Author Archives: Mark Pack

Mark was the Liberal Democrat Head of Innovations until June 2009 and is now Head of Digital at MHP Communications. He blogs at www.markpack.org.uk and is on Twitter as @markpack. He likes chocolate. Lots of it.
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The rise of the private renters continues

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th December 2012 - 6:50 am

Back in the summer I wrote about how:

You can fight through a bulging email folder of press releases from politicians wanting to make mortgages easier, cheaper, safer and more numerous before you find one that talks about tackling any of the issues private renters face…

It is notable that the rising trend of private renting and declining numbers of those with a mortgage pre-date the financial crash. In fact, the crash has not caused much of a blip in the trends.

Posted in News | Tagged housing | 4 Comments

Clegg set to veto Communications Data Bill

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th December 2012 - 10:42 pm

Excellent:

Posted in News | Tagged draft communications data bill and nick clegg | 7 Comments

Equal marriage: it’s a matter of religious freedom

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th December 2012 - 5:59 pm

There’s been a lot in the media today from opponents of equal marriage about how the state mustn’t go about redefining marriage.

What they keep on skating over is that equal marriage isn’t something cooked up by atheists and agnostics. It’s also - as Lynne Featherstone has pointed out – supported officially by Quakers, Liberal Jews and some Unitarian Churches, not to mention many people of other faiths that officially take a different view.

Insisting that the state continues …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged equal marriage, featured and lynne featherstone | 58 Comments

In praise of people with drawn curtains in the morning

By Mark Pack | Sat 8th December 2012 - 10:25 am

Night time workers. Work at night, sleep at day. That’s not being a scrounger. Shame so many Conservatives and so-called populists crudely label them all as scroungers with their blunderbuss rhetoric for having the temerity to draw the curtains at home when they’re sleeping after a long session at work.

UPDATE: In other curtain commentary news… Jennie has highlighted in the comments her own post. Here’s the link to it; the comments are well worth a read for a mix of the serious and the very funny. And here’s an Olympian …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured and welfare | 21 Comments

Autumn Statement: the good, the bad and the tricky

By Mark Pack | Sat 8th December 2012 - 9:25 am

It’s been a busy week, so for my take on the Autumn Statement, here is my trio of media hits (featuring that tie):

Posted in News | Tagged Autumn Statement 2012 and featured | Leave a comment

Individual electoral registration: Northern Ireland shows that the annual canvass must be kept

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th November 2012 - 3:50 pm

One of the key disputes over how individual electoral registration should be introduced in England, Scotland and Wales is whether having people join and leave the register regularly through the year, alongside better use of other information about people moving (e.g. prompting people who take out a new TV license to register), would mean that the once-a-year check on all addresses – the ‘annual canvass’ – can be dropped.

The Electoral Commission has just published the results of its research into how individual electoral registration has …

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged electoral commission, electoral registration, Electoral Registration and Administration Bill and northern ireland | 3 Comments

Duff arguments to ignore over Leveson

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th November 2012 - 4:57 pm

Here is a safe prediction: whatever the Leveson report recommends for British journalism, there will be an awful lot of duff arguments rolled out. Despite much of the debate being couched in how important it is for the press to tell the truth and how many difficult judgements there are to make, we’ll hear plenty of simplistic rhetoric based on shonky factual foundations.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, journalism and leveson inquiry | 5 Comments

Now here’s a good email to send to local members and supporters

By Mark Pack | Fri 23rd November 2012 - 9:50 am

Top marks Haringey Liberal Democrats for taking up my idea on this (properly formatted version here). Simple, practical and providing people with useful information:

Posted in Campaign Corner and Online politics | Tagged dawn barnes and haringey liberal democrats | Leave a comment

Have you (and your members) had their Euro ballot papers yet?

