• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Have senior officers expressed any concerns about the controls applied to Assembly Member bookings?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Could you tell me how the procedure differs for mayoral events?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Can you tell us who else you have invited here to debate in City Hall with whom you have a profound disagreement of views?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

I have no problem with that. Would you agree, therefore, as you have just demonstrated, that a robust exchange of views is more likely to take place where there is a profound disagreement of views? I would guess that must be self-evident.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Mr Mayor, do you recall that when the Assembly debated the issue shortly after the visit in July, in the end we passed an amended motion which began by saying, `We affirm our commitment for free speech and a robust exchange of views'?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

In which case, of course both you and Assembly Members are subject to the rulings of the Standards Board and events will have to take their course.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Brian Coleman (Chair): Mr Johnson, would you like to respond to that? Darren Johnson (AM): The statement does not necessarily wholeheartedly promote the death sentence, but it does give justification to the death sentence for homosexuals. It does justify it. Therefore, I believe I was right. I would refer back to the debate we had in the Assembly in July when both the leader of the Labour group and the leader of the Liberal Democrat group both acknowledged at the start of their speeches that I was not motivated by Islamophobia and that nothing I had done in the past...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Mr Mayor, I wonder if you care to clarify in what way you think Mr Johnson is dishonest?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

That is the usual courtesy of the democratic process and one that this Assembly intends to continue. You were not suggesting Mr Johnson was dishonest.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 January 2005

Mr Mayor, you will not insult Members of the Assembly and Members of this Assembly will not insult you.