GAY MEN AIM TO LEAD PARIS & LONDON

Paris’ openly gay mayor will be seeking a second term while the former highest ranking gay police officer in the UK has announced that he will run for mayor of London.

Bertrand Delanoe, the popular current mayor of Paris, announced on Tuesday in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper that he will stand for a second seven-year term in municipal elections, which are set to take place in March next year.

The Socialist Delanoe, who has been mayor since 2001, is seen by many as a rising star in French politics and has been tipped as a possible future presidential candidate. He came out in a television interview in 1998.

Meanwhile, in London, Brian Paddick, described as having been the highest ranking
openly gay police officer in the UK has also announced that he will run for mayor.

Paddick, who was Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, told the BBC that he aims to become the 2008 Mayoral candidate for the Liberal Democrats.

He left his job after becoming disenchanted with the way that the authorities handled an investigation into the shooting of an innocent man, mistakenly believed to be a terrorist, in the London subway in 2005.

Paddick, who has degrees in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University, was criticised for his “soft” approach to marijuana and ecstasy while in the force.

He was also accused by a former lover of using drugs. He was suspended temporarily, but no charges were laid against him.