I'm not sure what to expect from this morning's gathering of the Assembly's Audit Panel, though I think we can anticipate some peevish point-scoring and some intriguing personal chemistry. Most of this will result from the presence of the absurd Mr Brownsuit. Do the other three - Navin Shah, Caroline Pidgeon and chair Roger Evans - draw lots to decide who avoids sitting next to him?
Today's agenda items appear to provide Caucasian London's would-be saviour-in-waiting a wealth of opportunity to demonstrate that sighing, head-shaking, why-oh-why sanctimony for which he's famed. The District Auditor's report on Governance Arrangements for Grant-Funding Organisations (pdf) - which addresses the GLA part of the old Evening Standard's monstering campaign against Lee Jasper - seems to offer him a fine opportunity for some tedious, Daily Mail-style rant about "political correctness", the "liberal elite" and blah-de-blah.
Then there are the expenses of the Mayor and Elected Members (pdf) and of the GLA's senior staff (pdf) which includes the mayoral team, for him to fly into a confected froth about (even though these are, in general, a model of collective self-denial). The more I ponder the prospect, the stronger become the competing viewing attractions of the first day of the second Ashes test at Lord's.
But let's consider the wider political picture. The Panel's deliberations take place against the backdrop of the developing row about the transparency and efficiency of Boris's administration. The Ian Clement affair (see yesterday's MQT), talk of "chicken feed" and the attempts of Boris and the Tory group to shift the argument towards comparisons with Ken Livingstone's mayoralty form part of the context here. Watch it live or later here.
