• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Personal abuse tends to suggest I am winning the argument, by the way. I was always taught that. I will put it to you one more time: is it not a good opportunity for you to show how you can flex your muscles as Mayor of London, and at the very least press for some kind of guarantee that whatever the overspend is ' and I am hoping it is not going to be great; let us hope it is the most efficiently-delivered bid of all ' that would be fantastic ' but let us also have a belt and...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Let us stick with the point, shall we?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Can I just put it to you that I do think that you are reneging on your duty as the man who is meant to lead for London's interest. It is absolutely clear that, if there had been a review, it is not a matter of you rolling over. You could have used the opportunity, could you not, to press for some guarantees? You said yourself that you do not think Londoners should pay a penny more than they are already committed to ' the £625 million. The fact is, however, that this Memorandum of Understanding hangs over us like...

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Like (Robert) Mugabe (president of Zimbabwe) ' exactly.

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Mayor, how can you honestly suggest that these people would lobby against the Games? They were lobbying for their interests. Many of them stand to go bust. Many of them stand to genuinely lose their business. I am a businessman. Sally Hamwee (Chair): I said a short question. Damian Hockney (AM): I know if I were offered that compensation, I would be dead.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Well, it is not really. Out of how many? Out of how many?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Can I just make a final point, and then I am going to hand over to Damian (Hockney). I have to say ' call me a cynic ' but a lot of people would say that you are driving these businesses as close to the deadline as you possibly can by not having meaningful conversations. One letter of contact is hardly what I would call being in negotiations. Of course, if the deadline gets reached, presumably, down comes the CPO on terms of your choice, rather than theirs. That would be a cynic's view.

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

This is not like-for-like, is it? I am looking at a number of businesses, like Sortex, M Laurier and Sons, all of whom have made public statements, `We would be delighted with just simply like-for-like. We do not want to make any money. We were promised that.' What they are going to be, if anything ' £600,000 short. Let me just put it to you: if I came to you and wanted to take your flat in the area or house in the area, and then what happened was that in the process of all this, I took it from...

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

You say `overpay.'

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

When you say, `in exactly the same way,' the appeal initially, therefore, from a decision of the ODA, will go to the inspector and then to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Is that how it will work?