Greater London Authority Bill

No, thank you. I realise that, as a Liberal Democrat, the hon. Gentleman is an expert in different lines, but I will not give way at this point. We will shortly hear from the Minister for London, and I hope that we shall hear some clarity from him. I sympathise with him on being moved from the Department for Communities and Local Government to the Department of Trade and Industry—which, I have read, Gordon Brown now wants to get rid of. As a housing spokesman, I sympathise with his living in a condemned building, but given that he is condemning thousands of post offices to closure, I suspect that that sympathy may be limited. We will oppose this legislation, because we believe in genuine devolution and do not want to support a power grab from local communities. We believe in genuine accountability and power exercised at the most appropriate level. The Bill will give the Mayor of London power without accountability, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.