• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

You have acknowledged that some things go across your desk that you do not sign; these were added as "Ken's transport policies". I should be grateful to know what consultation you had with your lawyers - as there are 17 press officers, I assume that there is a whole floor of lawyers upstairs - on the picture that appeared so delightfully on these hoardings, which I understand comes from one of your election leaflets. We wondered whether your lawyers consulted case law on electioneering. One of our contentions, as you know - I am coming to the question. I thought...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

I suppose it is logical, if one is consulting Londoners, to put adverts showing spaced-out drivers in the New Statesman under the heading "Swampy, your hour will come again"; but then we found an advert saying "Ken's transport policies: jam rationing" in The Spectator, which is well read by Londoners. Then there was "Gotcha, Gucci!", with a slight variation. Do you honestly think that, having gone through your arguments about the ALG and the boroughs and the vital need for all these pennies you are going to gather from Londoners, it is justifiable to spend all that money on such...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

Thank you. What I did not include in this, of course, but I wonder whether you can justify it, are the 17 press officers upstairs, who probably represent a bill of over £500,000 under your "tight" Budget regime. But on top of that, the 17 press officers you do have presumably told you that the adverts that were going out - I have seen the billboarding of Hackney Underground, which it took me some time to understand -

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

You referred earlier to Stalin, and made knowledgeable reference to the situation in North Korea, and I gather from the Daily Mail, although I do not believe everything I read there, that you may have been to Cuba recently. Does that mean that we have a policy within the GLA now of pursuing the cult of the individual, and that every mass publication, advertisement and billboard poster campaign will have your mugshot on it? If so, are you intending to do a mass circulation of your photograph as part of the best value performance plan later in the year? Rather...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

Would Ken extend his work in relationship with the functional bodies, and recognise that the Members on those bodies have as much an engagement in the Budget process in the work that they are doing, and that it would be helpful in future if you talked to them first, rather than as happened when I was at home at heard your announcement over the radio about the 60p for policing in London? The issue is not that I objected to that: it is about what process you are going to follow. The members of the functional bodies, many of whom...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

Do you agree, Ken, that what is important is not just the budget line: it is expenditure of the amounts which are in those budget lines over the year, and delivery of these services? Can you do what you can to persuade the functional bodies that, the more open they are with this Assembly, the more constructive a dialogue we can have on the delivery of services?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

In addition, I hope, to taking on board as genuinely as possible - I am not yet reassured by what you have said about taking aboard the Assembly's concerns about early information, both from your own officers and from the functional bodies - will you also, bearing in mind what has happened this year, give an undertakeing to consult the boroughs - both the ALG and the boroughs individually - at a much earlier stage in the process, perhaps even before your first draft proposals are laid before the Assembly, to get their views on the likely precept?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

Do you accept that one of the problems that the Budget Committee had - and perhaps one of the reasons it had to meet so many times - was that extracting information, particularly when one required any supporting detail for the assertions that were made - was a bit like extracting teeth? Do you agree that, when the officers report to you, you should bear in mind in particular the words of your new Cabinet member, Sir Robin Wales, that we need to work to ensure that any future increase in the GLA precept proposed by the Mayor is kept...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

: Thank you - that is encouraging news. Everyone has said that they are willing to release these documents, but it took until November to get sight of them. I therefore welcome the fact that they are going to be published. Will you also release the background reports, which are especially important for the debate on the regeneration benefits? We need a proper public debate on this, and there are people who are extremely sceptical about the 48,000 jobs that it is claimed these crossings could bring.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 28 February 2001

Thanks to you and Len for, hopefully, bringing about a more informed and enlightened public debate.