But Lord Rogers of Riverside, a man not without influence in politics himself these days, is not satisfied with having won Wales. He frets that London is not getting the same treatment. Scotland has held a competition for its parliament, and has signed up an unpredictable genius, the Spaniard Enric Miralles. Wales has repeated the pattern. But London? It's a hole-in-the-corner affair. Two sites are now being considered for the Greater London Assembly - though the vigorous Edwardian County Hall, former home of the GLC, its debating chamber intact but empty, is oddly not one of them. Developers have brought in architects Will Alsop and Norman Foster to tweak, respectively, a 1920s building in Bloomsbury and a site at "London Bridge City" next to Tower Bridge. The chosen developer will then rent space to the new London authority. But for Rogers, this is not enough.

"I do hope very, very much - though I'm pessimistic about this - that when we get to our own government building in London we will have an equally well run competition as in Wales. That it won't be what it looks like now - which is to ask any developer that's got a bit of space if we can shove this thing in.

"If they can't get it built in time, let them have a temporary building for a year. The London government building should last for 100 years. There is an importance about the pride of London - which is what the mayor is all about - which is about to start on the wrong foot."

He is right. Rogers seems to be at odds with his political masters over this. Why should the capital lose out to Cardiff? Is New Labour so scared of the mayor? Even though plans to tuck the London Assembly away somewhere innocuous are now well advanced, it is not too late to do the job properly.