• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

I am pleased to hear you say that you would not claim the glory for other people's efforts or take responsibility for things that other people could do. Perhaps you would revise your earlier statement about recruitment of GLA staff, which is an Assembly issue - I and many others around this table also contributed to that policy, and you might give some joint recognition to that when you claim that glory.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Is that really the act of world-class management, or of dullards?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

In the light of your previous answers, may we take it that the fact that Transport for London has underspent its budget by £55 million this year, at the same time that you propose to increase its budget for next year by £103 million, represents a piece of budgetary incompetence for which you take personal responsibility?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Do you agree that the public sector, as well as local shops and local post offices, is crucial to that?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

To come back to the debate about transport and public services, do you agree that the public services debate and the implications for transport are much wider than just delivering good public transport; that the catalogue of library closures and school and Health Service rationalisations across London has had an impact on people's travel patterns, encouraged people to make longer journeys through necessity, and is adding to London's transport problems; and that we need to get back to providing good-quality local services at a local level as part of trying to tackle London's traffic problems?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Good morning, Mr Mayor. Your passion for London and some Londoners cannot be faulted, but the Labour group have a problem with your need to grandstand and confuse. I was at the excellent conference that you staged at the Islington Design Centre - not the cheapest place in the world, but if that is the standard - The Mayor: We like to help out a Liberal borough these days. Jennette Arnold: If that is the standard you want to set, fine. Although I heard some excellent speakers, and what people said was well received, many of us left the conference...

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Can you tell us about the work you said you were doing on possible reforms of London government from your side - I know about the work on the Assembly side - in the light of the Government's proposed White Paper on regionalism?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

Thank you very much. It is an honour to start off the season of mirth and a little goodwill at the Assembly, and we will take that through. I do have some serious points - So: better public transport. In a sense, the bit that concerns me is that you are trying to take on London and do it as an individual, rather than working in partnership. We all know that you believe that partnership is a good thing, not only at the Footstool, and we believe that it is important. Perhaps you could say something about how you are...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

So, in sum, you have created 14 or 15 strategies and have spent a lot of money on buses. You have not been able to answer the question about whether that expanded expenditure on buses is sustainable, and you have destroyed the relationship with the boroughs, in which you started off, potentially, on a good footing. Do you think that is a good legacy on which you should reflect over Christmas?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 19 December 2001

What you seem to have said, Ken, is that you have been in office for almost two years, and the only service you have managed to improve is the buses. That says a number of things to me - first, that the Government have given you a 70% increase in your transport grant, and you have spent virtually all of it on bus services; that you have not given a sizeable increase to the boroughs; and that you have failed to develop the partnerships with them. There is a question about sustainability of the money you are putting into the...