Greater London Authority Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for backing me up with that specific information. We all have negative experiences of Transport for London and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), who will pilot the Bill through Committee for the Opposition, has noted the point and will ensure that amendments are tabled to try to tackle it. Let us consider the Metropolitan Police Authority. Yes, its composition mirrors that of other police authorities outside London, but the politicians are all from the assembly and, apart from the Conservatives and two Labour Members, who are directly elected by first past the post, the others are from the list system and have no responsibility to any constituents. There are no borough representatives. The Police and Justice Act 2006 has already given the Mayor power to chair or appoint the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority to ““increase its democratic legitimacy.”” I have slight difficulties with that. However, only those people in London who are represented by first-past-the-post assembly members have any direct contact with the Metropolitan Police Authority. With the best will in the world, the London learning and skills councils have not covered themselves in glory, and we have no objection in principle to the Mayor taking skills under his wing—so long as he does not interfere in boroughs where learning and skills are being delivered effectively. I was concerned to learn last week that the Mayor had appointed the ““shadow”” learning and skills council for London when the Bill to bring about the change has not been debated in this House and is only in the process of going through the Lords. Such action takes it for granted that both Houses will not object to the proposals and is rather contemptuous of Parliament. There is not much point in the Government complaining that no one cares about Parliament when they clearly do not care much about it themselves. The appointments were definitely in the ““friends of Ken”” category. Apart from the Mayor himself, not a single elected politician was on it—a recipe for another arrogant and unresponsive board governing the vital skills that London will need to compete globally in the coming years.