Brian Paddick tells Alice Thomson and Rachel
Sylvester why he wants to be mayor of London
The contest to become London mayor is starting to look like an
episode of Celebrity Big Brother. Red Ken, aka King Newt, is
competing for the public's affections with Boris the Bicycling
Blond Bombshell. Then this week, Brian Paddick - the so-called
"Cannabis Cop" - threw his policeman's helmet into
the ring on behalf of the Lib Dems. Sir Elton John and his partner
David Furnish are already backing his campaign. "They texted me
in the summer saying 'please stand for mayor, we'll
support you'," he said. | | Brian Paddick: ‘The decisions Ian Blair has made, the
things that Ian Blair has said, have been very helpful to Labour’
|
Mr Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police and Britain's most senior openly gay
copper, is undoubtedly the fittest of the three mayoral candidates.
The 49-year-old gym fan is challenging Mr Johnson and Mr Livingstone
to join him in the London marathon.
In full: Mayor of London election 2008
Politically, he is in fighting form too. "Boris is very
clever but he can't help playing the fool," he said.
"Londoners want someone serious." As for Ken, he argued:
"There's a psychiatric disorder that leaders suffer from
after two terms, they get this supreme self confidence. To have
someone who has become so out of touch is dangerous." Mr Paddick would not be drawn on whether he is a modernising,
free-market "Orange Book" Lib Dem or a sandal-wearing
traditionalist. "I'm a Lib Dem Lib Dem," he said.
"I care passionately about individual liberty." Unusually
for a former policeman, he is against ID cards and opposes the
Government's plan to extend detention without trial for
terrorist suspects. "It's ostracising Muslims." When
it comes to "London issues" he is against bendy buses in
the city centre and thinks delivery drivers should be exempt from
the congestion charge. His favourite thing about the capital is the
Thames. His main pitch, however, is that with 30 years of frontline
policing experience he knows how to make Londoners feel safe.
"People have forgotten what policing is about," he said.
"Police officers should be citizens in uniform who simply do
the things that everyone would do if they had the equipment and the
training." Health and safety laws have, in his view, got in the
way. "Policing is a dangerous job, we should trust the
professional judgment of officers on the front line. We
shouldn't prosecute them or their bosses if they decide to put
their lives on the line for the public." Mr Paddick became London's most famous policeman when he
pioneered a softly-softly approach to cannabis on the streets of
Brixton - people were prosecuted for dealing crack cocaine but not
for smoking dope. He still thinks it is a good idea. "A lot of
parents are more concerned about their sons and daughters being
criminalised over something as 'trivial' as
cannabis," he said. "We need to take a health rather than
a legalistic approach." Mr Paddick was suspended after being accused of smoking dope
himself. "A tabloid newspaper got hold of an ex-lover of mine
and paid him £100,000 to tell lots of lies about me," he said.
"It was a great story to say the reason he is so relaxed about
cannabis is that he is a dope head. But it was very upsetting to
have someone you had loved and lived with saying that." Did he
puff but not inhale? "I never took drugs, I went into the
police straight from school and I lived with my parents until then.
When I was seven my twin brother and I tried a cigarette from my mum
and dad's cigarette box and it put me off for life, so I never
smoked tobacco." Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is in the
line of fire now. Mr Paddick delivered a devastating verdict on his
former boss. "His position is unsustainable, I think he should
resign," he said. "I was removed from my job when the
'kiss and tell' happened and the reason I was given was
that I, rather than the policing of Lambeth, had become the story.
Ian Blair has become the story. London would be safer with someone
else in charge." The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has, this former senior
policeman believes, lost the confidence of the rank and file.
"Ken Livingstone says police officers regularly come up to him
and say 'give our regards to Sir Ian' - well either he is
taking one of those substances we were talking about earlier or he
doesn't appreciate sarcasm," he said. Mr Paddick fell out with Sir Ian over the handling of the shooting
of Jean Charles de Menezes. Mr Paddick said he was told within hours
that the police had killed the wrong man - but Sir Ian maintains
that he did not know for another 24 hours. When we asked whether he
believed that the commissioner did in fact know earlier, he replied:
"Libel laws prevent me from answering that question." |