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 9:50 am

Perhaps it’s the increasing freedom for people to use social media during Liberal Democrat selection contests. Perhaps it’s the increasing proportion of party activists who take part in online discussions. Or perhaps it’s hiccups with the Royal Mail, party data or others involved. Whatever the cause, as with the party’s recent federal committee elections there seems to be more chatter about people not receiving ballot papers for the current Euro selections than in previous contests.

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged european elections and tim farron | 9 Comments

David Howarth: liberals should increase indirect taxes

By Mark Pack | Wed 21st November 2012 - 10:25 am

Martin Tod recently drew my attention to a short publication from David Howarth published over the summer about levels of public spending: Spending and Growth – a response to David Laws.

As the title suggests, it is primarily a response to someone else’s views on appropriate levels of public spending:

Posted in News | Tagged david howarth, david laws, economy, liberal insight and martin tod | 7 Comments

Eliminating the structural deficit is aiming for the wrong target

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th November 2012 - 10:53 am

There is an appealing simplicity behind the idea of having a zero structural deficit. It is the policy the government is committed to, with its plans to eliminate the structural deficit. And it’s also wrong.

For all the problems in measuring the structural deficit accurately, the concept is a useful one – to measure what the deficit is, once you have allowed for where we are in the economic cycle. Or, as the FT puts it, “A budget deficit that results from a fundamental imbalance in government receipts and expenditures, as opposed to one based on one-off or short-term factors”.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged deficit, deficit reduction, economy and featured | 19 Comments

What does the data show about the Obama campaign’s use of data?

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th November 2012 - 9:50 am

So far, there has been a weird paradox at the heart of the coverage about the Obama 2012 campaign machine. On the one hand we’re all meant to be impressed by how it was based on data and analysis, honing campaign techniques and targeting activity based on what the data said. On the other hand, we’re meant to take it all on trust (or trust plus bucketloads of anecdotes; i.e. trust) that this hard-nosed, evidence-based approach to campaigning worked. Where’s the evidence that the reliance on evidence really worked?

There’s been remarkably little presented. Which is why the following graph is so

Posted in LDVUSA | Tagged barack obama, featured and Mitt Romney | 7 Comments

How to vote – and what to do once you’ve voted

By Mark Pack | Thu 15th November 2012 - 6:50 am

Got an election in your area today? Here are a few key pieces of information for you.

Voting in person

Polling stations are open between 7am and 10pm today. No votes can be cast after 10pm; it’s not like the shops where being in the queue at closing time is enough.

Posted in News | Tagged elected police commissioners | 1 Comment

A simple way to improve party selection rules

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th November 2012 - 10:50 am

You may have noticed I have a thing or two about the party’s internal election rules (not to mention those of other organisations). There’s a reason and it reflects my wider view of the world – administrative details can have significant knock-on effects well beyond their own apparent immediate remit.

Details of how the paperwork for the Office of the Public Guardian is worded may seem a minor matter. But when unnecessary duplication and complication results in it being harder for people to take control over their own lives, the impact can be serious and even heart-rending. In other words, …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 15 Comments

Not all is quite so new in the world of political messaging and behaviour change

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th November 2012 - 3:05 pm

On my way to windmill spotting in Lincoln recently, I happened across this example of an 19th century election leaflet for the City of Lincoln’s local elections:

It’s a neat example of a point I’ve made before, that what can seem new and exciting in the world of communications often is really long-established ideas in slightly new clothes.

In this case, note two particular features of the message. First, the reference to electors having previously elected Mr Page four times before. In other words, …

Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged featured, history, how leaflets used to look and lincoln | 1 Comment

Want to learn about political campaigning? 5 books for Christmas

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th November 2012 - 10:50 am

Looking forward to some festive season reading or wondering what books to get some of your politically-minded friends?

Here are my top five books which will tell the reader about how political campaigning really works. Not the starry-eyed fun fiction of the West Wing but real politics and real campaigning.

