• Question by: Trevor Phillips
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

I think it would be worth your while going over the chronology of this again. We did discuss it on the Friday, and in good faith I accepted that you would not be able to make it available. But the fact is that there were bound copies in circulation on Sunday night in Brighton; that members of the press had it - you say on Saturday - certainly by Sunday. I wonder whether you think it can be right that The Guardian, the Standard and others who happened to be at the Labour party conference saw that important report before...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

So you put out a press release before you read it yourself?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

I am going back to Elizabeth's question, in which she asked you to guarantee that you would not increase fares if the bond issue was the way we went forward. Would you agree that the likelihood of fares rising is much greater under PPP after the first seven years than it ever would be if TfL retained control of the bond issue?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

He clearly is. There are a lot of issues on which I agree with Ken, but on this one he is being incredibly dishonest with the Assembly in his conduct. He embargoed the release till midnight; his release went out hand in hand with the PPP report; the newspapers had already gone to bed. Most journalists being fairly lazy on these issues, which are rather technical, they swallowed it and published reports which were basically untrue. The only saving grace, Mayor, was that it did not explode with quite the power that you hoped and did not help to derail...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

Am I allowed to accuse him of lying, Chair?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

You say that all the boroughs have responded. Would it be fair to say that even those boroughs that support the principle of the congestion charge have flagged up a number of deep concerns which they would like to see addressed before they would be happy to support your policy - for example, the improvement of public transport for people living in their areas; the concern about displaced traffic around the zone; and the problem that some will have of people using their areas to park and get into the centre? I understand that such concerns do not come just...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

I do not know where this idea has come from that I am some sort of bizarre pigeon lover. Certainly I can confirm that it was not the Green group behind the plans to throw pigeon shit over Ken. That is not part of our agenda at all. The Green group were just keen to ensure that Ken consulted animal welfare organisations before going ahead with any pigeon population control measures. That is all we asked of him - we have not taken a view on whether it is right or wrong to feed pigeons on Trafalgar Square. Has he...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

One was very good in the Afghan war.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

Will you reopen the debate with Londoners not just about the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square but about all of them? It is strange that we spend such a lot of time talking about the statue for the fourth, when whatever we put on it will be out of sync with the other three, which hold statues of generals and people who fought wars. What is your thinking about a London debate on all four plinths?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

Are you certain that none of our Green friends were there? I think I heard one of them say they should run off to join.