Tag Archives: duncan brack

Ashdown, Glover and Williams on the party’s history

By Mark Pack | Published 25th January 2012 - 10:25 am

The latest edition of the Journal of Liberal History caries this account from me of the conference meeting which launched the new history of the party, Peace, Reform and Liberation. You can watch the meeting in full here.

It would be a brave person who walked up to Paddy Ashdown or Shirley Williams and told them to their face that they are history, or even old, but they are two of the most charismatic, interesting and thoughtful members of the living history class – people who have been around in politics long enough to be able to talk at first …

Posted in News | Also tagged history, julian glover, paddy ashdown, shirley williams | 2 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, chris rennard, danny alexander, david laws, featured, jasper gerard, matt chorley, ming campbell, nick clegg, paul marshall | 25 Comments

Book review: Peace, Reform and Liberation – “the first port of call for anyone wishing to learn more about Liberal and Liberal Democrat history”

By Iain Sharpe | Published 16th November 2011 - 10:25 am

There has long been a need for a single volume history of the Liberal and Liberal Democrat parties covering the entire period from its roots in the constitutional struggles of the seventeenth century to the present day.

While Liberal history has received plenty of attention from historians, previous studies of the party have been limited to a specific eras or themes. In many ways of course the party has several histories. This includes the origins of the Liberal tradition in the Whigs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the heyday of Liberal government in the middle of the nineteenth century, the party’s decline and near extinction between the 1920s and 1950s, its recovery in the second half of the twentieth century, and now the challenges of governing in coalition with the party’s historic enemies, the Conservatives.

So it is welcome that the Liberal Democrat History Group has sought to fill a gap with Peace, Reform and Liberation.

Posted in Books | Also tagged asquith, charles kennedy, david dutton, david lloyd george, eugenio biagini, featured, ian hunter, jaime reynolds, keynes, martin pugh, martyn ryder, philip cowley, robert ingham, tony little, william beveridge | 16 Comments

The political thought of the Liberals and Liberal Democrats since 1945: book review

By Mark Pack | Published 26th January 2011 - 10:25 am

Kevin Hickson’s volume, The political thought of the Liberals and Liberal Democrats since 1945, may be a short volume from an academic publisher with an academic book price tag to boot (look out for cheaper second-hand copies) but its contributors include many political practitioners. With Vince Cable, Steve Webb, David Howarth , Richard Grayson and Duncan Brack amongst them, this book has a very strong representation of people at the coalface of policy making rather than simply those who know of it only in theory.

As Hickson points out in the book’s introduction, the policies of the Liberal Democrats – even more so than other aspects of the history of the party and its predecessors since 1945 – have had very little coverage in books, an omission which this volume sets out to remedy and which political fortunes in the year after the book’s publication has made all the more useful a task to tackle.

Posted in Books, Op-eds, Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged david howarth, kevin hickson, richard acland, richard grayson, social mobility, steve webb, vince cable | 1 Comment

Opinion: Interpreting the internal election results

By David Hall-Matthews | Published 16th November 2010 - 3:57 pm

The bare bones of the internal party election results were set out here on Saturday showing who had been elected by conference reps to the various committees.

The detailed results for the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy Committee, hosted by Colin Rosenstiel, show some revealing trends when compared with previous years’ election results.

This year, in the Federal Executive elections, Evan Harris came top on first preference by a long stretch with 263 votes. Following him was David Rendel (107) and Ramesh Dewan (77) with others on 55. Evan is clearly identified with the progressive, Social Liberal wing …

Posted in Op-eds, Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged david rendel, evan harris, gareth epps, linda jack, ramesh dewan, sandra gidley, social liberal forum, susan gaszczak, tony greaves | 38 Comments

Duncan Brack stands down as chair of Federal Conference Committee

By Mark Pack | Published 24th June 2010 - 9:20 am

Following his appointment as a special advisor to Chris Huhne, Duncan Brack has stood down as chair of the party’s Federal Conference Committee (FCC). A key figure in the organisation of party conferences for many years, first as the party’s Director of Policy and then on the FCC, Duncan was Chair for seven years.

This extends a neat chronological sequence of Federal Conference Committee chairs serving for four, five, six and now seven years.

Duncan will be continuing as a member of the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) which I think will provide a welcome extra link between the party’s policy processes and …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged federal conference committee | 2 Comments

Further details of special conference published

By Mark Pack | Published 12th May 2010 - 7:28 pm

As reported earlier today by Helen, the party is holding a special conference in Birmingham on Sunday.

More details are now available. First, here’s the explanation from Duncan Brack (Chair of the Federal Conference Committee) about why it is being held:

The Federal Executive has called this special conference to enable the party to debate the coalition agreement reached between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party, and approved by the Federal Executive and the Parliamentary Party, on 11 May…

The motion endorsing the agreement – though not the agreement itself – is open to amendment … The amendments selected for
debate by

…

Posted in Conference | Also tagged featured | 32 Comments

Leadership v. Activists – a personal reflection on Bournemouth ’09 #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Published 23rd September 2009 - 10:55 am

I’m not, by any means, a party conference veteran – Bournemouth ’09 was in fact only my fourth. But it has been distinctive for one thing in particular: it’s been the first year when the media coverage of conference has genuinely reflected what folk (at least those I’ve met) have been talking about at conference.

In previous years, we have been continually told that Lib Dem delegates were chattering about the fate of our leaders – when actually we were quite contentedly chewing the fat of meaty policy issues. This year, there has, as ever at a Lib Dem conference, been plenty of meaty policy debate, but there’s also been more than a little discussion, and not a little grumbling, about the style of the party leadership, both Nick and Vince. And it seems to me – as I blogged here yesterday – that these grumblings are fair.

Posted in Conference, Op-eds | Also tagged a fresh start for britain, bournemouth 2009 conference, evan harris, featured, nick clegg, steve webb, vince cable | 13 Comments

Sweeping changes to conference motions rules come into force

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd June 2009 - 9:51 pm

Here’s the email which has gone out to party members today:

Seasoned conference-goers might have been expecting the Preliminary Agenda for the autumn conference in Bournemouth to have arrived by now. Well, it hasn’t – because conference last year agreed a set of sweeping changes to the timetable for submitting motions for debate. They’re designed to make it easier for local parties and conference reps to submit motions and amendments, and to increase your chance of having a say in party policy.

The old series of three deadlines for submitting motions has been replaced by two, and we’ve scrapped the Preliminary Agenda.

…

Posted in Conference | 7 Comments

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