LondonSays

Dangerous dogs were the hot issue at last week’s Mayors Question Time  but this week we London Assembly members gathered to scrutinise the London Olympic Organising Committee and are baying for blood.

The London Assembly Meeting is a 21^st century reinvention of the mediaeval stocks – an oppositionist format.  Usually members gather to throw political tomatoes at the Mayor.  So a meeting aimed at scrutinising Lord Coe – Chair of LOCOG and Paul Deighton CEO poses a special problem for the pack.

Labour and the Lib Dems support the Olympics – are glad of it as a focus for regeneration and investment to East London.  The Tories support it officially and aim to be polite to our  guests but their anti interventionist and anti public expenditure instincts make them very restless.  Which way will the meeting go?

First political animal off the leash is the un-house-trained Tory Brian Coleman – he harasses our distinguished guests “are we expecting sponsorship from Cadbury’s – what connection has confectionery to the public health agenda?” Resisting provocation the slender, Italian-shoed Lord Coe rises elegantly above it.  John Biggs –Labour’s intellectual greyhound pads forwards with a public defence of a grand old Quaker British company and brings in a core rationale for the Olympics - showcasing British industry. The first exchange is often the format for the rest.

Tory attack dogs harry at  Lord Coe but Labour does a faithful guard dog thing – we continue to defend a Tory Peer from Tory Assembly members attacking a Tory supported national project. It feels weird.

Kit Malthouse lollops, big front paws first, into the fray   “the LOGOG are arrogant and confused”   but Coe is still a faster runner and leave Malthouse nodding behind him like a Churchill Insurance dog.  Lord Coe coolly assures him that there isn’t any confusion about roles  and responsibilities.  It’s all going well and they are expecting to hit their targets. Malthouse  complains that the Committee never goes to a vote, Coe not surprisingly thinks this is a good thing.

Lib Dem Olympic enthusiast Dee Doocey makes a  friendly yap at the heels of  the team and Lord Coe tickles her behind the ears with a flattering recognition of Dee’s persistent championing of disabled people’s rights.  Several Assembly members chance a peak at their Blackberries while this goes on – no blood and guts expected for a few minutes.  Nicky Gavron turns up late and a note passes up and down the Labour line sharing out the remaining time-  be good dogs.

Malthouse lurches in for a different line of attack , will Zill Lanes (Olympic “bus” lanes) cause public hostility he barks?  Coe uses the question to give an impressive account of his grasp of the detail and the massive size of the operation.  Anyway, says he, the traffic will be 20% down during the school holidays.  Kit says yes he “buys that”.  Coleman straining at the leash at this outbreak of peace yells “who cares they can all take the bus” and immediately realises that as the no 1 taxi user in the City  Hall he had made a mistake, as the entire pack turned on him and growl back – “what do you know about buses Brian?”  Coe must be feeling relaxed by now.  But has Boris, upstairs, yet noticed quite how ‘barking‘ his Chair of Fire and Emergency Planning is?  The man who accused Britain’s successful Olympic athletes as ‘checking in their conscience’s at Heathrow’?

Questioning goes onto security issues – for me something really interesting at last.  Paul Deighton knows what he is doing “this is all about co-ordination, integration and forward planning”.   But Roger Evans isn’t reassured about the financing of all this security.  He wants to see the details and costed security plan.  Deighton says this is “owned” by the Home Office and will go to Ministers (top dogs only Roger!).  Roger has his teeth into this one – will it cost too much?  Will we overspend?  He plays tug of war on this, but missies the key question “will it be safe?”.   Fortunately Caroline (Lib) Pigeon dashes in  to get her jaws on this abandoned bone.  LOCOG answers positively  but clearly aren’t willing to advertise London’s Security ‘dirty zones”.

Coming to the end of the questioning now and Paul and Seb are still free of bite mark or scratch..  I get my one question in that I have been waiting down our line for – I want the Ebony Horse Club (Brixton) to be recognised as an official part of the Olympic Legacy so that it can obtain Sport England funding to build a new Equestrian centre for disadvantaged Brixton kids rather than bussing them all around London as they have to now.  Seb and Paul are bound to be sympathetic  - and I get a public, and afterwards, private promise of help.  I tick the one box I had on my wish list for the meeting.

On to Motions,  the first a great dog fight about  Boris  dropping road safety schemes and public realm projects – it turns predictably into Tory vs Progressives (Labour, Green and Lib Dems.)  Tories are well behind the pace on all kinds of thinking about improving the pedestrian environment.  Motion two - Murad Qureshi (Lab) waxes Lyrical about Cricket  and wins a unanimous vote to support a proposal to have 20-20 Cricket as  showcase sport at the Oval.  Definately happy with that – in my Constituency.  As a finale, James Cleverly – the smart new Tory member for Bexley and Bromley moves a motion on food policy in London  which Brian savages as woolly thinking. The Assembly turns friendly in sympathy  and claps Gareth Bacon (Con) for speaking up for his colleague  against….. his other colleague.  Jenny Jones(Green)  ever wise and wonderful, wraps  up the entire meeting with a finger wagging at bad dog Brian Coleman,  ‘Brian’ she says, ‘you are always good for a laugh  and we particularly enjoy it when you turn like a terrier on your own side’……hear, hear, woof !

Ms Shawcross website can be found at www.valshawcross.com