• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Chair, I am going to try to stop this attempt at using up time and avoiding the question. The report you published last year certainly surveyed the Rothermere press and the Murdoch press. Why did it not cover any of the Northern and `Star- publications by Mr Desmond? Why were they actually excluded from that report?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I think I would welcome that in The Londoner, I do not know when that will come out. However, my specific request was an exhibition here because I also think that Members need the information to hand that is available from the Refugee Council.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Chair, I am grateful for your reassurance that the Mayor's tactic of not answering the question at all, giving a very long answer completely off the point in order to use up what little time we have allocated to us, is not going to work, so it was not very useful. I am not going to be distracted by the nonsense that has just come from that question. You have failed to answer the question again. Will you, or more particularly your Human Rights Advisor (Yasmin Qureshi), who just happens to be a candidate in Brent East, write to the...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I am asking you to go for the worst offender that you excluded last time around. I think the point is made.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I want you to write to Richard Desmond now in the run-up to the General Election so that we can believe what you said earlier that you are concerned about the tone of the debate.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

It says `Commissioned by the Mayor of London' and you were the Mayor of London and, therefore, you commissioned the report. It has your foreword in the front of it. In fact, following the Press Complaints Commission's ruling, the Daily Express remains top of the list of offenders and has increased its incidence of offending, as has the Daily Star. Both of the Richmond Desmond newspapers have increased their use of the phrase `illegal asylum seeker' since the Press Complaints Commission ruling. Can I please repeat to you Graham Tope's question? Will you now write to Richard Desmond expressly '...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Yes, I was aware that Sir Michael Lyons had met various members of staff working for the GLA and for the functional bodies. Can I ask you about the exercise that has just started on revaluation? In your answer to Andrew Pelling's question, you said you would be lobbying to protect London's overall position. You have said so publicly, so I know that you agree with the Liberal Democrat policy that local income tax is a fairer way of raising tax for local purposes because it is related to ability to pay. Do you not think that going ahead with...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I can understand where you are coming from on regional/strategic government, but are you saying that local income tax is unworkable for London local government, and does that then imply it would have to be re-organised if it were to be successful?

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

However, it is possible to believe the ALG when they say that the prospect is £320 million worth of transfer out of London, is it not?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I take that as an agreement to my first point about unfairness, but what about lobbying the Government about protecting London's overall position on the revaluation?