• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

I take your point, but the problem is that people do not really know what the funding package is going to be. It has been reported widely that what we said going back seven or eight months is that the amount is not going to be capped for Londoners. Londoners might well pay more than the walnut whip level. Can you confirm that the spending by Londoners will be capped, in other words that will be the level and they will pay no more?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

My point is that you did not really decide, because if you had decided to go with the Arup figures, then it would have been widely ridiculed. The key to this is really that if Londoners are going to pay more than has been said before, surely it would be better ' I take your point about referenda ' but it is a slightly surprising political journey, I think, that I see in you when you mention the euro or European Constitution. If we ended up a British Government bound for all time by the terms of the euro and...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Are you saying that this document, as detailed in a very detailed parliamentary written answer, does not exist?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Still on the Olympics, the Head of Communications for Athens (Serafim Kotrotsos) was recently quoted as saying, `It is like we built a brand new house, held a great party then closed it. Now we have no more guests.- The legacy of that is empty stadiums, a crumbling infrastructure and huge debt. We are going down the same route: we are going to have magnificent facilities, but if you are going to keep them going, it is going to cost quite a bit in ongoing maintenance and what have you. What guarantee is there that those new facilities will be...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

There is the issue of the businesses that are in the Lea Valley at the moment. If we are successful, a lot of those businesses will be displaced or closed with potential loss of jobs. Equally, there is the potential sword of Damocles hanging over these businesses if we are not successful, and what happens after July for them. What message do you have for the businesses in the Lea Valley?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

We keep hearing that the Olympics are going to be some panacea to deliver regeneration, transport and environmental improvements. If we do not get the Games, is there a plan B, or are we facing devastation if we do not get the Games?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Everyone was talking about legacy before that though. I think the problem we have with this and the reason we go so strongly for the referendum is because if the people of London were to vote, it would then be down to them. This idea of legacy, if you go back eight years, everyone said that about Athens: legacy was the big word from everybody about Athens and now it does not have one.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Just to come back on that issue, what are the messages, therefore, if we are not successful in the Games?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

I was not actually going to touch on the subject of overspend today, but I think, given what you have said in answer to Veritas, I just need to ask you whether or not there is an overspend - and frankly none of us know whether there will be and how much it might be. That is something we will not know until it happens. Are you trying to deny what the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was only too happy to confirm in a parliamentary written answer that there does exist a memorandum of intention signed by...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

I appreciate that is ticking that particular box, but there is a memorandum of intention that goes beyond that.