Author Archives: Rob Blackie

Opinion: How can we build a liberal movement?

By Rob Blackie | Published 8th June 2011 - 5:27 pm

Like a lot of Liberal Democrat friends, I was inspired by Barack Obama’s determination to build a long term movement for change across America. And for a couple of years I’ve been trying to copy his volunteer led approach to political organising, with some success.*

One element that is crucial to motivating volunteers is to have superb candidates, who are themselves heroes to their communities. This, of course, is a large element of good traditional community campaigning.

So I was delighted to see that in Peckham we are using our candidate’s amazing life story as the main motivator of volunteers on …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged community politics, jennifer blake, peckham | 10 Comments

Opinion: Can we campaign on Lords reform?

By Rob Blackie | Published 23rd May 2011 - 12:27 pm

Let’s face it, Lords reform doesn’t come up on the doorsteps often, however important it is.

But there is one group of people in Britain who Lib Dem Voice readers know, who care deeply about Lords reform. Campaigners for AV, who most of us have spent the last 6 months working with, are overwhelmingly in favour of Lords reform.

So today we can all use Lords reform as a great campaigning opportunity. Simply create a local petition (like this one) to make sure that your local MP votes for and campaigns for a 100% elected Lords.

Then send this petition to …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lords reform | 13 Comments

Opinion: How are councils making savings?

By Rob Blackie | Published 12th April 2011 - 11:57 am

Getting a picture on what’s happening across the country on council spending is difficult. We all hear stories, whether it’s the a plan to close a library or a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a friend who works in Brighton, who told me that the council had avoided almost all frontline cuts to services through efficiency savings.

Last week some surprising figures have appeared in an overlooked survey by the Financial Times. They show that at least half of the spending cuts that councils are making will have no impact at all on frontline services.

The Financial …

Posted in Local government | 14 Comments

Opinion: We were prudent in opposition – time for Labour to follow our lead

By Rob Blackie | Published 4th April 2011 - 3:50 pm

Labour have refused to provide any detailed alternative to the Coalition’s tax and spending plans. They have also implied that during their recent period in government that nobody challenged their irresponsible tax and spending plans. This is simply a lie. Not only did the IFS explain their irresponsibility as far back as 2003 [PDF], but so did the Liberal Democrats.

There’s an easy way to test how responsible we were while we were in opposition. Every year since 1992 the Liberal Democrats have produced an Alternative Budget setting out our alternative to the government’s tax and spending plans, as well …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged deficit, labour, prudence | 23 Comments

Opinion: It’s time for a no-fly zone

By Rob Blackie | Published 15th March 2011 - 11:09 am

In 1984 a young aeronautical engineer called Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy,an opponent of Muammar Gaddafi, was hanged in a basketball stadium in Benghazi. As he hung from the rope dying, he was grabbed round his legs and dragged down until he stopped moving by a brutal young woman called Huda Ben Amer. Ben Amer was appointed Mayor of Benghazi, and went on to terrorise the people Benghazi for the decades since. She escaped the Benghazi uprising, and is waiting to return if the Libyan army retake control in the next few days.

Al-Sadek’s story matters, not just because of …

Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds | Tagged Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy, Huda Ben Amer, kosovo, libya, Muammar Gaddafi, no fly zone | 27 Comments

Opinion: Sharing maternity leave – our most popular policy since the coalition was formed?

By Rob Blackie | Published 18th January 2011 - 8:55 am

Yesterday Nick Clegg has announced that couples will be able to share maternity leave. This is a rare example of a policy which is principled, popular and incredibly talkable.

Parents and grandparents, that is most of the population who are over 35 years old, have extremely strong views on childcare and maternity leave. After all it has a huge impact on us, our careers and our relationships with our families.

This is a superb policy for several reasons.

Firstly, it recognises that modern fathers want to spend more time with their children, and are constrained by an incredibly outdated legal framework that implicitly …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged paternity leave | 38 Comments

Opinion: Let’s enjoy being in government

By Rob Blackie | Published 13th December 2010 - 11:43 am

I joined the party in 1991. Like most readers I didn’t join the party out of a mad lust for power or a desire to do well in the opinion polls. I just wanted to make the world a fairer and freer placer. And I quickly learnt that it is very difficult to win elections as a Lib Dem.

But I’m surprised at how little credit we are giving ourselves for our achievements in government. Even the Observer, in the midst of a mainly negative editorial on the Lib Dems yesterday, admits that in six months we have achieved:

raising the

…

Posted in News | 48 Comments

Fancy a new deliverer?

By Rob Blackie | Published 30th January 2010 - 10:45 am

All of us who spend time running local campaigns face a common constraint. We don’t have enough supporters who deliver leaflets for us.

