Tag Archives: andrew reeves

Open Thread: Tributes to Liberal Democrats who have passed away this year

By Caron Lindsay | Published 28th December 2011 - 3:54 pm

This is the time of year when we look back at what the last 12 months have brought us, good and bad.

I thought it would be appropriate to take some time to pay tribute to Liberal Democrats we’ve lost this year. We’ll all know someone who has really made the difference to our lives as party members who is no longer with us. Please feel free to use the comments to tell us a bit about them and what they mean to you.

For me, the worst moment of the year so far was not the heartbreaking election results. It was …

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Posted in Obituaries | Also tagged | 2 Comments

Total Politics: top blogs and bloggers

By Mark Pack | Published 21st September 2011 - 6:50 pm

Following its list of top Liberal Democrat blogs and bloggers, Total Politics has now also published its overall list of top blogs and bloggers – two lists in which many Liberal Democrats feature.

In the top 50 of the blogs list, Lib Dem Voice is in at number 12 (up from 27 last year), Caron Lindsay at 25, Jonathan Calder at 38 and Andrew Reeves at 44.

In the top 50 of the bloggers list, I’m in at number 20, Caron Lindsay at 29, Andrew Reeves at 43 and Jonathan Calder at 49.

Thank you to everyone for your votes …

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Posted in News, Online politics | Also tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Nick Clegg’s speech to the Liberal Democrats conference rally

By Nick Clegg MP | Published 17th September 2011 - 8:30 pm

Welcome to Birmingham, a city with a great, outspoken liberal tradition. The home of Joe Chamberlain, where Gladstone called for Home Rule in one of the most rousing speeches of his life, and where Lloyd George nearly lost his life when he spoke out against the Boer War. Now it’s the home of those great modern day, outspoken liberals – John Hemming and Lorely Burt.

I have spent the last few weeks criss-crossing the country, speaking to as many of you as possible, hearing your concerns and answering your questions. We did what Lib Dems do: discussed, debated, argued – …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Total Politics: top Liberal Democrat blogs and bloggers

By Mark Pack | Published 17th September 2011 - 9:45 am

Out with a little less fanfare than usual this week have been various categories in the Total Politics Blogger League Tables, including the top Liberal Democrat blogs:

1 Lib Dem Voice

2 Caron’s Musings

3 Liberal England

4 Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog

5 Stephen’s Liberal Journal

6 Mark Pack

=7 Liberal Vision

=7 A Scottish Liberal

9 Cllr Fraser Macpherson

10 Mark Reckons

And the top Liberal Democrat bloggers:

1 Mark Pack

2 Caron Lindsay

3 Andrew Reeves

4 Jonathan Calder

5 Stephen Glenn

6 Olly Grender

7 Mark Thompson

8 Julian Astle

9 Stephen Tall

10 Fraser Macpherson

Lovely and fitting to see Andrew appear so highly in both …

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Andrew Reeves passes away

By Mark Pack | Published 3rd June 2011 - 11:00 am

Many Liberal Democrats are in mourning this morning after the sudden death of a long-time colleague and friend, Andrew Reeves. He died of a heart attack last night.

Andrew had a long career in the party, including working for Vince Cable in Twickenham and Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey & Wood Green and stewarding at party conferences, before becoming the party’s Deputy Director for Scotland. Andrew was always one of the happiest and kindest people on the campaigns I worked with him on, and never let the occasional inevitable moments of stress or tension sour personal friendships. He had also in recent …

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Posted in Obituaries, Scotland | 38 Comments

Meet the Lib Dem bloggers: Andrew Reeves

By Mark Pack | Published 9th May 2011 - 10:25 am

Welcome to the latest in our series giving the human face behind some of the blogs you can find on the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator.

Today it is Andrew Reeves, who blogs at http://andrewrunning.blogspot.com.

1. What’s your formative political memory?
In 1984 Ken Clarke gave me an award at a thank you party for delivering leaflets for him. In front of the 200+ people there he also asked me if I wanted to join the party – and in front of them all I said no! I was pleased he’d won but said that the more I had got to know …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mundell: no further action over expense allegations

By Mark Pack | Published 19th November 2010 - 8:52 am

Andrew Reeves is reporting that the police have decided not to take any further action after investigating Conservative MP David Mundell’s election expenses. As we reported previously:

His expense return showed him within the limit but wrongly classified one bill. A correct return would have shown him over the limit.

Although the police have decided that this mistake is not worthy of further action, the publicity, embarrassment and investigation are a strong reminder of the importance of candidates and agents properly checking legal paperwork before submitting it.

Posted in Election law | Also tagged | Leave a comment

Two Scottish Labour councillors charged by the police

By Mark Pack | Published 13th August 2010 - 8:50 am

Andrew Reeves has got details of John Holden, charged over alleged benefit fraud, and Gilbert Davidson, accused of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague.

UPDATE: Charges against Gilbert Davidson were subsequently dropped.

Posted in Opposition watch, Scotland | Also tagged , | 14 Comments

Should Lembit Opik be the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor?

