understanding and the bits of it that specifically address the way that any overspend is going to be passed around. It is quite clear that it goes in stages. If the overspend is this, then...