Brian Paddick, a former police officer, has been chosen to stand again as the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London. I found his memoirs Line of Fire intriguing for the extent to which he condemned political correctness in the Metropolitan Police for getting in the way of effective policing.
On the other hand there was his bizarre announcement after the 2008 elections that he gave his second preference vote to the Left List candidate, Lindsey German, who is a Trot.
Only 3,043 Lib Dem members voted. This seems low given that London should be an area where their membership is strong. They have seven MPs. In Islington where they don't have any MPs they ran the council until last year. Is their membership in London low? Or did their members not bother to vote?
I'm not sure which candidate Respect or any of the assorted far left factions will put up. No doubt there will be somebody who feels Ken Livingstone is too moderate for them.
What of the BNP? Their candidate last time, Richard Barnbrook has left the Party. But he remains a member of the London Assembly. He has used this platform to make false and alarmist claims about crime. Recently he claimed there was a stabbing this year at the Danson Festival. James Cleverly, the Conservative London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, wrote to challenge him on this claim. If he had an specific information would he forward it to the police?
Barnbrook wrote back to say that "due to the lack of clear information" he "apologised."