Tag Archives: Mark Pack

LibLink: Tim Bale – “The biggest effect of the Lib Dems holding their nerve has been to help the Conservatives lose theirs”

By NewsHound | Sun 19th May 2013 - 3:25 pm

Tim Bale is professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London, an an historian of the Conservative party. And this week, to mark the third anniversary of the formation of the Coalition, he’s turned his attention to the Lib Dems.

The article begins by dissecting that ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ verb — compromise — to highlight the problems posed by the Coalition for both its parties: ‘Used actively, it’s a good thing – you want something; I want something different; we talk it over; we come to an arrangement; …

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged coalition, nick clegg, stephen tall and tim bale | 9 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Parliamentary predictions on the Queen’s Speech

By NewsHound | Sun 5th May 2013 - 11:35 am

Over at The House Magazine, Mark Pack (formerly of this parish) previews the upcoming Queen’s Speech — and applauds the fact that it may be rather thinner than we’ve grown used to:

Far too often ministers have confused volume of legislation sent through Parliament with being a good minister. It is an oh-so-tempting trap to fall into, as shown by some of the daft criticisms of the last Queen’s Speech – seeking to equate the Government’s seriousness about economic policies with the number of Bills on the subject.

Thankfully, however, at least the Liberal Democrat part of the Government is sticking to

…

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Posted in LibLink and Parliament | Also tagged queen's speech 2013 and the house magazine | Leave a comment

What the hell have the Lib Dems done?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 3:40 pm

That’s the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin name for the website, created by William Summers and run by Mark Pack, highlighting some of the key successes of the Lib Dems in government.

It’s been freshly updated this week, so what better day could there be than to take a look and share it with any friends and colleagues yet to decide how to cast their vote today?

PS: I understand from Mark that the updated version of his infographc — click here to enjoy its resplendence — …

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Posted in News | Also tagged what the hell have the LibDems done and william summers | 5 Comments

What will happen to the Lib Dems in Thursday’s local elections?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 29th April 2013 - 8:25 am

There are just three campaigning days left until this Thursday’s local elections taking place across much of England.*

It’ll be tough-going for the Lib Dems…

The last time these seats were fought, in 2009, was a high water-mark for the party: we polled a national equivalent vote-share of 25%. As I said in my morning-after-the-night-before round-up here, they “were, generally, pretty damn good for the Lib Dems”.

Since entering government, the party’s become used to taking a battering in local elections. As the national polls indicate, our vote share has roughly halved since the Coalition was formed. Because we poll higher in local than national elections, this means we’re likely to secure around 15-16% of the popular vote on Thursday. If that’s the case, our number of councillors will again decline.

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged colin rawlings, featured, local elections 2013, michael thrasher and politicalbetting.com | 26 Comments

An open letter to Jeremy Browne MP…Part 2: Problems at the Home Office

By Mark Pack | Mon 22nd April 2013 - 10:25 am

Dear Jeremy,

In part 1 I explained why the Interception of Communications Commissioner is a failed regulator and one the Home Office should be fixing, yet your civil servants have been reluctant to do so. That should give a pause for thought about the proposals Home Office civil servants keep on pushing to extend the ability of the government to snoop on what we do online.

So too should the way in which the Home Office regularly changes its views of what counts as being in the national interest or vital for the fight against crime, and indeed makes outlandish claims …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged draft communications data bill, freedom of information, information commissioner, Interception of Communications Commissioner and jeremy browne | 3 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen….the Mark Pack special

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd April 2013 - 7:00 pm

At the end of February, Dr Mark Pack, who was a part of this site from the very start, stepped down as co-editor. His first post was on 27 August 2006. We miss him but are glad he’s still writing for us.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the weekly Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

I hope you enjoy the varied, eclectic selection of posts which shows off the man’s many talents and interests.

