Examination of Witnesses (Questions 10460
- 10479)
10460. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Let us see
when they come back. We can get you back, we know where you are.
Let us find out what the Promoters come back with. Would that
be acceptable for the time being?
10461. Ms Ferguson: I am happy to come
back at any time.
10462. Mr Liddell-Grainger: I thank you
for that and, Mr Mould, there is anything you wish to say?
10463. Mr Mould: No, sir, I am very clear
on what the Committee would like us to do and we will take that
and follow that up.
10464. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Thank you
very much. Therefore, I will end the session to say on the record
that we will be back in touch with all three of you as Petitioners.
Thank you for giving your evidence, I am sorry we cut you to the
quick. This Committee will now meet at six o'clock in public not
as published on the audit paper in the House as said privately.
We will be in public session at six o'clock.
The Committee adjourned until 6pm
Mr Alan Meale resumed the Chair
Ordered: that Counsel and Parties be called
in.
The Petition of George Galloway MP.
The Petitioner appeared in Person.
10465. Chairman: The Committee will continue
hearing the petition this evening of George Galloway, MP. Some
of the issues regarding Hanbury Street and Whitechapel have already
been raised by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets last week and,
of course, by the petitioners who appeared yesterday and today
to this Committee. Just to remind those present, the Committee
will take all of these cases into account and consider them in
their entirety at the end. Can I remind those present the Committee
does not really wish to hear the same argument being put time
and time again, we do not think it would best help their case.
We also encourage counsel not to do the same thing either. Before
I call Mr Galloway, would Counsel for the Promoters like to set
in context the petition itself?
10466. Mr Elvin: Sir, the petition by
Mr Galloway raises in very similar form to the other Spitalfields'
Petitioners, follows a very similar format, issues which I described
to the Committee yesterday, Day 39. I do not propose to go over
those matters again. We have called evidence in the context of
the main issues which have been raised, they are recorded in the
transcript for Day 38, which is the hearing of the petition of
Tower Hamlets, and in the petitions heard yesterday to which we
have added evidence this afternoon from Mr Simon Dean on the consultation
process which took place. The context of the petitions for Spitalfields,
including Mr Galloway's, is to raise a series of issues: consultation,
involvement of the local community, issues of impact from construction,
impact on the local area and from the use of the lorries, and
certain other issues, Whitechapel Station and the like. As I say,
I have already described them and, following the Committee's guidance
that we should not repeat ourselves, I simply refer the Committee
back to the transcripts for the last few days.
10467. Chairman: If you are referring
to transcripts if you could quote them and get them on the record,
I think that is fair.
10468. Mr Elvin: In which case, sir,
I refer you to my opening in the transcript yesterday, paragraphs
9629-9642, and remind the Committee that it was agreed yesterday
that I would provide a comprehensive closing tomorrow afternoon.
Thank you, sir.
10469. Chairman: George Galloway. George,
do you want to stand up, sit down, or whatever?
10470. Mr Galloway: I will sit down if
that is all right.
10471. Chairman: Can I just say at the
outset that you are looking even more distinguished than usual
this evening with this new look! We are all very appreciative
that you are trying so hard for us.
10472. Mr Galloway: I am not as elegantly
dressed as my adversaries. I do hope, notwithstanding your strictures
in your opening remarks, that you will give some latitude on account
of the fact that I am the elected Member of Parliament for the
constituency and that I was elected on an explicitly anti-Crossrail
platform, if you will forgive that pun.
10473. Chairman: I think it is fair to
say that was one of the issues that you were facing at the election;
there were a number of others also. Believe me, Mr Galloway, we
will give you necessary leeway in this Committee to present your
case, but where you may breach any of that you will be treated
exactly the same as everybody else. You are more than competent
to deal with these matters.
10474. Mr Galloway: I will do my very
best not to breach your strictures. As we have been friends for
30 years—
10475. Chairman: And still are in spite
of everything!
10476. Mr Galloway:—it would be
hardly in my interests to irritate you or the Members of the Committee.
I do want to say that I do have a mandate on the Crossrail issue,
which was a major plank of my election campaign. As Dr Johnson
said, the knowledge that one is to be hanged in the morning concentrates
the mind wonderfully. There is no doubt that new Labour in Tower
Hamlets felt that it was to be hanged last month at the local
elections if it did not execute a very considerable u-turn and
put a bit more locomotive power into its notional opposition to
the impact of Crossrail on the community that I represent. Not
being a churlish man, I obviously acknowledge the fact that there
are significant changes that have been won as a result of the
widespread community campaign, led by Khoodelar, from whom I am
sure you have heard, or will be hearing, whose leaders are behind
me, encompassing a very wide section of political and civic opinion
in the Borough of Tower Hamlets.
10477. I believe, and you know this from my
speech in the House on 19 July last year, that Crossrail will
prove to be the most expensive white elephant in British history,
knocking the Scottish Parliament and the Millennium Dome into
a cocked hat. It will cost more than £20 billion, I believe
mostly from the taxpayer, for a short commuter line working five
days a week to service rich people who live and work in Canary
Wharf and want to travel to Heathrow Airport. You and I both know
there are many other things that could be done with £20,000
million, not the least of which would be doing something about
the shocking state of public housing in the Borough of Tower Hamlets,
no doubt in Mansfield too. I know that is not this Committee's
business but it does inform everything that I have to say.
10478. The changes that have been made have
not mitigated my and the Respect Coalition's position that we
do not want Crossrail at all. We think that it is a grotesque
waste of public money.
10479. Chairman: Mr Galloway, can I stop
you for a moment to give you some guidance really. We have given
you the leeway to state the case on that but you have to pay due
regard to what our position and responsibilities are as Members
of this Committee. We are restricted. The House has found that
Crossrail is a good idea, it is a good Bill, and we should see
it through and come back with a report to the House to decide
what the ins and outs and ends of it should be. We do not really
have the power to stop it.
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