City Hall

HEADLINES:

Proud of his party's policies and leadership: Brian Paddick campaigning in Brixton market backed by Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg (left)

Comment: if you can't stand Ken or Boris, there's always me

Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London
29.04.08

Londoners face a real dilemma on Thursday. Ken Livingstone has proved he is not fit to be our Mayor any longer, Boris Johnson has never done anything to prove that he is fit to be Mayor, and Brian Paddick does not stand a chance - or does he? You see, these polls we have been seeing involve little more than a click of the computer mouse or answering a telephone call. When it comes to going to a polling station and facing the reality of a ballot paper with "Mayor of London" at the top, it is going to be a different story.

I say that because I am in the same position as other ordinary Londoners; I know exactly how you feel. The dilemma is reflected in the high number of undecided voters in yesterday's YouGov poll - 13 per cent of the total. This is a race where political cynicism and party loyalty are unnecessarily limiting people's choices.

For instance, a smartly dressed black woman stopped me in Westminster the other day. "I want to vote for you but I'm a Conservative, through and through," she explained. Not "Boris has the best policies" but "I'm a Conservative".

But what kind of Conservative is Boris? When he explained that he wanted to give an amnesty to illegal immigrants in London, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, described Boris as "his own man", code for "I do not agree with him". Yet in other ways Boris seems to hail from another era, making racially and religiously insensitive remarks worthy of a Tory party long since left behind. It is not that Boris Johnson is to the Left or the Right of the new Conservative Party - he is all over the place.

Ken's position is equally contradictory - and some of his supporters equally torn. On Saturday night I had a chance encounter with the Labour leader of Lambeth council, Steve Reid, and a small group of Ken canvassers at Vauxhall Tube. One of the group, wearing a vote Ken sticker, exclaimed: "I'm going to vote for you" - attracting astonished looks. Realising the company he was in, he hastily added: "I mean second preference."

It summed up for me the dilemma facing Labour supporters. With the appalling leadership currently being shown by the Prime Minister, Livingstone's comments about New Labour have added to the pain. He has admitted that his greatest achievement was "taking on and smashing the Labour machine in 2000 - and just grinding them into the dust." His open and public opposition to Gordon Brown in the past, particularly over the Tube public-private partnership, cannot be papered over with a few joint public appearances.

To those voters who believe they should put party loyalty before voting for the person they think is the best candidate on Thursday, I would ask what loyalty their candidate has shown to their party.

There are no such dilemmas for Liberal Democrat supporters. I was out on the streets in Richmond on Saturday afternoon, talking to overwhelmingly supportive crowds with Nick Clegg, the Lib-Dem leader. Uniquely among the candidates in this election, I was proud to be with Nick and proud of the policies my party represents - and I genuinely believe that Nick feels the same way about me, as our party's candidate for Mayor.

Voters should instead judge the candidates on their records. Ken's record is one of deception. On last Thursday night's Question Time, he not only admitted conning Londoners and the Government over the original Olympic bid of £4 billion but he was proud of it. Of course regeneration of east London is a good thing, but not at any price - and the current £9.3 billion price tag is likely to go higher. We Londoners can't trust a Mayor who not only admits he misleads people but is proud of it.

How can we believe anything he says any more? For example, I was at the magnificent Hindu temple in Neasden on Saturday, visited by more than half a million people each year. It's a good 15-minute walk to the nearest Tube; every four years Ken Livingstone turns up, promises a new Tube station close to the temple - and then disappears again.

Livingstone promises much and delivers little. Londoners are fed up with career politicians who offer them the earth to win votes and then forget all about them until next election time.

Meanwhile, where Ken Livingstone has failed to deliver, Boris has no experience - and little chance of being able to turn his policies into reality. He has never been responsible for delivering public services. He has no experience of managing anything more a small-circulation political magazine.