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 2 Comments

Opinion: A rousing campaigning message from Lord Ashcroft (of all people)

By Tom Richards | Sat 9th March 2013 - 8:45 am

Lord Ashcroft has done another enormous piece of polling, this time into the Lib Dem vote. A few of the more encouraging findings:

…

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Also tagged eastleigh by-election and lord ashcroft | 7 Comments

A warm welcome to our new Co-Editor, Caron Lindsay

By Stephen Tall | Mon 4th March 2013 - 8:15 am

I guess that, in the end, it was quite fitting that Mark Pack’s final day with LibDemVoice should have been last Thursday, the day of the Eastleigh by-election: it’s always good to go out on a high. For those who missed the news first time round, Mark has — after over six years as my Co-Editor in name/spirit — stepped down from the team to spend more time with his other 73 roles within the party (plus two day jobs).

So the end of one era, but I hope also the dawn of a new one. I’m delighted to say that Caron Lindsay, already a member of the site’s editorial collective, has agreed to become this site’s new Co-editor alongside me. Few Lib Dems will need an introduction to Caron. She is the author of the superb Caron’s Musings blog, elected member of the party’s Federal Executive, treasurer of the Scottish Lib Dems, and a former case-worker for Willie Rennie. She is also one of the nicest, most grounded, full-of-common-sense Lib Dems I know. Thank you, Caron, for saying yes so willingly.

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Posted in Site news | Also tagged caron lindsay, featured and paul walter | 5 Comments

Mark Pack on BBC comments on Chris Rennard allegations

By The Voice | Tue 26th February 2013 - 7:05 am

Lib Dem Voice co-editor Mark Pack was interviewed by the BBC yesterday about the allegations concerning Chris Rennard. Here’s what he had to say:

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Posted in News | Also tagged chris rennard | Leave a comment

LibLink: Eastleigh by-election and mansion tax

By Mary Reid | Fri 22nd February 2013 - 12:09 pm

The Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast this week focused on the Eastleigh by-election and the mansion tax proposals. These topics were discussed by, amongst others, Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack.

You can listen to it here.

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged eastleigh and mansion tax | Leave a comment

Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the latest campaign news (13 Feb)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 13th February 2013 - 9:00 pm

Here’s a round-up of news from the past 24 hours in the Eastleigh by-election…

Mike Thornton’s campaign in full swing

The Lib Dems’ Mike Thornton — pictured here (by Jon Aylwin) with 1994 by-election victor David Chidgey — has been focusing on how the pupil premium, the party’s flagship education policy, has been helping Eastleigh schools:

Lib Dems boost Pupil Premium (Southern Daily Echo)
The policy introduced by the Liberal Democrats has invested £1.7m in Eastleigh schools, and is aimed at ensuring every child has a fair start in life.

Just one of the reasons why volunteer help has been pouring in to help Mike retain the seats for the Lib Dems:

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged david chidgey, david laws, eastleigh by-election, isabel hardman, john o'farrell, Maria Hutchings, michael crick, mike thornton, robin brand and steve webb | 12 Comments

Mark Pack to appear on Question Time as @BBCExtraGuest

By Stephen Tall | Wed 13th February 2013 - 4:15 pm

Congratulations and good luck to Mark Pack, my co-editor here for another fortnight, who’s in the virtual hot-seat as this week’s @BBCExtraGuest, tweeting opinions and answering questions before and during this week’s edition of BBC1′s Question Time (Thursday, 10.35 pm):

Full panel this week – Maria Miller, @marycreagh_mp, @susankramer, @georgegalloway, @frasernelson and @bbcextraguest @markpack. #bbcqt

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) February 13, 2013

You’ll be able to follow Mark’s tweets as @BBCExtraGuest here.

Congratulations, too, to Lib Dem blogger Richard Morris, whose open letter maybe reminded the BBC …

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Posted in News | Also tagged bbc question time and susan kramer | Leave a comment

5 reasons for Lib Dems to campaign in Eastleigh (just in case you needed any more)

By Stephen Tall | Fri 8th February 2013 - 8:15 am

Mark Pack has posted last night’s poll findings from Eastleigh, showing the Tories narrowly ahead with both Labour and Ukip out of serious contention. In case you needed some reasons to help the Lib Dem campaign in the next three weeks in whatever way you’re able here are 5 from me…

