Tag Archives: chris rennard

Chris Rennard (Baron Rennard of Wavertree) was the Liberal Democrat Chief Executive 2003-2009. They Work For You documents Lord Rennard’s activity in the House of Lords.

Clegg signals new approach to individual voter registration in evidence to Parliamentary committee

By Nick Thornsby | Published 9th February 2012 - 11:28 am

Last Wednesday saw Nick Clegg return for his annual appearance before the House of Lords Constitution Committee. As one might expect, a whole range of political reform and constitutional issues were covered in the 90 minute evidence session.

One interesting answer by the Deputy Prime Minister which caught my attention was on the topic of individual voter registration. Asked by Liberal Democrat peer Lord (Chris) Rennard whether there would be changes to the government approach as set out in the earlier White Paper when we see legislation on the issue soon, Clegg had the following to say:

The short answer is ‘yes’….We

…

Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged constitutional reform, electoral registration, nick clegg, political and constitutional reform committee | 7 Comments

LibLink: Chris Rennard – Integrity in ensuring that people can vote

By Nick Thornsby | Published 19th January 2012 - 6:28 pm

Over on epolitix, Lord (Chris) Rennard has a piece calling for changes to the electoral registration system to place the burden on individuals rather than households following the news that at least 6 million people are unregistered:

All parties and the Electoral Commission are agreed in principle that the electoral registration system should change to put the responsibility on individuals rather than households.

But the Commission report shows that our existing system is not as good as we thought and there are clearly dangers in making any changes. The biggest dangers to the integrity of the process would be to suggest that

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged electoral commission, electoral registration | 3 Comments

What Chris Fox did next

By Stephen Tall | Published 6th January 2012 - 3:45 pm

It’s four months since we reported the departure of party chief executive Chris Fox, who did such a good job of filling the big shoes of his predecessor, Chris Rennard.

Apparently, though, there is life beyond the Lib Dems — as PR Week reports:

Chris Fox today started in his newly created post of director of group comms at London-listed GKN, which employs around 40,000 people in 30 countries. … In an internal email to Liberal Democrat colleagues, Fox said there had ‘been few dull moments’ during his three-year spell with the party, adding: ‘I am looking forward to

…

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged chris fox, Lib Dem chief executive, tim gordon | Leave a comment

Coming up in the Lords… 10-20 January

By Mark Valladares | Published 4th January 2012 - 12:47 pm

Welcome to Liberal Democrat Voice’s coverage of the House of Lords, where we’ll be flagging up some of the forthcoming events at the more reflective end of the Palace of Westminster. So, without further ado…

The House of Lords returns to work next Tuesday after its Christmas recess, with a heavy legislative schedule to be dealt with before the end of the Session, and the first fortnight offers a hint of what is to come.

Days 2, 3 and 4 of the Committee Stage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged house of lords, roger roberts | Leave a comment

The four things the new party Chief Executive must prioritise

By Mark Pack | Published 1st January 2012 - 11:50 am

Dear Tim,

Congratulations on your appointment as Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats. You take up the post in tough but exciting times.

Even if you were not one person but a superhuman army of fifty you would not be able to do all the things party members and staff are saying they want from the new Chief Executive. As you are but one person (I hold out hope on the superhuman front) you will inevitably have to pass up on many of these demands.

Picking the right priorities will be central to being a successful Chief Executive and so here are the four priorities I think you should pick.

Posted in Op-eds, Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged featured, stephen tall, tim gordon, willie rennie | 14 Comments

Lords Rennard, Carlile, and Lester, with Lynne Featherstone, defend rules on religious civil partnerships

By Prateek Buch | Published 16th December 2011 - 10:20 am

The House of Lords yesterday dismissed fears surrounding new regulations allowing religious institutions to celebrate same-sex civil partnerships on their premises. Some campaigners hard argued that such rules could force them to do so against their will, an argument that was laid to rest by Peers. In doing so, they gave the green light to liberal religious organisations to allow same-sex couples to register their civil partnerships under their auspices.

The Lords debated Conservative Peer Lady O’Cathain’s motion to have new regulations on civil partnerships delayed because of fears that equality campaigners could use the Equality Act 2010 or the Human …

Posted in News | Also tagged civil partnerships, gay equality, lynne featherstone, religion | 4 Comments

Was there a Clegg coup? Review of The Clegg Coup – Britain’s First Coalition Government Since Lloyd George by Jasper Gerard

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd November 2011 - 9:54 am

Many book titles reveal little about what their book contains, either providing but a banal name for its contents or a clever, clever name which obscures rather than reveals. However, The Clegg Coup – Britain’s First Coalition Government Since Lloyd George by Jasper Gerard has a title which is revealing in two aspects. First, the way general accuracy in the book is marred by detailed slips – for whilst the general point of the title is true, with the May 2010 coalition being the UK’s first peacetime coalition in Westminster since before 1939, the title does not use the …

Posted in Books | Also tagged charles kennedy, chris bowers, danny alexander, david laws, duncan brack, featured, jasper gerard, matt chorley, ming campbell, nick clegg, paul marshall | 25 Comments

LibLink: Chris Rennard – The Lib Dems’ three-pronged strategy for success

By Nick Thornsby | Published 28th October 2011 - 2:58 pm

In the House Magazine, Lord (Chris) Rennard – campaigns guru and former chief executive of the party – has set out the ‘three- pronged’ approach that he believes the Liberal Democrats should take over the coming years.