The Mayor of London is a huge administrative role, delivering policing services, running the fire brigade and public transport, managing billions of pounds and leading teams thousands of people strong. Having a reasonable set of policies is simply not enough. And does an Eton-educated MP for an Oxfordshire constituency, who lives in a house worth " shedloads", really know the daily realities for most Londoners?

I spent 30 years walking the streets of London, going into people's homes, understanding and addressing their problems as a police officer. I ended up managing budgets of tens of millions of pounds, leading teams of more than 20,000 police officers and support staff and implementing effective policies that made London safer. Not only was I able to introduce radical change but I was able to take the people who worked for me and the people who I worked for, the people of London, with me.

Londoners like me don't trust either Ken or Boris: what should we do on Thursday? If you think I am the best candidate, won't that be a wasted vote? In an ordinary election you might be right. Not this time. You get two votes. A first preference vote for me says "I agree Brian Paddick is the best candidate"; it says "I want a serious alternative to Ken Livingstone."

But with your second-preference vote you can vote tactically to make sure the wrong guy does not get his hands on the keys to City Hall. If, like me, you believe Ken must go at all costs, you might consider voting Boris as second preference. If you believe Boris Johnson is too high-risk, as I do, you may well want to vote Livingstone as second preference. If I do not come in the top two in the first round, your second preference will help ensure the wrong man is kept out.

As for me, I have voted with my conscience, as you would expect. I have voted Brian Paddick first preference and I have voted for the other candidate whose policies I most agree with second. I'll tell you on Friday who that is. But I can promise one thing. I am fed up with career politicians and their broken promises - and even if asked, I will not work for either Ken Livingstone or Boris Johnson.

Link to:

Reader views (3)

Add your view

Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.

What a very sensible article. It is such a refreshing change from the hackneyed two party political fodder we are fed in most of the daily papers.
A lot of people from outside London take a keen interest in our capital city and who has sufficient responsibility to run its services. What affects Londoners also affects people in the rest of the country.
People who are voting - and that should be everybody, should really consider what and who is best for Londoners and cutting the crime rates in London must be the most important. That can only be left to one person - Brian Paddick has had very many years of experience whereas the other two have had none. Forget voting on party lines, vote with your conscience!
The only people who will have any excuse for failing to vote in this important election is those who are out of the country and forgot to apply for a postal vote. To everyone else who fails to vote - Shame on you!
In Canada several years ago the pollsters got it very badly wrong. The country returned a Liberal government and left the Tories with only one seat. My gut feeling is that they will be proved to have got it wrong again!So I know that common sense can break through sometimes. I just pray that all the people in London make a sensible intelligent decision on voting day. May the best man win.

- John Stephen, Kidderminster

We are a country obsessed with labels. Does 'accountant','Jew', 'Methodist','socialist','sportsman' or any of a hundred-and-one other tags really give us the first idea of what sort of person we are dealing with? It would be quite possible to have someone to whom all of these descriptions applied and we would still not know how they treated their partner, what their views on climate change were, if they were basically honest, or the myriad other characteristics, attitudes and abilities that define an individual human being.
The differences between political parties have diminished with each generation, but, until someone comes up with a viable alternative system, we are stuck with them for organisational and financial reasons and because many people still want a 'brand' that they can give allegiance to or identify with, whatever these hackneyed phrases mean in practice.
I have always voted for individual people and individual policies whatever the political colour happened to be and I shall be doing so again this time round, having studied the pronouncements and backgrounds of the mayoral and other candidates in some detail.
The mayoralty needs the stamina of a marathon runner - but then one of the candidates already is!

- Clive H Price, London SW

A good article, it is time for a change! I am backing Brian Paddick 100%. He is the only candidate who speaks sense and seems the most genuine out of the lot. As a young person in London crime is the thing which worries me the most and from what I have seen, it is the thing which bothers most Londoners. This man has over 30 years experience of policing in London. As far as I m concerned, that coupled with the fact that he seems like an honest, decent, and genuine person, makes him the perfect person to be the mayor of London.

- Cicely, Lambeth, South London