Tag Archives: av referendum

What part of Yes do you not understand?

By James Graham | Published 6th December 2011 - 9:54 am

We don’t normally republish lengthy pieces from other people’s blogs, but in the case of James Graham’s review of Don’t Take No For An Answer by Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie, which doubles up as a detailed post-mortem on the AV referendum, we’re happy to throw those rules out of the window because of both the post’s excellence and the importance of the issues to future campaigning and hopes for electoral reform.

So here is a slightly revised version of the post which first appeared on James’s blog. You can also read Mark Pack’s (much shorter!) review of Don’t …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged electoral reform, electoral reform society, featured, ken ritchie, lewis baston, unlock democracy | 21 Comments

Don’t Take No For an Answer: Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie on the AV referendum

By Mark Pack | Published 26th October 2011 - 10:35 am

The May 2011 electoral reform referendum is not a happy memory for Britain’s electoral reformers, which makes this book from two long-standing electoral reform campaigners surprisingly positive. As the title indicates, their view is that the overwhelming No vote does not signal the death of electoral reform in the UK.

In part the optimism comes from the gory details it gives of the appalling mistakes and mismanagement in the referendum Yes campaign. This was not a superbly organised push for electoral reform that got defeated; the weakness of the campaign gives some hope for a future if, as the authors express the hope, the book helps people learn from the mistakes made.

Posted in Books | Also tagged ken ritchie, lewis baston, nick clegg | 30 Comments

Electoral administration lessons from the AV referendum: the Electoral Commission’s view

By Mark Pack | Published 25th October 2011 - 8:24 am

Last week, the Electoral Commission published its report into the administration of the May’s AV referendum. Despite the high political temperatures during the campaign, the administration got little criticism at the time and so the report rightly reflects that. However, amongst the details are some important pointers to issues that are likely to come up at future elections.

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged electoral commission, postal voting | 3 Comments

Tim Farron MP writes… EU referendum: the Conservatives are not acting out of patriotism

By Tim Farron MP | Published 24th October 2011 - 12:53 pm

This is not likely to win me any votes, but I am proudly pro-Europe and in favour of our continued membership of the EU. That doesn’t make me an apologist for every aspect of the EU: the EU could definitely operate more transparently, efficiently and effectively, and we as Liberal Democrats should say so more often and with more conviction.

Nevertheless, our main challenge has to be to win hearts and minds in favour of our broader membership of the EU, and reverse the completely poisonous anti-European narrative. So many of those who were so indignant this summer about Mr Murdoch’s …

Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds | Also tagged conservative party, referendum, rupert murdoch | 36 Comments

Liberal Democrat May 2011 election review document

By Mark Pack | Published 5th September 2011 - 7:25 am

The Saturday morning of party conference sees a consultative sessions on the May 2011 elections and AV referendum. Ahead of that, a brief outline report has been published by the party which is embedded below. It is from James Gurling, chair of the party’s Campaigns and Communications Committee.

The party’s post-general election review has attracted criticism for being kept fairly low profile, both in terms of who was asked to contribute and the subsequent circulation of the lessons. The general election report has not been made public by the party or circulated very far internally. So it’s good to see that …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged campaigns and communications committee, james gurling | 16 Comments

LDVideo: Preview of “Nicked – the Musical”

By The Voice | Published 4th June 2011 - 11:59 am

As we reported in February:

A hip-hop musical based on Nick Clegg’s role in forming the Coalition government is to be staged later this year.

The show (working title: “Nicked”) also features David Cameron in a “rap-off” with his backbenchers as well as the student demonstrations and the run-up to the AV referendum.

Here’s a preview of one of the numbers: Tinderbox, featuring “Nick Clegg” and “David Cameron” singing about AV. (Don’t miss “Ed Miliband” beatboxing in the background.)

Video also available on YouTube.

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged nicked | 8 Comments

Opinion: Constitutional reform? Time to look at it another way

By Ed Maxfield | Published 29th May 2011 - 3:17 pm

I have read a great deal of liberal-left angst about the AV referendum in the last few days.

Everyone concludes that the Yes campaign was poorly led. Beyond that you pays your money and you takes your pick as to what the key factor was in the massive defeat. You might share the view that insider networks undermined the campaign (although to me this mainly seems to be about saying the wrong sort of insider networks were in control, an argument that factions on the left have relied upon since Trotsky). You might even indulge the conspiracy fantasists and …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged constitutional reform, house of lords | 41 Comments

Opinion: we need an enquiry in the AV referendum

By Simon McGrath | Published 20th May 2011 - 3:53 pm

The Yes 2 AV campaign was a disaster. It was the worst managed political campaign since Michael Foot’s General Election campaign in 1983 and it probably means we will not be able to have electoral reform for many years.

