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Greater London Authority Bill

I do not think that I can, but I am not sure that I am required to. As I said on the last group of amendments, our job here is to think through the ““what ifs?””, not to start from the point that the Assembly would be utterly difficult or would block the Mayor. This is not about blocking but about an explanation. It is not an answer to these amendments to say that the Assembly would have used this on a matter in the past. In a well functioning authority, this sort of thing would be such a last resort that one would not want to see it used. I take the noble Lord’s point that it might be helpful to have an example. However, the fact that my brain is not working fast enough should not undermine my amendment in the way that he might imply. The first of my two amendments deals with what would be counted as a direction for this purpose. We are all accustomed to the different levels of diktats. In different levels of government, they are suggestions and guidance at one end and gentle encouragement at the other. The amendment would extend the term ““directions”” to include not only specific directions about particular decisions by the functional bodies but also general directions about how each body might act and guidance about the way it exercises its functions. I beg to move.