• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

The Mayor is fully aware I am sure of the regenerative impact of this building in Southwark. Southwark, one of the poorest boroughs in this country, is extremely keen to see this building because it won't just serve the Assembly it will actually serve the whole economy of North Southwark by bringing in some very welcome public sector employment which will be a move away from the tourism dependency of some parts of the North Southwark and Bermondsey area I hope that the Mayor wouldn't look at other sites in London without taking into account the impact on the local...

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

Is the implication of what you just said that any alternative scheme that would be cheaper has to be developed by the beginning of August

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

Thank you. I would expect the Prime Minister to say a silent prayer of thanks to Michael Portillo because I am not sure that he would relish the prospect of you moving back into County Hall. However, the Millennium bridge wobbles, the Millennium tent has got holes in the roof and it leaks. This landmark building is glass and steel. Can you assure us that somebody will have built in a design feature so that you can clean it?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

Having been a building contractor I am absolutely thrilled at the contemporary structure of this nature coming into London and the badge of honour that we are wearing when we say this is a new building and it's fantastic to put money into new construction in London. I am also thrilled, having been a contractor working with late changes, and how horrendous that is, is you're supporting the fact that we should have very few changes or minimal changes at the end of the contract. It is a new innovation in the sense that we have been working in the...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

But it is surely also the right of passengers to be able to expect to get from A to B when they need to. It is a public service after all.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

Can I just be clear about an answer that you gave to my colleague, Bob Neill, a while back? I think you seemed to suggest that in some way it was in the interests of Londoners and passengers that sometimes strike action should be considered because it was important that our workers were paid properly. I have, in the past, described you as soft on strikes, soft on the cause of the strikes, and I can now see why I probably said that. Surely if you, as the Mayor, continue to give that sort of comfort to people who are...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

Is the majority of the Board a group of Livingstone yes men?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

I suppose the obvious question is that job advertisements have appeared on your authority, I assume, for senior positions. It would be rather stupid, in my opinion, for us to advertise jobs which were then not going to exist. It may well be that, as I suspect is the case, you have confidence that the Board will rubber stamp or agree with your proposals but it does seem a bit cart before the horse to advertise for posts, to run the risk of disappointment in the event that Transport for London, against my expectations, becomes actually quite a strong and...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

So, implicit in that, you are accepting that you have a long term relationship with Graham Tope and indeed with the Leader of the City of London, probably with Toby Harris, Susan Kramer as well; I am pleased to hear that but I don't quite believe it.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 29 June 2000

I think we all know that although it may all stop with you, you do need to rely on the advice of people who are close to you and so I sense partly in a previous question that although Graham Tope may have been appointed to your Cabinet he is not exactly going to be one of your closest confidantes; on your corridor you have 4 or 5 people who have been in various factions and groups with you down the years and some who have been on the GLC with you. It seems to me that they are your...