There seems to be a growing tendency simply to ascribe our defeat simply to the lies of the No campaign but that would be too easy and in any case lies are hardly unknown in political campaigns. There seem to have been failures in the Yes campaign; from the highest level – formulating a coherent narrative about the need for …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged post mortem | 20 Comments

The Yes2AV campaign: an insider’s perspective

By Mark Pack | Published 17th May 2011 - 12:27 pm

Ouch.

Yes to Fairer Votes – An Insiders View [published on Liberal Conspiracy http://bit.ly/lgw3Bk]

Posted in News | 19 Comments

Learning the lessons from last week #6: Talking to yourself is not enough

By Mark Pack | Published 14th May 2011 - 8:57 am

There was a highly symbolic moment late in the Yes campaign when its final TV broadcast was made. The TV broadcast featured Dan Snow and was a remake of an earlier Dan Snow film, shot to higher production standards (understandable) and also, intentionally or not, featuring a cast that overall looked younger. From being a film that featured people of a range of ages it became one that primarily featured young people. That was the general tenor of the campaign – with an overall cast of talking heads (in online films, TV films and elsewhere) younger than the average voter.

Yet in a relatively low turnout (I say “relatively” because, once again, turnout was much higher than many of the auto-pilot electoral doom-mongers in the media predicted) election it’s older people’s votes who are vital.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged dan snow, twitter | 3 Comments

Opinion: 5 reasons the AV referendum lost

By James King | Published 13th May 2011 - 10:30 am

Here is my take on the five main reasons why the UK gave such a comprehensive thumbs down to AV, with one important lesson for the future:

Tuition fees and trust – This is not the place to rehearse all the arguments on tuition fees. But there can be no denying that it was a significant turning point in public perceptions of Nick Clegg. Even though over 300 Tory MPs voted for higher fees, the Conservative-dominated No campaign ruthlessly exploited this as an argument against coalitions in general and Clegg in particular. While I believe the policy itself can be justified, Clegg clearly under-estimated the political cost of a U-turn, particularly in the context ofacritical referendum that needed to be won only a few months later.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged analysis, post mortem | 46 Comments

The Independent View: What now for any progressive alliance?

By Neal Lawson | Published 11th May 2011 - 2:47 pm

Rounding off our trio of post-election views from the other parties (see here and here), we have Compass’s Neal Lawson.

So what now for any progressive alliance? Let’s start with an honest assessment of the hole we are in. Labour is now as divided between pluralist and tribalists as it is between those who think the markets needs come before those of society and those who turned social democracy on it head under New Labour. Labour did OK in the North but badly in the South, it did OK in Wales and atrociously in Scotland. The Greens have …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged chris huhne, compass, ed miliband, social liberal forum, vince cable | 20 Comments

Learning the lessons from last week #3: Grassroots campaigns don’t win national elections

By Mark Pack | Published 11th May 2011 - 7:53 am

Liberal Democrats have long known that grassroots campaigns can win a ward, a council or a constituency – but they don’t win national election campaigns. It’s the knowledge that you need both the grassroots campaign and an effective national media and/or advertising campaign that explains why when Chris Rennard was the party’s Chief Executive not only did the Campaigns Department grow hugely in size – but so too did the national press team.

Yet at the heart of the Yes campaign in last week’s AV referendum seems to have been a big mistake: trying to run a grassroots campaign to win …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged barack obama, chris rennard, daily mail, david cameron, ed miliband, paul waugh | 41 Comments

The Independent View: Iain Dale on Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems

By Iain Dale | Published 8th May 2011 - 10:27 am

When LibDem MPs return to Westminster this week they could be forgiven for having a collective panic attack. In their 22 year history they have never had such an onslaught of the political heebie-jeebies as they experienced at the hands of 12 million grumpy voters this week.

Cleggmania has turned into Cleggophobia. Every policy Nick Clegg touches now is seen to be toxic.

Westminster pundits are already writing him off as a political busted flush. But then again, these are the very same commentators who didn’t see the SNP landslide coming in Scotland. They are the same people who predicted the Tories …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged chris huhne, david cameron, david laws, iain dale, nick clegg, paddy ashdown, vince cable | 54 Comments

Where does defeat for AV leave the dream of electoral reform?

By Lucy Smith | Published 7th May 2011 - 2:54 pm

The votes are in, and counted. The wait is over but for the YES camp it’s the bad news we’ve been dreading, and reform of Westminster elections is now lost for many years at least. So what does a NO vote mean for the future?

For the Liberal Democrats as a party, it’s undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow having carried the flag of electoral reform for years. The referendum on AV was the jewel in the crown of the coalition concessions, the final offer that made coalition possible. For many activists a change in the voting system has seemed like …

Posted in Op-eds | 43 Comments

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