By Mark Pack | Published 29th June 2010 - 9:20 am

The news that Lembit is interested in running for Mayor has produced a flurry of comment online from Liberal Democrats (such as Andrew Reeves’s piece) so over to you: what do you think?

Posted in London | Also tagged | 80 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 11 February 2010

By Alex Foster | Published 11th February 2010 - 8:11 am

Well, let’s see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. Then it was February 11th and time for Daily View, on this, Canadian actor Leslie Nielson’s birthday.

He shares the date with the Beast of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner, and Caribou Barbie, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Other notable occurrences today include the death of Sylvia Plath in 1963 and the début of Julia Child’s US TV show The French Chef in 1963. If you’ve never seen it before, go see Julia making omelettes.

2 Cheerful Stories

British Retail’s “irreversible downward spiral”

The Guardian has news that some British towns and cities have so many empty shops they may never recover:

Many of Britain’s towns and cities are suffering from such huge shop vacancy rates that they risk becoming ghost towns, wiping hundreds of millions of pounds off property values, a study revealed yesterday.

Cities such as Wolverhampton and Bradford, where nearly a quarter of shops lie empty, could be on an irreversible downward spiral as a result of the financial crisis. The research by the Local Data Company shows retail vacancy rates across Britain rose 2% in the past six months of last year to 12%, with some towns seeing as much as 24% of its shops lying empty.

“As much as 24%” ? What’s wrong with “Almost a quarter” ?

Oh, and NB, the photo in the story is my home city Nottingham. I’m not sure where it was taken, but it’s not really typical of the city.

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Good news for Katy Gordon as SNP councillor switches

By Mark Pack | Published 10th February 2010 - 8:10 am

The switch of Councillor Alex Dingwall from the SNP to the Liberal Democrats is a great boost for Katy Gordon’s campaign in Glasgow North (Labour majority: 3,338).

Explaining his reasons for leaving the SNP after 31 years as a member, Cllr Dingwall said:

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Posted in Opposition watch, Scotland | Also tagged , , | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 29 December 2009

By Helen Duffett | Published 29th December 2009 - 7:00 am

May I be the first to wish you, “Happy That Bit Between Christmas and New Year.”

Whether you’re at work, at home, working from home, or none of the above, here’s your Daily View for Tuesday:

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal statesman and four-times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (By the way, remember to nominate your Liberal Voice of 2009 here.)

It’s also 34 years since the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts came into force, legislation which now faces overdue modernisation and streamlining by the Equality Bill.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

  • Cameron’s potted plants underline the difference. Peter Black’s post (a late contender for my favourite blog post title of 2009) features a video of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tory candidate for North East Somerset, “a key Conservative candidate who reflects the views of many in his party that he is a member of the ruling class with a God-given right to be in Government and that as far as he is concerned the rest of us are just potted plants.”
  • Is photography the new crime? Andrew Reeves takes a photo of the police taking a photo of the protesters.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Fury as China executes British drug smuggler

China was this morning condemned for its human rights record after a British man who, his supporters say, had mental health problems, was executed for smuggling drugs.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, was shot dead by a firing squad at 10.30am local time (2.30am British time) after frantic last-minute pleas for clemency by the Foreign Office failed. [Guardian]

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

By-election roundup for 10 December 2009

By Helen Duffett | Published 11th December 2009 - 11:45 am

We’ll update this post as new info comes in.

Bearsden South's new Councillor Ashay Ghai with Jo Swinson MP

East Dunbartonshire Council, Bearsden South

Lib Dem gain from Conservatives
The results of this STV election in full:

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Posted in Council by-elections | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Glenrothes by-election marked register set to rise from the dead

By Mark Pack | Published 9th November 2009 - 10:20 am

A week today, starting at 10am on Monday 16th November, an act of political record keeping resurrection will commence as the lost marked register from the Glenrothes Westminster Parliamentary by-election is recreated.

The lost of the Glenrothes marked register caused more controversy than such loses usually do both because it happened at a Parliamentary by-election and because the result in that election was, to many people, a surprise.

The Goverment’s reaction to the loss of marked registers after the 2005 general election was underwhelming. As I described it in February:

In other words [the Government line is]: ‘we don’t know on what

…

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged , | Leave a comment

Edinburgh, brace yourself: the first Lib Dem Bloggers’ Unconference

By Helen Duffett | Published 3rd November 2009 - 5:34 pm

Just under three weeks to go now – but there’s still time to register for the feast of blogging talent and advice that is the Lib Dem Bloggers’ Unconference.

I’m pleased to announce that Tavish Scott, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has agreed to give a Bloggers’ Interview around lunchtime.

Also joining us: Jo Swinson MP, John Barrett MP, Mike Crockart (newly-selected PPC for Edinburgh West), leading Scottish bloggers, Andrew Reeves (prolific blogger and Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland) as well as Lib Dem Blogfather Jonathan Calder and members of the Lib Dem Voice team.

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Posted in Blogger Interviews, Events | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments