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Party No 4 for ex-mayor Colin
Staff Reporter The News & Star, Cumbria
Saturday 11 Jan 2003 EX-CARLISLE mayor Colin Paisley is making a political comeback by standing for election in May - for his FOURTH party. Having started as a Communist, joined Labour and then the Liberal Party, Mr Paisley is now standing for election to the city council as a Liberal Democrat. He has also stood for the cross-party Legalise Cannabis Alliance. Mr Paisley, 65, said the time was right to move on again. "I haven't fallen out with the Liberal Party," he said, "but I was the only member in Cumbria so it was a bit lonely. "I've joined the Liberal Democrats because they have similar policies to the old Labour Party that I joined in the mid-1980s. "I've always been interested in community issues, as are the Liberal Democrats, and they are the only party prepared to openly discuss drugs strategy." Mr Paisley, of Lister Court, Raffles, will stand in St Aidan's, the ward he represented for Labour from 1986 to 1999 including 12 months as mayor in 1994-5. He resigned the Labour whip in 1999 saying it had become "a Tory Party Mark II" and joined the Liberals, the rump of the old Liberal Party who refused to merge with the SDP to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988. Mr Paisley fought St Aidan's as a Liberal in 1999 but lost his seat. He later stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals in Castle ward. A former heroin addict, his interest in the drugs issue prompted him to stand for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance in local, Parliamentary and European elections. He polled 141 votes against Michael Portillo in the Kensington and Chelsea by-election in 1999 and stood against sitting Carlisle MP Eric Martlew in the 2001 general election, polling 554 votes but still losing his deposit. Mr Paisley is more confident of success in St Aidan's on May 1, where Conservative councillor Lawrence Fisher is standing for re-election. He said: "I think people are getting fed up with the two main political parties."
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