Tag Archives: european elections

Opinion: My taxpayer funded Euro jaunt was well worth it

By Jade Holden | Wed 12th December 2012 - 3:04 pm

I seldom hear much enthusiasm about European politics. It seems particularly difficult to get people excited about the EU and during the Euro list selection campaign, I found that even politically active people were largely uninterested in European issues. It is hardly surprising, then, that the UK turnout in 2009 was less than 35%.

One attempt to tackle this problem comes from the EU in the form of subsidies offered to MEPs who bring visitors from their constituencies to see the European Parliament. I was lucky enough

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged eu and european parliament | 5 Comments

Euro 2014 – a cause to fight for, not to hide from

By Mark Valladares | Tue 4th December 2012 - 4:55 pm

So, we’ve selected our candidates for Europe in England and Scotland, and a pretty good bunch they are too – people who are committed to the concept of a Europe of twenty-seven (soon to be twenty-eight) nations pooling some sovereignty for a greater good. So far, so good. But what are they going to do for the next eighteen months?

Past experience says, “not much to do with Europe”. Yes, they’ll be campaigning to a lesser or greater extent, but what will they be

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 50 Comments

Have you (and your members) had their Euro ballot papers yet?

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 9:50 am

Perhaps it’s the increasing freedom for people to use social media during Liberal Democrat selection contests. Perhaps it’s the increasing proportion of party activists who take part in online discussions. Or perhaps it’s hiccups with the Royal Mail, party data or others involved. Whatever the cause, as with the party’s recent federal committee elections there seems to be more chatter about people not receiving ballot papers for the current Euro selections than in previous contests.

Continue reading »

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged tim farron | 9 Comments

Selection of European Parliamentary candidates for 2014

By Jonathan Davies | Fri 6th July 2012 - 9:22 am

The English and Scottish Liberal Democrats are now inviting applications for selection for the Liberal Democrat Party lists for the English Regions and for Scotland for the next European Parliamentary elections (which take place in 2014). The formal advert has been published in Liberal Democrat News. The closing date for applications is 6 p.m. on Friday 27 July.

Potential applicants should contact the Returning Officer for the region(s) in which they are interested for an application pack. Applicants can apply for as many Regions as they wish, but must obtain a separate application pack and submit a separate application to …

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International, News, Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | 2 Comments

European candidate selections: is that the time already?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 7:25 pm

News has reached your reporter that, in a radical break with tradition, the English Candidates Committee is likely to meet later this month to address key questions relating to the selection of European Parliamentary candidates for elections due in May 2014, where Liberal Democrats will be defending seats held in each of the nine English Regions (two in South East England) and in Scotland.

Radical, because the Committee usually only meets four times a year, with the first meeting at the Spring Federal Conference, and the newly elected Chairs …

Continue reading »

Posted in News and Selection news | Also tagged candidate selection rules | 1 Comment

Labour ups election spending by a third as Conservatives make big cuts

By Mark Pack | Tue 5th January 2010 - 10:22 pm

Yup, you read that headline right. For those are the surprising figures from the 2009 European Election expense returns which have just been published.

In 2009 the Conservatives spent £2,482,536 on election expenses for the European elections, just ahead of Labour on £2,302,244 with the Liberal Democrats on £1,180,883.

However, while the Labour figure was up 35% on the 2004 European elections, the Conservatives had cut their spending by 21%. The Liberal Democrat spending was 1% lower.

UKIP spent £1,270,855, a cut of 46%.

In the elections the Conservatives, UKIP and Liberal Democrats each gained a seat while Labour lost five. (Seat change …

Continue reading »

Posted in Election law and Europe / International | Leave a comment

Electoral fact of the day: turnout and age

By Mark Pack | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 11:50 am

“Nearly three-quarters (74%) of people aged 65 or over said that they had voted in the European Parliamentary elections, compared with only 13% of those aged 18 to 24.”

(From the Electoral Commission’s report in to the June 2009 elections, p.26.)

