Thursday 1 March

Brian Paddick vows: "I will be a less funny Mayor than Boris Johnson." Expect the votes to flood in.

By Mike Pollitt 4:18 PM

“The capital needs a Mayor who understands that these deep-seated issues cannot be resolved by funny one-liners or waving a broom in the air…”

So, he admits to finding Mayor Johnson funny. That’s interesting to know.

The rest of Paddick’s piece for Politics Home goes big on policing, as you’d expect. He also pushes his early bird tube discount and 1 hour bus fare. Both of which are ideas which deserve a good airing in this campaign.

Apart from the first couple of paragraphs when he gets weirdly fixated on the concept of “the Earth”, as if he’s running for some sort of interplanetary mayoralty, it’s a sober and sensible offering which will be read by few and influence fewer. Paddick’s pitch is competence. But people hate competence! Nothing is more boring than a job well done. If he wants to be Mayor, he needs to understand that playing to the gallery is all part of the job.

Brian Paddick at Politics Home – We need a serious mayor for serious problems