Greater London Authority Bill

Before the noble Lord does so, perhaps between this stage and the next, the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of Parkes, will remind us what was done in that last year of the GLC. I think that there were some extravagant gestures then. The more I listen to the debate, the more worried I become, or possibly the more amused—I am not sure which. Elections have been moved for different reasons—the foot and mouth disease outbreak was one. They have been moved to occur on the same day as other elections, which happened with the Euro elections. Somewhere in my head there is another example, which I cannot quite grasp. This will be an exceptional event; we shall never get the Olympic Games again—at least not for a very long time. The last time was 1948. We should be able to plan, and not leave it until the last minute. An awful lot of people of the few who have thought about this—the political chattering classes—expect that the Government will decide quite close to the event that they will have to postpone the election. That would be a bad thing. It is far better to be straight about it and plan for it now.