Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthur Figgis
On 21/06/2011 21:59, Robin9 wrote:
I've never liked the man. I first heard about him when was a senior
police officer in Lambeth. He was in the news quite a lot and I got the
impression that this was by design. He got a lot of publicity by
adopting a tolerant policy towards the drugs trade and he was not averse
to being interviewed about this on the radio.
Later he resigned from the police force and again secured masses of
publicity. He was soon announced as the Liberal Democrat candidate for
the Mayoral election. His campaign seemed to consist mainly of making
some rather obvious snide remarks about the other two parties. He had
nothing new or constructive to say about the two big issues the Mayor Of
London has the means to tackle: housing and transport. I sensed that the
main reason he wanted to be Mayor was to be able to settle an old score
with Ian Blair.
All in all I formed the opinion that Brian Paddick was a
publicity-seeking, self-serving weasel.
So what we need is a politician who doesn't want publicity, campaigns on
something other than "well at least I'm not him --", has real answers
to complex and long-standing problems, has no grudges, and is not a
self-serving weasel.
Could such a person actually exist on a non-trivial stage in a modern
popular democracy?
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK
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What we need is a public-minded individual who recognises that publicity is useful but is not an end it itself, and who has analysed both the issues facing London and what powers the Mayor really has and who has consequently worked out what issues the Mayor should concentrate on.
Does such a paragon exist? Of course. We have innumerable good, conscientious people in this country. Unfortunately, because they are good and conscientious, they will never be adopted by the established political parties whose members want candidates who share their own mean-spirited prejudices and priorities.
What we do not want is a self-serving professional politician who went into politics with no intention of working to make life better for the people but instead merely to further his career, to line his pockets and to indulge his prejudices.