• 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...

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

Could you deal with the second part of my question?

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

I know. I am a bit worried, because you are taking my time.

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

My last question, for now - although if you answer it very quickly, I might get in another one: could you just explain how the cultural aspects and the educational aspects of the Games are going to be rolled out?

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

We know that the Olympic Bill that was going to be debated at second reading yesterday is now happening today. Looking at what is in that Bill, it is quite clear that there is absolutely no mention of the London Assembly as playing any role at all in scrutinising the next seven years as we move towards the Olympics. Do you think that that is right, or as representatives of Londoners who have been elected here, should we be having some scrutiny role officially laid out? Will you be supporting any amendment that might press for that?

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

Final question: you say that we are going to get plenty of opportunity to scrutinise everything that is going on, which is welcome, as far as it goes. My last question to you is that we had a taste of what we might expect to happen when you appeared to be very keen to ensure that we did not do a scrutiny at the Plenary last week. Was it your influence that suddenly persuaded the LDA and all sorts of others to suddenly announce that they would not be coming before the Plenary?