• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Can I suggest to Ken that he produces for us a "Ken's Glossary", so that we can see what he means when he gives his word; what he means when he makes a pledge; what he means when he makes a promise; and what he means when he makes a commitment? That would be useful.

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Would it be helpful in future if your advisers held up a card when you are making a statement, saying "This is an aspiration, rather than a pledge," so that we would all know where we stood on this?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Do you think that some of your commitments are worthy of review - that is to say, you should stand in front of us honestly and say, "Well, I put it in my manifesto, but it is not actually a very good idea; it would cost Londoners a lot of money, and we are not going ahead with it" - for example?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

No. What I have said is that, as obviously this question led me to believe that you were about to produce a list of all the things I have failed to do, it was a waste of my staff's time to go through and try to anticipate you. I just wait for the question, and then apologise. [Laughter.]

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

So what you are saying is that you do not actually know whether you are fulfilling your manifesto pledges, and nor do your staff?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Could I therefore ask whether you are satisfied that every pledge you made during the election campaign and included in your various policy documents before the election are contained in that plan put before the Assembly?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Angie Bray: For once, I welcome what seems to be a new commitment from our Mayor - The Mayor: An aspiration. Angie Bray: In the wake of several Conservative attempts to get you to focus on the possibility of a strike-free zone, we now have that from you. That is a commitment that we will certainly be holding you too. Toby Harris: It was pressed on him by the Labour party. Angie Bray: I think it was mainly us - much to the ridicule of the rest of you. My question is about the Hackney-Chelsea line, which I know is...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Can I ask one other question, about an area where you have a singular lack of commitments - the London Underground? Your sole commitment is to defeat the PPP. You seem to have been frighteningly quiet on commitments as to what you will do with the Underground when you take control.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Jenny has convinced me it is a good idea, anyway - if we were in any doubt. At a recent knockabout session, otherwise known as Mayor's Question Time, you made the commitment that, in its waste disposal, Sutton Council was "setting a high standard, which I would like the rest of London to achieve". Graham Tope: It still is. Roger Evans: When you said that, was it your aspiration - I think that is the word you used - that Londoners should have to wait two weeks to have their rubbish collected while it rotted outside? Was it your aspiration...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

If the PPP goes ahead, I and my successors will be bound to contracts for 30 years. What is depressing is that, even where those contracts say that a certain line will be modernised at a particular time, they are not legally binding on the infracos. So it would be very dangerous for me or anybody else as Mayor to start saying, "We are going to do this, that or the other thing on the Tube," because legally we most probably will not have the power. If we want to add anything to the infraco contracts, we have to pay...