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• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

I think I meant London citizens in lower case, rather than that particular organisation.

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

I am glad to hear that, and I suspect a lot of local authorities will be competing amongst themselves for which countries to host. Could you just keep me informed about those developments, because it is quite a critical one that we need to keep an eye on.

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you for that response, Mayor. Most of the other venues outside of the Olympic Village itself are outside of the local government structures. I was just wondering, whilst we have heard good words and deeds from the various venues, how we can make sure that there are other mechanisms for them to be accountable. Have bodies like Sport England a role to play in this?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

My final question is about the quality of advice that the Mayor gets. I know this has been probed a little bit earlier, but I think we all know that, yourself excluded, the Mayor's advisors include a range of people who have political baggage behind them. How do you ensure that the Mayor gets good advice, notwithstanding thatadvisors may carry with them prejudices that help to inform their advice?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I think, to all intents and purposes, your average Londoner would assume that you are, with great respect to my colleague the Deputy Mayor, effectively a deputy mayor of London. Do you imagine there could be circumstances where a different Simon Fletcher or a different mayor might employ someone in your position who would have a more public persona and would, for example, be interviewed and speak on behalf of the Mayor to TV cameras?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

You are in an interesting position in British politics. I think you are almost uniquely a heartbeat away from redundancy, in your position. It's a nice sound bite.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Do you envisage following up an earlier line of questioning that you might resign from your position in order to enable you to campaign for the Mayor's re-election?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Thank you, Simon. As I understand it, your role falls into three parts. Within the Mayor's office you act as essentially the Mayor's procurer of information and advice, making sure that it's timely and so on. Is that just within the Mayor's office, or is that more generally? Is that throughout the structure of the Authority?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Right, so that's that aspect of your work. Is the process then that 24 hours before a meeting you would then see the sum total of the advice and decide whether the Mayor's advisor has done the job properly and there is sufficient advice for the Mayor?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

So that's a process you engage in, deciding whether the advice is sufficient?