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Paddick: Families of July 7 victims deserve an explanation
Jason Beattie, Evening Standard14 Sep 2007
Former police chief Brian Paddick today threw his weight behind calls for an independent inquiry into the 7/7 bombings.
Mr Paddick, who is running to be Liberal Democrat candidate for London mayor, said the police and security services had to be accountable.
As a deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, he was one of its most senior officers before he left the force this summer, and his comments call into question the Government's repeated rejection of an inquiry.
Despite pleas from victim's families, ministers have argued an investigation would be a distraction for police and security services as they try to contain the terrorist threat.
But in his first major newspaper interview since being shortlisted for the Lib-Dem candidacy, Mr Paddick said an independent judicial inquiry would not only be welcomed by the families, but could help win over the Muslim community whose cooperation was essential to help fight terror.
"In a democracy you cannot have agents of the state operating with no public accountability," he said "The families of those killed in 7/7 deserve an explanation as to why at least two of the people involved were under surveillance prior to the bombing.
"Security services and police need to be accountable, and if it turns out to be a failure, they need to be held to account for that failure." He said evidence could be heard in closed sessions to protect intelligence sources.
Mr Paddick - dubbed the "cannabis cop" for his softly-softly approach to the drug while he was borough commander in Lambeth - also re-entered the debate on narcotics. He criticised Gordon Brown's moves to return cannabis from a Class C to a Class B drug, saying the debate about which class it was in was "redundant".
"Reclassifying, which ever way you do it, confuses people," he said.
He insisted he would not allow his opponents to label him as soft on crime: "Let me put on the record what my attitude to illegal drugs is: I think illegal drugs do a lot of harm and people shouldn't take illegal drugs.
"The fact is millions of Londoners take drugs, whether they smoke cannabis to unwind in the evening or whether they take ecstasy. But I cannot say any more strongly that taking cannabis, I believe, is very harmful."
Mr Paddick, 49, rejected suggestions some Londoners were not ready for a gay mayor: "I think the majority are quite relaxed about an individual's sexuality. Clearly there are a lot of people who for moral reasons or some other reason find homosexuality difficult to deal with.
"But from my experience if you are good at your job and they trust you, sexuality becomes a non-issue. If you are useless and cannot be trusted it becomes an issue. I will be completely open about who I am. If we have to go over the past, we go over the past."
He admitted he had been courted by the Conservatives prior to deciding to stand for the Lib-Dems. "I thought long and hard. I had several meetings with the Liberal Democrats and one with the Conservatives. This was around the time I left the police and I felt it was too much too soon," he said.
"But I came back and decided to give it a go. Why? After 30 years in the police, seeing at first hand what London is like, the conditions people live in and problems they face - and particularly travelling on public transport - I felt this was a great city but it was time for a change of mayor."
Branding Ken Livingstone a "Zone-One Mayor" he said he was the only candidate with experience of tackling crime:"I think I know more about crime and community safety than either Ken or Boris [Johnson] do. It was my full-time job."
The former police chief promised a reorganisation of the force that would allow Pcs to spend more time on the beat while community support officers did the form filling full-timers now had to do. "Why have we got people with few powers on the street and people with all the powers in the police station?" he asked. He also proposes free bus travel for students in London.
In the Lib-Dem selection contest Mr Paddick faces competition from Finchley barrister Chamali Fernando and Haringey councillor Fiyaz Mughal. The winner will be announced in November. The mayoral election is next May.
Reader views (1)
How nice to see the prospect of a real Mayor who has had a real job - relevant to the people of London.
- Pete Perren, London, UK, 15/09/2007 18:00
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