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral commission and turnout | Leave a comment

Electoral fact of the day: turnout and postal voting

By Mark Pack | Sat 21st November 2009 - 9:20 am

In June’s European elections, turnout amongst postal voters was 64% in Great Britain. Turnout amongst non-postal voters was 30% – a full 34 percentage points lower. There’s a lesson in there about campaigning…

The figures for the different regions were:

South East 68% (+34%)
South West 68% (+33%)
East Midlands 67% (+34%)
Eastern 67% (+33%)
West Midlands 66% (+35%)
Scotland 63% (+39%)
Yorkshire & The Humber 63% (+37%)
North West 63% (+37%)
Wales 62% (+36%)
London 61% (+31%)
North East 59% (+38%)

The Isles of Scilly were the only area where turnout amongst postal voters was lower than that amongst non-postal voters (by two percentage points).

Source: Calculated from Electoral Commission data

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral commission and postal voting | Leave a comment

Weekend voting: will this be the next trend in trying to raise turnout at elections?

By Mark Pack | Tue 17th November 2009 - 2:10 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

Over the last few years a wide range of attempts have been made to raise turnout at elections in the UK. The broad conclusion is very simple: all-postal ballots raise turnout significantly (albeit at the cost of various drawbacks) and nothing else that has been tried does so. E-voting, early voting, voting by text, and many others: all been tried, all flopped.

However, there are signs that moving to voting at the weekend may be coming back on the electoral administration agenda.

It is easy to see why weekend voting may appeal. Fewer people work at the weekend which could mean people are more likely to have time to go and vote, plus in turn candidates are more likely to be able to get volunteers out campaigning on polling day reminding people to vote.

The main drawbacks are also fairly straight-forward.

Continue reading »

Posted in Election law and News | Also tagged electoral commission, turnout and weekend voting | 13 Comments

Did you see the reports about the public getting keener to vote in European elections?

By Mark Pack | Fri 19th June 2009 - 10:50 am

No, I didn’t either. But the odd thing is, there’s plenty of evidence that the public were keener to vote in European electins than previously. The evidence is certainly patchy and incomplete, but the uniformity of the turnout gloom and doom stories seems to me to say rather more about the media’s fixed image (‘turnout? must be down’) than about the actual evidence.

The key is to compare like-for-like data. For example, in several parts of England the last European election were run using an all-postal ballot, in which all possible voters were sent a ballot paper that they could then …

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged turnout | 4 Comments

And the winners are…

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th June 2009 - 12:00 pm

Back on 2nd June, LDV launched our election prediction competition, inviting readers to put their reputations on the line and tell us what they thought would happen in the 4th June English local and European elections. Here are the questions with the actual results in bold:

1. Predict the Liberal Democrat share of the vote in the European elections. 14%
2. Predict the turnout in the European elections. 34.5%
3. Predict the Liberal Democrat lead over Labour in the local elections (if you think the results will be LD 25%, Lab 22%, your answer is +3%. If you think it will be the other way around, your answer is -3%). +5%
4. Predict how many local authorities the Liberal Democrats will have majority control of on 5th June. 1 (Bristol)
5. Predict the net loss/gain of Lib Dem councillors. -2 (BBC figures)

I’ve now had chance to mark the competition, summing the differences between readers’ answers and the results, resulting in the following league table:

Continue reading »

Posted in Site news | Also tagged darren reynolds, ed randall and local elections | Leave a comment

My favourite piece of post-election spinning

By Mark Pack | Thu 11th June 2009 - 10:33 pm

Can you spot the person and party in this local newspaper report who:

(a) Slipped back to fourth place for the first time
(b) Saw their vote fall
(c) But say they are “pleased” with the result? and hope to “ride the momentum” into next year’s local elections

(Here’s a clue: his name is Richard Merrin; his political party is the Conservatives.)

And for a final bit of fun, here’s what Richard Merrin said during the election campaign itself: “Do the Lib Dems really think the Euro election in Hornsey is a fight between them and Lab – the electorate don’t …

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged richard merrin | 8 Comments

Official: the best (and worst) Lib Dem Euro results

By Stephen Tall | Tue 9th June 2009 - 5:40 pm

As m’LDV clleague Alex has just mentioned, the Guardian has kindly uploaded a spreadsheet listing all the council results from the European elections – allowing us to sort the results whichever way we wish. So listed below are the best – and worst – Lib Dem European election results.

There are 41 areas which we’re defining as the best-performing – ie, the Lib Dem vote exceeded 20%. As you might expect, a number of familiar names crop up, pleasingly a mixture of held and target seats. (NB: council results do not necessarily match Westminster constituencies, so careful in extrapolating too precisely!)