The Lib Dems can win…

Lord Ashcroft’s poll is pretty ideal for the party: it piles the pressure on the Tories as early front-runners, while confirming how tight the contest will be. The Lib Dems’ local strength is significant …

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris huhne, eastleigh, featured and lord ashcroft | 7 Comments

Equal marriage: who voted which way

By Stephen Tall | Wed 6th February 2013 - 9:15 am

For those wanting to know the voting breakdown of last night’s historic decision in the Commons to approve equal marriage, here it is courtesy of Andrew Sparrow’s essential Guardian live-blog…

Conservatives

FOR – 127 MPs (42%)
AGAINST – 136 MPs (45%)
ABSTENTIONS – 5 MPs (2%)
ABSENT – 35 MPs (12%)

Labour

FOR – 217 MPs (84%)
AGAINST – 22 MPs (9%)
ABSTENTION – 16 MPs (6%)

Lib Dems

FOR – 45 MPs (80%)
Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey), Tom Brake (Carshalton & Wallington), Annette Brooke (Dorset Mid & Poole North), Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane), Malcolm Bruce (Gordon), Paul Burstow (Sutton & Cheam), Lorely Burt (Solihull), Vincent …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged andrew sparrow, equal marriage, lynne featherstone and nick clegg | 49 Comments

Our congratulations to Mark Pack – and, alas, a farewell to him

By Stephen Tall | Sat 2nd February 2013 - 9:35 am

Congratulations to my Co-Editor at Lib Dem Voice, Mark Pack, on his appointment as associate director at Blue Rubicon, ‘a consultancy that leads strategic thinking in corporate, financial, brand and behaviour change communications’. He departs MHP Communications, where he’s been since leaving the Lib Dems in 2009, at the beginning of March. In addition, he has recently been appointed a Visiting Lecturer at City University in the Journalism Department.

Add these professional activities to his extensive political campaigning — did you know he’s written a book on …

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Posted in Site news | Also tagged blue rubicon | 5 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack’s five lessons from the US election

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th November 2012 - 7:48 pm

I’ve long suspected that the Voice’s Mark Pack doesn’t need to sleep and his clear thinking after a long electoral night kind of backs up my theory. As my neural pathways crumble from lack of sleep, he has already put together five lessons we should learn from both Obama’s win and Romney’s loss.

He talks about the important of the non white male vote. While Romney might have done well amongst white men, he lost many other important groups of voters, including women, who make up the majority.

Mark also made a good point about the many emails which came out of …

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Posted in LibLink and Online politics | Also tagged barack obama, mhpc blog, Mitt Romney and us election | 6 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Home Office has got it wrong about online snooping ‘safeguards’

By NewsHound | Thu 20th September 2012 - 9:25 am

The Voice’s Mark Pack has taken to the (web)pages of The Spectator to dispute the case put by Home Office Minister James Brokenshire about the Draft Communications Data Bill:

What do you do if a regulator has failed? Leave them unreformed and instead give them greater powers? That is the line Home Office Minister James Brokenshire is arguing.

The regulator in question is the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the powers relate to online monitoring. For the Draft Communications Data Bill would not only give the government far more scope to monitor what we do online, but Brokenshire also argues we should be

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged draft communications data bill, Interception of Communications Commissioner and james brokenshire | Leave a comment

How you can take part in LibDemVoice’s exclusive party member surveys

By Stephen Tall | Mon 27th August 2012 - 9:00 am

LibDemVoice’s surveys of party members signed-up to our discussion forum have been running for over three years now. (I posted yesterday the final set of figures from our most recent poll.)

Our surveys are a way of testing members’ views on a variety of hot topics. And as they’ve been running throughout the first two years of the Coalition they’re also an interesting record of changing views on how the Coalition is regarded within the party.

If you would like to take part in the LibDemVoice surveys, there are simply two steps you need to follow:
1) Be a current Lib …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged anthony wells | Leave a comment

LibLink: Anthony Wells ‘On that poll of Lib Dem members’

By Stephen Tall | Sat 25th August 2012 - 2:20 pm

As my LibDemVoice colleague Caron Lindsay noted here, our poll asking when Lib Dem members want Nick Clegg to stand down has attracted a fair bit of coverage this week (including in the Daily Mail: I’ve showered three times since reading it, I still feel unclean).

