Greater London Authority Bill

I wonder whether my noble friend Lord Harris of Haringey might forgive me if I marginally disagree with the case that he has made. Perhaps I may explain why I am slightly worried about the amendment. One of the characteristics of our proceedings on the Bill is that there is a tendency among some Members to place great emphasis on the role that the boroughs must play in the government of London. I sense, not only in my observation of the proceedings but in discussions with people who are close to the whole GLA operation, that there is a lot of pressure from the boroughs on the Members of the GLA to accept the views of the boroughs when the Mayor decides issues of strategy. In fact, this is true of the whole policy of the GLA. I sense that there is a tug-of-war going on. As I said, I am not a Member of the authority; I am just observing the dynamic as a council taxpayer in London. If that were to happen, I worry that, in certain conditions, you could build a consensus, a coalition of forces, within the GLA that sets out to undermine the strategy of the Mayor in favour of the boroughs arising from pressure exerted by members of the borough authorities through their political associations on Members of the GLA. There might even be a coalition that extended into the majority group, if there were to be one, where people felt that the pressure was so unrelenting that they had to give in. I suggest that, in those conditions, the Mayor's strategy, which could be deemed as in the interests of London, could be undermined simply by such pressures. I put that only as a proposition. It may be that I am misreading what is happening, but I sense that dynamic of tension between the boroughs and the GLA which could, under those conditions, prove counterproductive.