Sadly, there are more results that we’re defining as worst-performing, 118 in total where the Lib Dem result failed to reach 10%. For comparison, the Tories were <10% in 10 areas, but there were an astonishing 157 areas where Labour was <10%. Ukip was <10% in 62 areas, and the Greens <10% in 307 areas.

Anyway, enough of such data-mining – here are the lists in full:

Continue reading »

Posted in News | 17 Comments

Guardian publishes full list of Euro election results

By Alex Foster | Tue 9th June 2009 - 4:41 pm

Kudos to the Guardian which has obtained council-level euro results and munged them together into one giant spreadsheet with click-sort columns, over on its datablog.

The hook the Guardian are using is that it allows you see just how well the BNP did in your area, but anyone with a political hat will want to play with the data and slice it in numerous different ways.

Congratulations, then, to South Lakeland, for the highest Lib Dem Euro score anywhere in the country; commiserations to Barking and Dagenham where we polled under 5%… and ooh – is that a weak correlation …

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged barking and dagenham, bnp, lib dem, south alkeland and the guardian | 12 Comments

How the Euro results prove PR works

By The Voice | Mon 8th June 2009 - 3:10 pm

The good folk at Make Votes Count have been rapidly number-crunching, and come up with the following analysis of the UK’s European election results…

1) MOST VOTES ELECTED AN MEP

At least 3 out of every 4 votes counted and elected an MEP. Because of the proportional system used for the European elections, a large majority of voters will be represented by an MEP whom they voted for. In most regions, that is the case for at least 75% of voters. In the South East, it is almost 9 in every 10 voters. However, there were some losers; in particular Green voters missed out narrowly in several regions from electing a Green MEP.

2) VOTERS EMBRACE CHOICE

Across Great Britain, 8 different parties have won seats in the European Parliament. This shows that voters respond positively when offered choice at the ballot box. With differences emerging between results at local and European level, it is also clear that voters can make sophisticated choices about who they best want representing them and how they can most effectively make their vote count.

3) INCREASE IN WOMEN MEPs

As things stand exactly one-third of MEPs elected in Great Britain are women. This figure will likely go down very slightly, to around 32%, when the Scottish result is announced. Even so, this would still be a marked improvement on the one-in-four elected in 2004.

4) TURNOUT PATTERNS

Overall (including the Scottish result still to come in), turnout is probably going to be just under 35% – so around 4% less than last time. The biggest drops in turnout were in Wales and in those regions which had all-postal ballots in 2004. Turnout actually went up slightly in 3 regions (South East, South West and Eastern), with Thursday’s county council elections in those areas probably boosting things a bit.

5) BNP ONLY NARROWLY GAINED REPRESENTATION

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged make votes count and proportional representation | 25 Comments

Euro elections ’09: the LDV verdict

By Stephen Tall | Mon 8th June 2009 - 10:07 am

Hmm, so what to make of all that, then? Here’s the headline results (comparison with 2004 results in brackets):

Conservatives: 27.7 % (+1.0%), 25 MEPs (+1)
UK Independence Party: 16.5% (+0.3%), 13 MEPs (+1)
Labour: 15.7% (-6.9%), 13 MEPs (-5)
Liberal Democrats: 13.7% (-1.2%), 11 MEPs (+1)
Greens: 8.6% (+2.4%), 2 MEPs (0)
British National Party 6.2% (+1.3%), 2 MEPs (+2)
SNP: 2.1% (+0.7%), 2 MEPs (n/c)
Plaid Cymru: 0.8% (-0.1%), 1 MEP (n/c)
Others: 8.2%

In a sense, the Euro results show the reverse for the Lib Dems of what happened in the English local elections held on the same day: while in the locals, the …

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 35 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 8 June 2009

By Helen Duffett | Mon 8th June 2009 - 8:15 am

2 Big Stories

This morning’s two big stories are being combined by most of the newspapers: the European election results and what they mean for Gordon Brown’s leadership of the Labour party.
From the Guardian:
European elections: Brown faces leadership battle amid Labour meltdown and BNP success

Gordon Brown today faces a make-or-break challenge to his leadership after Labour looked set to slump to just 16% of the national vote in the European elections and the far-right British National party won two new seats.

