Boris's First Question Time

I was there for all but the last half hour this morning, sitting opposite Ken Livingstone - in the front row again - and Katie Perrior, who was Johnson's chief media minder during the election campaign. There were plenty of jokes, and Katie especially enjoyed Boris's about possible alternatives to the proposed Thames Gateway when answering a question from Darren Johnson. Mayor Johnson suggested a catapult. His Green namesake is keener on cable cars. The occasion was good humoured in general, and the new mayor gave a pretty good account of himself from that isolated desk at the front of the chamber.

For me, it all confirmed the two dominant themes of the Johnson mayoralty so far: polished political choreography in terms of being seen to be honouring pledges, and a deep fog of confusion over the construction of his administration as shown by the still uncertain status of planning adviser Sir Simon Milton, Kit Malthouse as deputy mayor for police, the deeply Tory Forensic Audit Panel and now, it seems, the precise role of Ian Clement, who is formally deputy mayor for government relations but, it emerged, is temporarily at least looking after planning too. There was some stern questioning from Mssrs Duvall and Biggs. A stern Labour Group press release has followed:

"The new Mayor of London Boris Johnson appeared today not to know who is making critically important decisions on his behalf. When asked if it was appropriate that he should delegate strategic planning decisions to an unelected, unaccountable adviser, Mayor Johnson insisted he had not. Yet since he was appointed two weeks ago, Ian Clement - one of Boris Johnson's deputy mayors - has been writing to London Assembly Members saying 'the Mayor has delegated his planning decisions to me'."

They've reproduced a letter to prove it.

These goings-on are my subjects for two Guardian works-in-progress so I won't dwell on them here. But for more on Boris's team read Pippa Crerar's report and the mayor's web page. The webcast of Question Time is here and the Guardian's live blog, here.