Posted in Books | Tagged featured | 3 Comments

Romney’s polling day technology meltdown: Orca

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th November 2012 - 11:53 am

The usual post-electoral defeat search for explanations and people to blame has an added edge for the Republicans after Mitt Romney’s defeat earlier this month. Not only did Romney lose, he lost in all the states that were picked as being in serious contention, the Republicans actually lost ground in the Senate (when they had hopes of making gains) and the initial voting analysis shows the Republicans with a big problem: the parts of the electorate that are growing are the parts which vote against them the most heavily.

Posted in Campaign Corner and Online politics | Tagged barack obama, connect, Mitt Romney and Orca | 6 Comments

Nick Clegg message for Remembrance Day 2012

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th November 2012 - 9:00 am

A video message from the Deputy Prime Minister to mark Remembrance Day 2012:

Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg | Leave a comment

What’s happened to real wages over the last 25 years?

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th November 2012 - 2:50 pm

This little presentation from the Office of National Statistics has the answer. It’s packed full of interesting information, presented in a very clear manner:

Posted in News | Tagged economy, minimum wage and office of national statistics | 17 Comments

Michael Mates faces “electoral poll fraud probe” by the police

By Mark Pack | Fri 9th November 2012 - 8:50 am

The Mirror reports:

Former Tory Minister Michael Mates is being probed for alleged electoral fraud over his attempt to become one of David Cameron’s new police commissioners.

The crony of crooked tycoon and Tory donor Asil Nadir, will be grilled by police over claims he broke election laws by giving a false address to win the lucrative post…

It was sparked by a complaint from rival Don Jerrard, an independent “justice and anti-corruption” candidate fighting Mr Mates for the £85,000-a-year role running the Hampshire force.

The former lawyer wrote to the county’s Chief Constable claiming Mr Mates breached the 2006 Fraud Act by

…

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged elected police commissioners, michael crick and Michael Mates | 5 Comments

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Mon 5th November 2012 - 2:53 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Haringey Council shows how not to provide educational vision

By Mark Pack | Mon 5th November 2012 - 1:55 pm

Having a vision for an important public service is a good thing, whether you are the sort of person who laps up visions for breakfast or the sort of person who hankers for a golden pre-jargon age when vision meant something to do with your eyes. Either way, knowing what you actually are trying to achieve overall is what saves you from drowning in detail and being blown every which way by passing events.

So the concept of a local council drafting a vision statement for education in its area is fine. The problem with Haringey Council’s attempt is the content.

Posted in Local government and News | Tagged haringey council | Leave a comment

What they say about Michael Moore…

By Mark Pack | Sun 4th November 2012 - 5:50 pm

Full story: Meet Westminster’s answer to James Bond.

Posted in Scotland | Tagged alex salmond and Michael Moore | Leave a comment

New campaign buttons up and running on Prater Raines and MyCouncillor sites

By Mark Pack | Sun 4th November 2012 - 10:25 am

Thanks to the kind efforts of Tim Pickstone and colleagues at ALDC and Tim Prater and co. at Prater Raines, the newly revived Liberal Democrat campaign buttons have now been tested successfully on websites run using their own systems.

Posted in Online politics | Tagged aldc, prater raines, tim pickstone and tim prater | 1 Comment

A longer watch for the weekend: Mothers of Liberty

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd November 2012 - 10:50 am

I blogged last month about the new pamphlet from the Liberal Democrat History Group, Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism, a series of biographies of famous women liberals, which details the contribution of women to Liberal politics from the eighteenth century to the present day.

That was launched at a conference fringe meeting, chaired by Lynne Featherstone and featuring three excellent speakers:

Posted in YouTube | Tagged Helen McCabe, history, Jane Bonham Carter, Jo Swinson, lynne featherstone and Violet Bonham Carter | Leave a comment

How many votes will the Labour candidate who isn’t a candidate get?

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd November 2012 - 10:22 am

Here’s an interesting twist to the tale of Lee Barron, the latest Labour Police Commissioner candidate who has had to pull out for a previous conviction.

This has come to light too late in the day for him to actually pull out of the election, so his name will still be on the ballot paper with the Labour Party’s name and logo next to it. If he’s elected, he will have to immediately resign, triggering a by-election.