Here’s a sample:

The first of them follows on from Nick Clegg’s first-year priority, which was to show that the coalition government was stable and capable of taking tough decisions. So an early task for Nick Clegg was to show that ‘coalition works’. This test required huge self-discipline in agreeing a four-year Comprehensive Spending Review, and some compromises that were unpalatable to many Lib Dems.

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged coalition | 4 Comments

What do the Lib Dems need from the party’s next Chief Executive?

By Stephen Tall | Published 1st October 2011 - 3:45 pm

As readers of Liberal Democrat News — and the party’s website — will know the Lib Dem are searching for a new chief executive to succeed Chris Fox. Here’s the job ad:

The Liberal Democrat Party is appointing a new Chief Executive.
Liberal Democrat Headquarters, London, SW1

The Chief Executive leads the Party administration and directs the human, financial and administrative resources of the Party – both its senior professional team and its membership and supporter base. He or she will bring energy and outstanding leadership to this crucial job. The post is based in the Party’s new headquarters in the

…

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged chief executive, chris fox | 10 Comments

LibLink: Rennard and Webb in the Saturday papers

By NewsHound | Published 17th September 2011 - 4:36 pm

A double dose of LibLink love with two pieces to highlight.

First, an op-ed from (Lord) Chris Rennard for The Guardian with a lesson from history for the Liberal Democrats:

[Being in coalition] leaves the Liberal Democrats shaken by the drop in poll support but not entirely surprised by it. My view is that the drop in support should not be regarded as inevitable on polling day in 2015. In December 1996, the Lib Dems were suffering from too close an association with Labour and a poll rating below 10%. Analysis of the new parliamentary boundaries showed that the Lib Dems were

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged steve webb | 1 Comment

Chris Rennard writes… Can we tell what will happen in four years?

By Chris Rennard | Published 21st August 2011 - 2:55 pm

Four years ago, David Cameron was on the run.

The Conservatives had ‘thrown the kitchen sink’ into winning the Ealing Southall by-election in the summer of 2007 and they had raised expectations of a Tory victory based on the appointment of a well known local Asian businessman as ‘David Cameron’s Conservative candidate’ in a seat with a lot of Conservative Councillors.

But on polling day, the Conservatives not only failed to win the by-election (or even overtake the Lib Dems), but they fell from second place to third in the parliamentary by-election in Sedgfield following Tony …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron, featured, gordon brown | 22 Comments

LibLink: Chris Rennard – A fox in the House of Lords

By Nick Thornsby | Published 28th June 2011 - 4:24 pm

Lords of the Blog has a new contributor: Lord (Chris) Rennard, Lib Dem peer and former chief executive of the party. And in his maiden post, Lord Rennard explains why, even after having sat in the place since 1999, he still feels passionately about the necessity for the second chamber’s reform.

Here’s an excerpt:

New visitors to the House usually meet me at Peers’ entrance and often ask fairly quickly about Lords reform. I point immediately to the progress made since I became a peer in 1999. I proudly show them my coat peg in the cloakroom and explain that it

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lords reform | Leave a comment

Chris Rennard profiled in Total Politics: “Think about the swings and roundabouts over the years”

By Helen Duffett | Published 13th June 2011 - 6:48 pm

Over at Total Politics Iain Dale interviews former Lib Dem Chief Executive Lord Rennard about his views on the local elections, The AV referendum and Coalition government.

Here’s a flavour:

Bernard Jenkin said you could imagine a Lib Dem enclave within the Conservative Party at some point. It’s happened before, hasn’t it? Do you think that that’s at all possible or likely?

I think that’s just trouble-making by someone who is very anti-coalition. I don’t think in the 21st century things will go back to the way they were in the 1920s or 1930s.

Don’t you think this time it just feels a

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged bernard jenkin, david cameron, Ian Dale, total politics | Leave a comment

Nearly three years on, how does the Bones Report look?

By Mark Pack | Published 1st June 2011 - 8:21 am

Back in 2008 the Report of the Party Reform Commission to the Federal Executive was published, more commonly known as the Bones Report after its Chair, Chris Bones. Both the process for drawing up the report and the report itself was not without its critics at the time (e.g. see here and here) but since then it has been a topic only rarely talked about, even amongst party administration insiders.

So how does it looking, approaching its third anniversary, and does it set the right or wrong course for the party organisationally - or has it become an irrelevance?

In one respect, …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged chris bones, party reform commission | 15 Comments

Tag Archives: chris rennard

Search

Poll