• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

That Londoners will not hold you responsible for delaying work on the Tube. Moving on to your presentation on the budget gap, again I think it's very healthy that you should present to us this, what I think, is the worst case, but I think you need to acknowledge that there are at least three areas, where it remains very uncertain. First, you're not sure how much you're going to get out of the congestion charge. Secondly, as you already said, the Government hasn't settled its grant for London for TfL yet. It may well be in line with the...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

The case in Europe, if you win it, it's not going to bring more money into the Underground. So, to use your words, what else can you do by way of making a hell of a fuss?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

But my understanding is that it is unlikely to be the case, and there's a fair chance - and I think The Financial Times predicted this - that the Government will tough it out with you, and will simply go ahead with the PPPs and will offer an indemnity, which will not fall in breach of state aid. I think the problem you have, politically, because you are acting in a political capacity here, is that if the Government really didn't do that, and they allowed you to delay the PPP by another three years, Londoners will not be exactly...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

Finally then, and I think at the Budget Committee, we've examined this in detail, the big iceberg within this transport budget is the escalating costs of bus contracts, as I think you've hinted already, and the question of whether London can afford that. I know that politically you will argue that we can't afford not to do that, and there needs to be a debate with Government about the right level of grant to support bus services, and I know that Labour members will join you in supporting a healthy debate on that issue. And I think that that is...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

As you are expecting to take Tube on some time later, possibly as late as 2006, will Bob Kiley still be the Commissioner at that time. Do you feel Londoners will have got good value out of the package which you paid him, principally for his expertise in running an underground railway?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

Is the main battle through the courts then, or are there other weapons you can use?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

You got some rare support from Simon Jenkins recently, when he said that the PPP was so flawed it was just a matter of you keeping kicking until you went for the final kill. Are you closer to seeing the defeat of PPP now, than when you were first elected?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

It's a long game, getting longer. Just, going back to the figures on the shortfall, you told us on the LUL shortfall which were broadly accepted and which were disputed by LUL and by the Government. The funding gap in the LUL plan, which is obviously their figures, I may have missed it, is that accepted by the Government?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

I remain in a state of ecstasy on this matter. Returning to the PPP, I put to you that you're saying that your approach to this is a negotiating tactic, and you're assuming the Government will buckle under. What is your next best expectation?

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

So, am I to understand that next year, they will be pressing for next year's pay claim, leaving this year's pay claim until 2006, until you sort it out, or independent arbiters, so we could face the likelihood of strikes next year then?