In a devastating result for the prime minister, Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, was elected to the

…

Continue reading »

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged costigan quist, gordon brown and paul walter | 3 Comments

European elections: rolling results news

By The Voice | Sun 7th June 2009 - 7:42 pm

National vote share projections (BBC): Con 27% (n/c), UKIP 17% (+1), Lab 16% (-7), Lib Dem 14% (-1). Although not all regions yet in, looks extremely likely that the party will get the same number of MEPs elected as it had going in to the election.

South East: Sharon Bowles re-elected and joined by Catherine Bearder. (Emma Nicholson retired at this election.)

East Midlands: Bill Newton-Dunn also set to be re-elected.

London: Sarah Ludford re-elected.

Wales: Conservatives do indeed top the poll. Lib Dems miss out on our first ever Welsh MEP by just 2%.

Scotland: awaiting figures from Western Isles, but Lib Dems set …

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International, Events and News | 84 Comments

Euro election results ’09: Sunday night open thread

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th June 2009 - 6:20 pm

A mere 72 hours after polls closed on 4th June, the parties and candidates contesting the 72 UK seats available for the European Parliament will know their fate later this evening. Let’s remind ourselves what happened five years ago, in 2004, when these seats were last up for grabs:

Conservatives: 27% (27 MEPs)
Labour: 23% (19)
Ukip: 16% (12)
Lib Dems: 15% (12)
Greens: 6% (2)
BNP: 5% (0)
SNP: 1% (2)
Plaid: 1% (1)
N. Ireland: 3 MEPs (1 each for DUP, Sinn Fein, Ulster Unionists)

What will happen this time? Will the Tories do better under David Cameron than they did under Michael Howard? Will Labour retain second …

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International and News | 3 Comments

LDV election prediction competition: what you’ve said so far

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th June 2009 - 4:37 pm

On Tuesday we published our Lib Dem Voice competition to predict the results of the local and European elections taking place today, 4th June, and win a copy of LDV’s own annual, The Tangerine Book, and a limited edition LDV mug. The thread is here, and, to date, we’ve received 14 entries from LDV readers (who may or may not be Lib Dem members).

Here’s the average of what you’ve so far predicted:

1. Predict the Liberal Democrat share of the vote in the European elections. YOU SAID: 16.5%
2. Predict the turnout in the European elections. YOU SAID:

…

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged LDV competition and local elections | Leave a comment

Video: Nick Clegg on the European Elections

By Helen Duffett | Thu 4th June 2009 - 12:56 pm

Nick Clegg gets a lot of questions via Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Friend Connect, as well as through his website, NickClegg.com.

He’s just made a new YouTube video with answers to some of the questions he’s received through his social networks:

What does Nick think of compulsory voting? The Lisbon Treaty? Watch and find out:

Continue reading »

Posted in Europe / International, Online politics and YouTube | Also tagged nick clegg and YouTube | Leave a comment

A final look back at the Euro polls

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th June 2009 - 12:40 pm

Today is (in case you hadn’t realised) polling day – for much of England that means local elections, for everyone it means European elections – which means it’s our last chance to look at the polls for the Euros, and try and make some sense of them. There have been 11 polls in the last month asking voters to say which party they’ll choose on 4th June:

Here they are in chronological order:

>> Con 37%, Lab 22%, Lib Dem 19%, Ukip 7%, Green 4%, BNP 4%, Nats 5% (YouGov certain to vote, 10th May)
>> Con 34%, Lab 25%, Lib Dem 20%,

…

Continue reading »

Posted in Polls | Also tagged yougov | 1 Comment

Reasons to vote Liberal Democrat

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th June 2009 - 10:54 am

The Voice has covered the succession of positive reasons to vote for the Liberal Democrats given in recent days by The Observer, Polly Toynbee, The Guardian and The Independent, so it seems only fitting to top that list today with a reminder of the party’s own choice of words (from europe.libdems.org.uk):

The European Parliament election is a big choice for Britain.