Well I’m pleased to say that I have a quick, simple, free solution that will get you one or two new deliverers today.

…

Posted in News | 6 Comments

E-campaigning mentors needed

By Rob Blackie | Published 18th May 2009 - 10:20 am

Do you need advice on e-campaigning? Or do you have experiences that you’d like to share on e-campaigning?

If so look no further.

The hearts & minds group of the Technology Advisory Board are setting up a mentoring scheme to match people who want to give advice on e-campaigning to people who need advice on how to campaign better.

We already have a number of experienced local campaigners ready – just click here to see more on the forum, follow the instructions there and they’ll get back to you.

Rob Blackie is a former Lib Dem Director of …

Posted in Online politics | Tagged technology advisory board | Leave a comment

What can the party do to encourage better e-campaigning?

By Rob Blackie | Published 2nd April 2009 - 10:20 am

In early March 2009 renowned Lambeth bakers De Lieto applied for planning permission for a new bakery. Lambeth Council astoundingly decided that the local residents would be distressed by the smell.

In stepped local Lib Dem councillors Rob Banks and Andrew Sawdon. There followed a rapid online and offline campaign to get residents to sign a petition in favour of the bakery, with over 100 petitions through De Lieto’s front door in less than 24 hours. A combination of leaflets, emails, Rob and Andrew’s superb blog and the council rapidly u-turned. More on this story can be found here.

This simple …

Posted in Lib Dem TV, Online politics | Tagged lambeth council, technology advisory board | 4 Comments

Why the Leadership Academy shouldn’t just train the leaders

By Rob Blackie | Published 26th September 2008 - 10:15 am

I joined the party in 1991. But I only really got involved at grassroots level after I started working in the party in 2000. And like many other enthusiastic people who start helping at local level I rapidly found myself as chair of my local party.

And like many other people in my position I had strengths and weaknesses. I was pretty good at raising money, and we shortly had a RISO and a lot of cash in the bank. But I didn’t have much of a plan for how we were going to turn supporters into members and activists without …

Posted in News | 13 Comments

Needed: Spanish practices

By Rob Blackie | Published 3rd July 2008 - 6:42 pm

The announcement earlier this year of a Spanish Cabinet that is majority women should cause everyone involved in British politics to stop and wonder why we’re doing so badly.

We know that the under-representation of women in politics is a bad thing – and that this applies to the Liberal Democrats as much as anyone else, even if we do have a good heritage of standing up on issues of inequality.

But how many more women do we really need to stand for us if we’re going to get a more equal party?

It turns out that the answer is at least 100 …

Posted in Op-eds | 29 Comments

Opinion: Calling time on Labour for their nasty campaigning

By Rob Blackie | Published 23rd September 2007 - 8:47 am

I occasionally get very angry when Labour’s sympathisers in the media talk about Labour’s liberalising of Britain.

Quite apart from the fact that it will soon be illegal to go to the shops without an ID card in your pocket, the Labour party is deeply illiberal in its campaigns. I’m sure many of you will have experienced campaigning at local level that demonises asylum seekers, gays or gypsies. We should be more willing to attack Labour for their disgusting campaigns – and make an issue of the character of the people who run them.

Anyone who has read The Political Brain (a study of the neuroscience of politics – the best political book of this year in my opinion) will remember that smears work because they are semi-conscious. Drew Western, the book’s author, makes the point that if you want to beat a smear (assuming it’s worth mentioning) then you have to take it head on and make an issue of the person doing the smear.

We successfully did this in the Cheadle by election when the Conservatives used some outrageous smears against our candidate, now MP, Mark Hunter. We should do it more.

I challenged a Labour activist friend on this recently, and he said that while this might have happened in the past he was sure it didn’t happen these days. Well here are some examples from the last couple of years:

Posted in Op-eds, Opposition watch | 49 Comments

Book review: how to make people remember what you say

By Rob Blackie | Published 9th August 2007 - 11:55 am

A friend of a friend was on a business trip to London. He meets a beautiful lady in the hotel bar, and the next thing he knows he wakes up in a bath of ice, with his kidneys missing.

We’ve all heard a version of that story. Made to Stick investigates why people remember some ideas regardless of whether they are true.

All of us who have been involved with the Liberal Democrats know the frustration of meeting members of the public who don’t know Lib Dem policies that we’ve been banging on about for years. Or we’ve met voters confused by smear campaigns against us by other parties. For this reason everyone in the Liberal Democrats needs to read Made to Stick.

Made to Stick outlines six things that made an idea memorable.

Posted in Books | Tagged ming campbell | 5 Comments

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