Over at his essential UK Polling Report blog, the best online guide to British polling, Anthony Wells has taken a closer look at this survey — and at the validity of LibDemVoice surveys in general — and here’s an excerpt of what he says:

Stephen Tall and Mark Pack don’t make huge claims

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll and LibLink | Also tagged anthony wells and stephen tall | 4 Comments

Review: 101 Ways To Win An Election by Mark Pack & Edward Maxfield

By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th August 2012 - 1:25 pm

101 Ways To Win An Election is a welcome and pleasant surprise.

Now that might seem a lukewarm introduction to a review of a book co-written by my co-editor Mark Pack, together with fellow Lib Dem Edward Maxfield. But it’s not intended to be either ironic or half-hearted because what makes this book such an excellent guide to political campaigning is that it succeeds in being a whole lot more than that.

In fact, its 308 pacy pages cheerfully zig-zag between marketing manual, self-help book, and campaigning A-Z — with dollops of political history, pop-psychology, and behavioural economics thrown in for good measure.

The authors have clearly put a lot of thought into creating a book which people will actually want to read — and to re-read — on a subject many but the most obsessed political aficionado might initially dismiss as dull and boring.

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Posted in Books | Also tagged edward maxfield | 2 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Voters get to choose how they think

By NewsHound | Wed 15th August 2012 - 11:50 am

Over on the Biteback Publishing website, The Voice‘s Mark Pack has been writing about how voters make their decisions:

One of the findings increasingly coming out from research into how we make decisions is that often we make a decision using our subconscious and only afterwards come up with a justification for it. Our subconscious decides, our conscious rationalises.

It is an intriguing – and in some ways, scary – finding, that is best illustrated by a clever experiment where people were shown photographs of two similar, but different, people and asked to pick which one was the most attractive. They were then given that photograph and asked to explain the reason for their decision.

Except that what the researchers did was try out a bit of sleight of hand, so sometimes the person was actually given the photograph of the other person.

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged campaigning | 5 Comments

Who Lib Dem members think are the most effective non-MPs at promoting the party

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th August 2012 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 500 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Oakeshott, Ashdown and Pack top your list

LDV asked: Which prominent Lib Dems who are NOT MPs (eg, peers, campaigners) are doing an effective job of promoting the party to the public? Please write-in.

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged brian paddick, Caroline Pidgeon, chris davies, chris rennard, evan harris, kirsty williams, lord mcnally, matthew oakeshott, paddy ashdown, ros scott, shirley williams, stephen tall, susan kramer, tony greaves and willie rennie | 6 Comments

The Lib Dem membership slump: how it compares and how we can respond

By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th August 2012 - 8:25 am

The Lib Dems published its statement of accounts this week, including the most recent membership figure for the calendar year 2011. If you don’t want to know the score, look away now…

As at 31 December, 2011, there were 48,934 Lib Dem members. That’s 25% down on the previous year, 2010, when there were c.65,000 members. True, that figure was inflated by the ‘Cleggmania’ of the 2010 election and the initial excitement of the Coalition, but it is still down 17% compared to the pre-election year, 2009.

Though this is by some way the sharpest recorded decline in the modern party’s membership, …

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Posted in News | Also tagged feargal mcguinness, featured, party membership and stephen tall | 34 Comments

Are politicians really getting younger?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 5th August 2012 - 2:15 pm

“The worship of youth has diminished – perhaps generally – in recent years.” So said Vince Cable a couple of weeks ago in a newspaper interview which inflamed speculation he’d be partial to a tilt at leading the Lib Dems. It also prompted various politicians-are-getting-younger pieces in the media.