Labour’s arrogance has messed up Britain’s relationship with other European countries

The Conservatives and UKIP think that on its own Britain can face the economic storm, climate change, international crime, people-trafficking and terrorism

Liberal Democrats know effective cooperation creates prosperity – more

…

Continue reading »

Posted in News | 22 Comments

The Independent backs the Liberal Democrats

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th June 2009 - 8:35 am

Less surprising than the news from The Observer and The Guardian this week, but nonetheless a welcome leader today:

Only the Liberal Democrats have consistently put the case for Europe, doing so even when seeking to hold seats in parts of the country, such as the south-west of England, that are more euro-sceptic than others. Like his recent predecessors, Nick Clegg is unequivocal in his support for the EU. A strong vote for his party would show that parts of the electorate recognise the importance of Britain playing a positive role at the heart of Europe. On that basis alone the

…

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged the independent | 10 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 4 June 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 4th June 2009 - 4:00 am

Today is polling day, which means scores of Lib Dems across the country will be having an exhausting day from Good Morning leaflets before dawn right through to election count verifications beyond midnight.

Good morning!

We’ll be reminding people of the all important facts about the electoral process:

You do not need your polling card to vote (but it might speed things up a bit if you have it)
Polls are open from 7am to 10pm
If you had a postal vote, but haven’t returned it yet, don’t put it in the post, but take

…

Continue reading »

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged gordon brown and local elections | 3 Comments

Who’s winning the expectations battle?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 3rd June 2009 - 9:37 am

If there’s one thing which worries most party bosses before an election, it is how they manage media expectations of the results. For it is how the media reports this Thursday’s election results which will by and large determine whether the voting public believes the parties have achieved or failed.

Yesterday, PoliticsHome published its Phi100 Panel results of what a select group of politicians, journalists, think-tanks and bloggers think will happen on 4th June. You can see their findings here. I highlight it because it set some alarm bells ringing in my mind that the Lib Dems are being …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged local elections and media | 6 Comments

LDV election prediction competition: what will happen on 4th June?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 2nd June 2009 - 1:45 pm

Just two days left ‘til polling day in what for many will be a double-election, with local elections taking place in much of England, and European elections being held across the UK. So what better time than now to launch our election prediction competition?

First let’s remind ourselves of the current state of play.

Local elections: Anders Hanson here on LDV has given a very useful synopsis of what to look out for, and which councils/mayors are up for re-election this Thursday. The last time local elections were held in most of these areas was on the same days the …

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged LDV competition and local elections | 23 Comments

Guardian endorses Lib Dems in Euro elections (more or less)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 2nd June 2009 - 9:54 am

Following the endorsement of its sister paper the Observer and its leading columnist Polly Toynbee, the Guardian editorial today all-but formally recommends its readers vote for the Lib Dems in this Thursday’s Euro polls:

The case for supporting the Liberal Democrats is now very strong. Anyone who believes Britain should be an engaged member of the European Union – who does not believe scare stories about the Lisbon treaty and who wants to back a party that campaigns on this – should vote Lib Dem. So should anyone who cares about constitutional renewal. Nick Clegg’s party has ancestral

…

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged newspapers, polly toynbee, the guardian and the observer | 11 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 2 June 2009

By Helen Duffett | Tue 2nd June 2009 - 8:00 am

2 Big Stories

Expenses ‘mistake’ hangs over Darling
The Financial Times reports that not even the Chancellor himself is blameless in the MPs’ expenses controversy:

Alistair Darling’s future as chancellor was looking precarious on Monday after he admitted making “a mistake” over his expenses and Gordon Brown refused to say whether he would be in his job in 10 days’ time.

Mr Darling yesterday paid back £668 he wrongly claimed and apologised “unreservedly” but speculation was growing at Westminster that he could become the first chancellor in postwar Britain to be demoted in the middle of a recession.

Three things must ye know about …

Continue reading »

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alistair darling, ashley mote, bridget fox, gordon brown, mps expenses, richard allan, twitter and vince cable | 3 Comments

Polly Toynbee: vote Liberal Democrat

By Mark Pack | Mon 1st June 2009 - 9:24 pm

Things are indeed achanging in the Guardian Media Group. Sunday say The Observer unequivocally urge its readers to vote Liberal Democrat for the first time. And now Polly Toynbee is urging a vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections and in many local elections too:

Throw out bad councils, and vote for Lib Dems in Europe…
The most consistently wise party on Europe, never flirted with Tory press populism, but that principled stand came at a high price. On the economy or crime co-operation, “stronger together, poorer apart” is a good Lib Dem pro-EU slogan. They best deserve

…

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged local elections and polly toynbee | 16 Comments