Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, I have taken an interest in these matters before. It puzzles me that the noble Baroness believes that the amendment will bring about the solution. Surely the solution is to have amity between all the parties concerned. The parties may in due course be faced with a direction from the Government through legislation that the Mayor of London should chair the board, regardless of who they think might be appropriate for the position. Given the personalities involved, I do not think that that course of action is likely to make much progress. I have already declared my interest as joint president of London Councils. I have not had any representations from it on this matter, unlike the noble Baroness—she has received many representations, so she has an advantage. I should have thought, given my close association with the London Borough of Enfield and London Councils as a body, that the concern and agitation that she describes among the London councils would have been brought to my attention. It is not a happy situation: the Mayor of London and others are playing politics and attempting to use their muscle by contributing and withdrawing their powers. However, I am not certain that the amendment will help us to achieve the objective of finding—sooner rather than later, through discussion, agreement and perhaps compromise—a basis for making progress. In reminding us of the words of the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, the noble Baroness offered a perfectly sensible way forward. I took a close interest in the Bill at its previous stages and read all the documentation. I accepted the argument that we needed to move from where we were to where we hope to be, but the move favoured by the Mayor was not acceptable to the London councils. I hesitate to say that what we have now is a compromise or a halfway house, but it is politically as far as we are likely to get. I am pragmatic about these matters; it is no good wasting time or money here or in any other forum by conducting an exercise in power. I await the Minister’s thoughts on the amendment. Although the current situation is not ideal, it will not be improved by the amendment.