For voters who don’t follow the news that closely, there is therefore …

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged elected police commissioners and lee barron | 4 Comments

Judging Jimmy Savile

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd November 2012 - 7:50 am

OK, I know due legal process and all that is important. Innocent until proven guilty and all that.

But sometimes you don’t have to wait until the police and legal systems have done their stuff to have a firm view.

And when you look at all the evidence the media has been reporting, it’s pretty clear he’s guilty, isn’t it?

It’s even become a standing joke that you just have to look at him to know he’s just the sort of person who would commit those crimes. Perhaps like me you heard the jokes on the last episode of the News Quiz and …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged jimmy savile | 32 Comments

Paul Burstow is new chair of the Parliamentary Party

By Mark Pack | Thu 1st November 2012 - 5:53 pm

A bit of party news today with various posts being filled. Paul Burstow has been elected chair of the Parliamentary Party, succeeding Lorely Burt who in the reshuffle became PPS to Danny Alexander.

Meanwhile there have also been changes at both the Commons and Lords end to the Co-Chairs of various Liberal Democrat Party Parliamentary Committees (often given the same acronym, PPCs, as used for party candidates).

The full list of names now is:

Posted in News, Parliament and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged lorely burt and paul burstow | Leave a comment

Lib Dems step up plans for more employee ownership

By Mark Pack | Thu 1st November 2012 - 7:25 am

A press release from BIS brings the news:

Responding to recommendations made by Graeme Nuttall in his independent review of the sector, the Government has approved plans for a range of activity that will help to grow the number of businesses that become or convert to the employee ownership model.

Posted in News | Tagged employee ownership, Graeme Nuttall, Jo Swinson and nick clegg | 5 Comments

Chris Rennard backs move to kill off, not just delay, boundary changes

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th October 2012 - 7:13 pm

PoliticsHome reports:

Labour peer Lord Hart has just tabled an amendment to the Electoral Registration Bill which would have another major impact on the timetable of the Coalition’s plans to cut seat numbers.

The amendment, which seeks to amend a clause in Section 10 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, declares that the Boundary Commissions reviews will not take place until….2018. Yes, you read that right, 2018.

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged chris rennard, Lord Hart and parliamentary boundary review | 12 Comments

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Ed Davey: Helping consumers to get cheaper energy bills

Author Archives: Mark Pack

The rise of the private renters continues

Clegg set to veto Communications Data Bill

Equal marriage: it’s a matter of religious freedom

In praise of people with drawn curtains in the morning

Autumn Statement: the good, the bad and the tricky

Individual electoral registration: Northern Ireland shows that the annual canvass must be kept

Duff arguments to ignore over Leveson

Now here’s a good email to send to local members and supporters

Have you (and your members) had their Euro ballot papers yet?

David Howarth: liberals should increase indirect taxes

Eliminating the structural deficit is aiming for the wrong target

What does the data show about the Obama campaign’s use of data?

How to vote – and what to do once you’ve voted

Voting in person

A simple way to improve party selection rules

Not all is quite so new in the world of political messaging and behaviour change

Want to learn about political campaigning? 5 books for Christmas

Romney’s polling day technology meltdown: Orca

Nick Clegg message for Remembrance Day 2012

What’s happened to real wages over the last 25 years?

Michael Mates faces “electoral poll fraud probe” by the police

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

Haringey Council shows how not to provide educational vision

What they say about Michael Moore…

New campaign buttons up and running on Prater Raines and MyCouncillor sites

A longer watch for the weekend: Mothers of Liberty

How many votes will the Labour candidate who isn’t a candidate get?

Judging Jimmy Savile

Paul Burstow is new chair of the Parliamentary Party

Lib Dems step up plans for more employee ownership

Chris Rennard backs move to kill off, not just delay, boundary changes

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Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Ed Davey: Helping consumers to get cheaper energy bills

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