"Undercover Lib Dem"

The BBC reports:

Brian Paddick has said he is relieved to have joined the Lib Dem ranks after a career in the "authoritarian" police. The former Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner said he had been "a police officer working undercover - as an undercover Liberal Democrat".

Mr Paddick is one of three Lib Dems vying for the chance to take on Ken Livingstone in May's London elections.

Mr Paddick clearly thinks he was making a witticism. His party leader ought to have struck him down for that. I began my career in public service. When you are in that position, you are of course perfectly entitled to hold political views. But to declare that while you were discharging your duties you were in fact advancing your party political views directly undermines the ethos of public service. In one sentence, Mr Paddick has shown he's unfit for public office.