Clause 42
Greater London Authority Bill
2:00 pm
Stephen Pound (PPS (Rt Hon Hazel Blears, Minister without Portfolio), Cabinet Office; Ealing North, Labour)
Good afternoon, Lady Winterton. It is always a pleasure to serve at your feet. I ask the hon. Gentleman to resist the temptation to paint a picture of the national newt museum or the national comrade newt museum with which he seems to be threatening us. The Horniman museum to which he referred is different from the Museum of London in that it came from a trust on behalf of a family who were originally tea dealers. The house dates back about 200 years. The Museum of London goes back only to 1965, which is why it has a different structure. Whereas there may be charming and delightful aspects to the management of the Horniman museum, they have grown up over hundreds of years. What we are discussing is actually a pretty sensible structure for management, and it is unlikely that it will become the Che Guevara friends of the newt museum in the immediate future.