17 Comments

• Chris 5th Mar '12 - 9:02am

  Is there any way of finding out what this actually means?

  A Google search and a visit to Paddick’s website didn’t help. (On Paddick’s website there is actually a section entitled “Ideas” with only one item on the list – which doesn’t give a brilliant impression only two months before polling day!)

• Michelle Taylor 5th Mar '12 - 9:33am

  So, we get difficult-to-supervise, unskilled people trying to do repairs in London? Would you want someone who’d broken your window hanging around your house to repair it?

• Richard Dean 5th Mar '12 - 11:26am

  I agree with Michelle. And I wonder whether violence – crime against the person – might be a more pressing issue? And respect for law and the police. I wouldn’t want the yob who stuck me with a knife fixing my wounds for me!

• LondonLiberal 5th Mar '12 - 11:27am

  Does he have anything to say on any policy area apart from crime? One. Trick. Pony.

• Sean Blake 5th Mar '12 - 12:32pm

  The first three comments here perfectly illustrate how little understanding there is of how important to voters is the problem of damage to property and vehicles. By dint of the law-abiding majority having experienced some form of low-level crime which can cause great distress, the use of a hard-hitting message, but crucially one allied to a solution (namely, restorative accountability) seems entirely justified.
  This message is designed to win votes for a candidate who is way behind in the polls, so it must be right to highlight the one area in which it is acknowledged that Paddick is the most experienced candidate.

• Richard Dean 5th Mar '12 - 1:15pm

  Maybe the reason he’s way behind is that he produces messages like this?

• LondonLiberal 5th Mar '12 - 1:34pm

  Sean – I know full well how annoying the problem of criminal damage is – my scooter gets vandalised about twice a year in London. But i also worry about the cost of transport, the cost of housing, the poor air quality and a myriad of other issues abut whicht he Mayor has some power. I’m not saying he shouldn’t focus on his strengths, but he hasn’t actually come out with any policies on anything else at all. that’s the problem.

• Richard Dean 5th Mar '12 - 2:09pm

  Voters are diverse, so campaign messages are always fraught with difficulty. This one’s sub-text seems to say

  NOT MY PROBLEM – YOU FIX IT

  for everything! Not explicitly, but I ask myself – what about other issues? – and the only answer this poster gives me is that the Mayor is NOT going to get involved – in fixing any problem of any kind.

• Chris_sh 5th Mar '12 - 5:39pm

  Can I ask a question as I don’t live in London and don’t know what powers the Mayor has/will have?

  “Rather than sit in a cosy cell in prison for hours on end, criminals will clean-up graffiti, repair broken fences, clear-up fly-tipped rubbish and improve public spaces in London.”

  Why will the Mayor of London have the right to sentence criminals?

• Sean Blake 5th Mar '12 - 7:09pm

  @Richard Dean
  Your allusion to a sub-text ignores the sub-heading. If you don’t understand it then it should be blown up, if you get my meaning.

• Richard Dean 5th Mar '12 - 7:51pm

  @Sean, No, I don’t get it. Anyway he needs to get on the TV and radio hard now. The media have painted it as a Boris/Ken contest, and he needs to show that Londoner’s have another more credible choice.

• LondonLiberal 5th Mar '12 - 10:45pm

  chris_sh – good point. no, the mayor has no such power. i’d love to see how brian would implement such a promise.

• Chris 6th Mar '12 - 8:40am

  Thanks for the update. There are some details on Paddick’s website now.

  But I do think the point raised by others above is quite an important one. What is the legal basis for this pledge? Are these elected police commissioners going to have some kind of powers over sentencing?

  Restorative justice is one thing, but I can think of some very illiberal ways in which populist politicians could use such powers.

• Matthew Harris 6th Mar '12 - 9:14am

  Yes, Brian is fighting hard as the third-placed candidate – that is what we Lib Dems often have to do as the third party in a two-party system. A Google News Search shows that Brian is actually getting a lot of publicity: http://www.google.com/m/search?gl=us&client=ms-rim&source=mog&sa=N&q=%22brian+paddick%22&tab=wn&hl=en&site=universal&tbs=nws:1 He is a great candidate and would make a better mayor than any of the others.

• peter 6th Mar '12 - 10:57am

  i don’t think the wording or the graphic are quite right, though the principle behind it is a sound one, but (Richard Dean) the reason he is behind in the polls is entirely down to the media, who can only manage to deal with two parties at a time.
  Problem is that our electorate have been trained by the media to vote as they are told, – and we have the cheek to critique the elections of other countries..!!

• Malcolm Todd 6th Mar '12 - 11:10am

  “Problem is that our electorate have been trained by the media to vote as they are told” — oh boy. We’re Liberal what, now? The Communists didn’t have this problem, of course. They made sure the people wouldn’t be misled into voting for a party that didn’t have their true interests at heart, by controlling the media and banning other parties. Worked for them … sort of.

• David White 6th Mar '12 - 2:52pm

  Well, let’s face it, we LibDems just aren’t very good at election material, are we? And it’s not only with election-time publicity that we’re feeble.

  Before moving from Hull to Hertfordshire, about 10 years ago, I delivered the most awful LD drivel to innocent(?) householders. While living in Herts (and becoming a councillor), the cr+p I thrust through letter boxes was equally dire. In the 2010 general election, in the Watford constituency, we battled(?) the noble Lord Ashcroft’s millions with all the usual ‘Lib Dems Winning Here’ nonsense – and ‘Vote Lib Dem, The Only Alternative To Labour’!

  Then, in November 2011, I returned to Hull (maybe I’m a masochist). And I’m delivering the same old LD leaflets to unsuspecting residents. I feel sorry for the poor souls who read the stuff.

  As I asked the leader (my Leader!) of ALPC, ‘Surely we can do better than more pics of the same councillors with the same fingers in the same pot-holes…’ There was no response from Cllr Sara to Cllr David!

  And who conned that nice, young(ish) Brian Paddick into giving his approval to the frightful poster? It is appallingly awful marketing. If you really, really want to know why, I’ll send you a 2,000 word dissertation. In fact, I can do it 50!