LibDemVoice’s Mark Pack took the time and trouble to dig out the data. He showed that while the trend-line in the first half of the last century was for prime ministers to get older, in the 50 years since there has been a movement towards younger premiers (James Callaghan being …

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Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, ed miliband, featured, james callaghan, nick clegg and philip cowley | 2 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack on how party leaders should be speaking this autumn

By NewsHound | Tue 31st July 2012 - 4:50 pm

Over on the Biteback Publishing website, The Voice’s Mark Pack has been penning some words of advice for those planning party leader conference speeches:

Technological change has frequently altered the speaking styles of political orators. The exaggerated hand movements and booming voice projections of the pre-electrical era were essential for being seen and heard. As film footage spread, that approach increasingly came over as histrionic. The total distanced travelled by the hands and arms of politicians during their speeches therefore declined, thanks to the adoption of a more homely, direct style. Radio and TV both brought about their own changes, followed by the impact of the teleprompter in the 1980s…

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Posted in Conference and LibLink | 2 Comments

Who are your favourite commentators? Nominate them for Comment awards by 31 July

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 26th July 2012 - 11:28 am

The Comment Awards, run by Editorial Intelligence take place in October and aim to celebrate the “achievement of the UK’s finest print and online commentors”.

A wide ranging panel of judges, including our very own Jo Swinson MP, will judge 16 categories from Independent Blogger to commentators of the year on politics, business, foreign affairs, sport, media and culture. There are also Twitter categories, for politician and public figure.

Nominations are welcome from any individual or organisation, which obviously includes all of you. They close next Tuesday, 31st July. If you look at the list of winners from last year, …

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Posted in News | Also tagged caitlin moran, comment awards, helen lewis and Jo Swinson | 5 Comments

The Independent View: Making coalition government work – lessons for the future

By Ben Yong | Tue 24th July 2012 - 10:50 am

In 2011 the Constitution Unit spent one year examining how the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition works. We interviewed almost 150 people about the Coalition: individuals from both parties—both in and outside Parliament—as well as civil servants, journalists, and interest groups. We have just published the result of our study in a book: The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Works

We are particularly grateful to all those Lib Dems who were so generous in giving their time to be interviewed, and for Mark Pack’s very kind review of our book. And in the same spirit, we offer some thoughts on lessons for the future. Professor John Curtice argues that the conditions that led to a hung parliament in 2010 remain; and even if the boundary reforms goes through, the possibility of a hung parliament is still quite high. Even if, as some suggest, the Liberal Democrats will lose a large number of seats in 2015, they may still be in a position to determine the shape of a new government. So what lessons are there to be learned from the last two years of the Coalition, and how might the Lib Dems approach a hung parliament in 2015?

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged coalition, featured and john curtice | 10 Comments

The crisis of trust facing the news media

By Stephen Tall | Sun 22nd July 2012 - 8:45 am

The Hansard Society this week published part two of its annual Audit of Political Engagement, focusing on the media and politics. Three graphs in particular stood out for me…

63% of public say tabloids “look for any excuse” to tarnish politicians

… tabloid newspapers are consistently identified by two-thirds of the public as displaying negative traits in their coverage of politics and politicians. … Tabloids are three times more likely to be perceived to be negative in their approach to the coverage of politics than are the other

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, hansard society and media | 4 Comments

Do the Lib Dems have a core vote, and can we grow it?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 18th July 2012 - 10:45 am

Is it possible to build a bigger Lib Dem core vote? Mark Pack has previously written here on the need for the party to adopt a ‘core vote’ strategy to protect the party from the adverse headwinds of the next election. I don’t disagree with the aim, I’m just not sure of its realism. Here’s why.

What do we mean by a ‘core vote’?

First, let’s define what’s meant by a ‘core vote’: voters who identify with the party and stick with it through the bad times as well as the good. Traditionally this identification has tended to be class-based: working-class …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david owen and featured | 49 Comments

LibLink: The Lib Dem political plan for the next year

By NewsHound | Mon 16th July 2012 - 11:50 am

Writing over on the Huffington Post, Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack has been taking a look at the party’s plan for the next year:

The plan of senior Liberal Democrats is to focus heavily on delivering and communicating the four priorities from the front page of the party’s 2010 manifesto:

“fair taxes – that put money back in your pocket

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged chris nicholson and ed davey | 6 Comments