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• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 08 June 2011

What you have described as increasing the bureaucracy have principally been things which have been forced on you externally. Would you be willing to look at things done internally, at the request perhaps of the MPS and more frequently at the request of the MPA, which are rather foolish and look to the public as being extremely odd? You have mentioned your standard operating procedures. This nonsense about how you should ride a bicycle etc are patently obvious and we should not be wasting time training people to do things which to the ordinary man is a complete waste of...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I'm trying to find out what powers you actually have when the Mayor is away. Supposing there was a 11 September situation, for example a plane crashed into the House of Commons, the Mayor was in Australia, all flights were postponed, as they were after 11 September, and there's you, in London, in charge. What actions could you take in such a situation?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I was not suggesting anything like that. I was asking you what real decisions you would make. Despite the marvels of modern communication, it seems unlikely that it would be possible to communicate, even with your literary skills, precisely what was happening here in London to the Mayor, and the chances are therefore that you would have to make some decisions on your own. What kind of decisions would they be? Indeed, what decisions have you made on your own?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

So you would accept that you could not reassure Londoners, despite the fact that you are the anointed one, that the Mayor has laid his hands upon you and that he has given you full powers?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Would you write her speeches in those circumstances?