• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

What impact will Liberal Democrat bus and train cuts at the same time as Tube upgrades have on traffic congestion?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Thank you for that very full answer. Can I then ask you to comment on whether you believe the Liberal Democrat candidate's view would appear to be the opposite of his Liberal Democrat Assembly Member colleagues? It seems that the Liberal Democrats are in a state of confusion because my colleague, Lynne Featherstone, has, like myself, called for an additional bus route to serve schools and to cut congestion in Haringey, a very important east west route, but her Mayoral candidate wants to cut these services. Or is it night buses he wants to cut, or is he aiming to...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

I was waiting for the Mayor to respond to Eric Ollerenshaw's question. My question follows on from Eric's because I think Eric raises a very interesting point about the nature of local in the context of London politics. Obviously, London is a mixture of villages and different localities and I would welcome the Mayor's views on the importance of local links and local relationships of people who stand for public office. In particular, obviously he is aware of the long record of Robert Evans's links with Northwest London as a former MEP and the untiring work that he has done...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

Chair, little do I want to interfere in the breakdown of the Liberal-Labour coalition, which has sustained an 82% increase in Council Tax over the last three years but now finds itself in some difficulty. I just want to point out to the Mayor that there is only one candidate of the principal parties standing who actually lives in the constituency and can truly be described as local. Only one who actually works in the constituency and actually represents the constituency on that notorious council run by Labour, Brent Council. That is Uma Fernandes, the Conservative.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

I must say, Chair, I do not know how long this is going to go on but I am quite happy to spend two and a half hours duelling on this. I must say that the Mayor has clearly had a much more sheltered and naïve electoral life than, I suspect, anyone else in this chamber if he has never experienced any of this before. Certainly, I have experienced it time and time again from the Conservative and Labour parties over the last 30 years. Chair, I have a list here of false claims made by the Labour candidate. I...

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

Well, I am sorry to hear that, Chair, because there were four claims made where it was proved that Labour have made misleading statements. I think the Mayor is right in one thing: this does presage the campaign for next year, which, as with tomorrow, will again result in a Liberal Democrat victory next June. That clearly is what is really bothering the Mayor today.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

I think, Chair, all I need to say is thank you very much to the Mayor. He has now given the headline for today and tomorrow: London Mayor predicts Liberal Democrat victory in Brent East. Otherwise, why would the Mayor, who happens to live in Brent East and probably knows what the result is going to be tomorrow, use his oral update solely to speak about a by-election campaign in one constituency? Perhaps, as this is Question Time, I should ask the Mayor whether he saw Newsnight last night and would like to comment on Michael Crick's report on the...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

You might like to reflect that one of the reasons that there has been an increase in affordable housing has been a perhaps belated recognition on that part of yourself and your officers that affordable housing has to be much more widely defined than traditional municipal housing, about which you were speaking recently. Many of the new schemes that have come onstream involve a high degree of intermediate housing in its various modes. Bearing in mind that the evidence that the evidence at the examination in public from the house builders and sellers was that the target of 30,000 was...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

I do not underestimate " and you do not underestimate " the difficulty of getting towards the figure that we need. What I do not understand is why you have signed up to a goal that falls so far short of it. The suspicion must be that you do not want to sign up to a needs-based goal because of the gap that would be revealed and that your opponents will be able to say you have failed. Surely it would be better and more honest to draw a clear distinction and say "That is where are heading to, now...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 September 2003

That is great that you acknowledge that this does not address the level of needs. What I do not understand is why, given that it is not the Government's strategy " the whole point of this is that it is supposed to be a partnership strategy involving the Government and the key agencies in London " have you signed up to a goal that falls so far short. Can you tell us, of the billion pounds or so a year of existing resources that this strategy is built upon, how many affordable units will be achieved by that level of...