Helen Duffett — Lib Dem blogger, tweeter, and much-loved member of Lib Dem Voice’s editorial collective — started today as the party’s new Internal Communications Manager. All of us at the Voice wish her the very best in this vital role.
We are delighted that Helen has agreed to continue to fulfil the role of contributing editor, and look forward to her remaining a full member of the team here at LDV Towers.
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18 Comments
Congratulations Helen, this is great news and well deserved!
What does Internal Communications cover as its remit ? We mainly understand the reason why our MPs are having to make the hard choices they have to make (government debt and deficit), but explaining what they are doing relative to other choices that could be made is harder.
Well done Helen. Hope you rattle a few cages on the AV referendum campaign.
Helen will surely do a brilliant job (congratulations!) but I hope the party will give her some better material to communicate.
So that means LDV is now going to be run by Cowley Street. Not great for open and free discussion within the Party. I suggest Helen ceases her involvement in LDV and allows the independence of this website to continue.
@FH
I disagree – I think it’s very helpful to have an “official” voice on independent websites. So long as it’s transparent when Helen is writing in a personal capacity and when on behalf of the party, I think we benefit. There are many issues on which I’d like to hear the party’s reasoning for its actions, and this might be a useful way of doing this.
@FH – Helen is great, and independent, so it will be a good thing. But it will also be obvious and clear when she is writing… so shouldn’t be a problem.
excellent news
Since this appointment is for the Liberal Democrats and not the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party or leadership, does this mean that Helen will be busy communicating the message and policy of the Party, as interpreted by the President of the Party, rather than of some small group (however exalted) within the Party?
Commenting reminder: Please remember to respect our moderation policy when commenting, including in particular the references to off-topic comments. We have this policy so that people can choose to take part in the discussions which interest them, rather than finding the same discussions shoe-horned into threads on posts on a wide range of other topics. More details are at https://www.libdemvoice.org/comment-policy Thanks.
“We have this policy so that people can choose to take part in the discussions which interest them …”
So what is the correct way of taking part in a discussion about the interesting – and important – issue of the NHS reforms, which Helen and the rest of the LDV “team” have not seen fit to post on?
I guess an Internal Comms Manager communicates, er, internally?
In any event, Helen is an expert communicator and I’m sure she’ll do a fantastic job, whoever she’ll be communicating with. Many congratulations Helen!
Let us return to praising Helen because if there’s one thing Nick needs more of it’s Communications managers to feed him such wonderful lines the public loves like “Alarm Clock Britain.”
@ Depressed Ex Lib Dem
The correct way is to be quiet and do as you are told for the sake of free speech.
The LDV team is quite right and that minor matter should never have been spoken about or spoken about again, despite it being probably the most important issue this parliament.
@ Depressed Ex Lib Dem
Gosh, anyone would think that the LDV team were a bunch of paid staffers, expert on all areas of policy, rather than a collective of volunteers, running this in their spare time.
If you think that the NHS reforms are important, and I share that view, why not write an opinion piece yourself, rather then wait for someone to do it for you? As the team have frequently said in the past, they welcome articles from, within reason, anyone. In other words, stop whinging and start writing.
Mark
If the problem is that none of the “team” has time to write a piece that can be posted to allow on-topic discussion of the NHS reforms, I’ll be happy to do so myself. I can do a short, objective summary, briefly mentioning the arguments on both sides. But before I go to the trouble of doing that, I’d like an indication that it won’t immediately be thrown in the bin.
@ Depressed Ex Lib Dem
On the nature of the ‘problem’, yes, that’s what I’m saying. Writing a good article on a complex subject (and I’d suggest that the NHS is) isn’t easy, it takes time to do well, especially given the nature of the readership – prone to challenge anything intellectual suspect in their eyes. And the regular team isn’t as big as you might think, or paid, or full time, or even part time. They run this unofficial site (the Party does not fund it or resource it) in the time that’s left over after the jobs, the families and loved ones and their campaigning. So perhaps you understand why I’m critical of your rather snarky tone – the use of “team” in your last comment is an example of that.
I’ll make no comment on whether or not they’ll accept and publish what you write – I’m only an occasional columnist – but, if it’s coherently written and contains a logical argument (and that isn’t shorthand for ‘something we agree with’), I’d like to think that it would be published.
That said, they’ve never guaranteed that anything I write will be published, so to demand such a guarantee is a bit precious perhaps…
Mark
You’re completely missing the point. The problem is that because there has been no post about the NHS reforms, there is nowhere on LDV that people can discuss the NHS reforms without their comments being deleted because they are “off-topic.” All that’s needed to get round that problem is a short post about the NHS reforms. It need do no more than link to an online news story about the reforms (which is all many LDV posts do anyway).
Anyway, I see that something by Paul Burstow has now been posted, so the problem no longer exists.
And I wish you wouldn’t misrepresent what people say. I didn’t ask for a “guarantee that what I wrote would be published.” Only an indication that it wouldn’t simply be binned without further consideration.