Tag Archives: mark pack

LibLink: what to look out for at Lib Dem Spring Conference

By NewsHound | Published 11th February 2012 - 12:00 pm

The Voice’s Mark Pack has a post over at Total Politics, discussing the issues likely to dominate the upcoming Lib Dem Spring Conference in Gateshead.

The first thing to note, says Mark, is that some of the most contentious political issues of recent weeks such as the reforms to the NHS and to the welfare system don’t appear on the conference agenda as it was drawn up some time ago:

There is a slot for emergency and topical issues to cover this eventuality, but with only time for one motion, not all of the controversies can be aired. Unless a

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LibLink: how to achieve digital nirvana – inbox zero – by Mark Pack

By NewsHound | Published 10th February 2012 - 4:08 pm

The Voice’s Mark Pack has published some useful tips on how to get to where every busy Parliamentarian, councillor, candidate and activist wants to be - Inbox Zero.

They include such gems as:

3. Stop using your inbox as a substitute for filing
Quite often there will be an email you have read, responded to but do not want to forget quiet yet. Perhaps you have made an order and don’t want to bury away the confirmation until the goods arrive. That is fine — but do not use your inbox for that. Create a “pending” folder to hold these interim messages.

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Posted in LibLink | 2 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Nick Clegg turns media weakness into media strength

By Nick Thornsby | Published 26th January 2012 - 4:23 pm

Over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack has a post looking at the extremely successful media coverage of Nick Clegg’s speech on tax policy, with the party using the fact that much of the media is still surprised by the idiosyncracies of coalition to our advantage.

Here’s a sample:

In a country used to coalitions, having the leader of one of the parties in government talk about their tax priorities a few months ahead of a budget would not be remarkable. With the British media habits, it had made today’s speech from Nick Clegg to banner news – lead story

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Indy splashes on Lib Dem Voice members’ survey findings

By Stephen Tall | Published 6th January 2012 - 2:25 pm

Our latest Lib Dem Voice members’ survey (the final results from which will be published this weekend) has generated ample coverage in today’s Independent — including this rather splendid graphic showing who you chose as the top/bottom 5 performing Lib Dems:

Here’s some of what the paper wrote about the findings (and, don’t forget, you can catch up on all the survey results here on LibDemVoice):

[A] survey of 564 members by the Liberal Democrat Voice website shows that Mr Clegg’s standing in his own party has recovered a

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 3 Comments

Clegg’s priorities for 2012: showing how Lib Dems are making tax fairer, tackling excessive pay, and re-engaging with Europe

By Prateek Buch | Published 6th January 2012 - 9:30 am

The Voice’s Mark Pack has been writing about the Party’s challenges in 2012 – as if on cue, leader Nick Clegg set out his priorities for Lib Dems in Government in a Radio 4 Today interview which you can hear in full here.

As reported in The Guardian, these priorities include tackling tax avoidance by both corporations and wealthy individuals, clamping down on excessive and undeserved top pay, and re-engaging with governments and business in Europe following the Prime Minister’s unhelpful showing in Brussels at the end of last year.

Pressed on

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Clegg’s Today Programme interview: a round-up, a clip, and some comments

By Stephen Tall | Published 6th January 2012 - 8:10 am

Nick Clegg submitted himself to the new year delights of the primetime 8.10am Today Programme interview on Thursday. Here’s a round-up of what he said and the reactions to it…

Nick Clegg has kicked off his new year promising more action to curb executive bonuses, amid continued questions over his leadership. … The deputy prime minister insisted he was responsible for many of the tougher sanctions against high-earners and tax avoiders, saying he had inserted sections on tax avoidance into the coalition agreement.

“Look at this debate about irresponsible capitalism, what I call crony capitalism,” he told BBC Radio 4. “It’s Liberal

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen of 2011

By Stephen Tall | Published 2nd January 2012 - 7:08 pm

My Voice colleague Helen Duffett has already published the final round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere of 2011 here. Our Golden Dozen deliberately eschews posts published on this site: its aim is to share the link-love around.

But for those who are interested — not least the Voice Collective — here are the most-read posts published on LibDemVoice during 2011:

1. Opinion: However unfair it is, Chris Huhne should step down
Simon McGrath | Published 22nd May 2011

2. Chris Huhne’s election expenses: once again, nothing to see here, move along
By Mark Pack | Published 25th May 2011

3. Barnsley …

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Also tagged , , | 2 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Why David Cameron won’t be calling a snap general election

By NewsHound | Published 2nd January 2012 - 5:11 pm

Over on the LSE’s British Politics blog, The Voice‘s Mark Pack has been explaining why commentators speculating about a snap general election have got it wrong:

Fixing the date of the next general election (and future ones) outside the control of the Prime Minister was a central part of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition agreement because it was a way of guaranteeing the five-year deal. Otherwise the risk for the smaller party is that at any point the larger one can suddenly pull the rug out from under an agreement and call an election. No doubt it helped sweeten the pill for

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 3 Comments

LibLink: From David Laws to Andrew George – The Lib Dem rebellion league table

By The Voice | Published 19th December 2011 - 11:55 am

Over on Left Foot Forward, Mark Pack has blogged an infographic analysing the patterns of rebellion amongst Liberal Democrat MPs:

Liberal Democrat peers used to be in a remarkably privileged position in the party. Not only because they have held office without the pesky need for elections but also because for many years the third party in the House of Lords has been the key swing vote when the government has been wanting to get legislation through…

[However,] helped by the primacy of the Commons, revolts by Liberal Democrat MPs which could cost the government its majority are now no longer the neglected,

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Posted in LibLink, Parliament | Also tagged , | 9 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The three stories that really matters – even to Britain

By Nick Thornsby | Published 15th December 2011 - 9:56 am

Over on his work blog, the Voice’s Mark Pack has a post looking at three important stories which have been largely overshadowed by the domestic political ramifications of the prime minister’s veto.

Here’s the first issue Mark identifies:

The actual significance of the summit was the latest, most extensive and more desperate attempt to save the Euro. Judging from initial reactions by economists and the financial markets, this time a Euro summit may just have pulled it off. It has not already been written off as a failure which, compared to other summits on the same theme, already makes it more successful

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , | 2 Comments

David Cameron’s a hostage to his party and the right-wing press. Thank goodness for Nick Clegg

By Stephen Tall | Published 12th December 2011 - 7:35 am

The shockwaves from David Cameron’s decision to reject the proposed ‘Merkozy’ EU treaty is still shaking politics. The UK stands isolated from the other 26 member states. Tory Eurosceptics and, early polls suggest, a majority of the British public think the Prime Minister has played a blinder, ‘sticking up for Britain’.

This is difficult territory for the Lib Dems. Our October survey of party members suggested a more Eurosceptical attitude than traditionally associated with the party, with 51% rejecting a move towards ever closer union.

However, there is nothing more guaranteed to put up liberals’ backs than the full-throated, …

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Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , | 42 Comments

Pack & Tall Debate… What’s the Lib Dem economic narrative now?

By The Voice | Published 2nd December 2011 - 8:15 am

In the week of the Chancellor’s autumn statement, LibDemVoice co-editors Mark Pack and Stephen Tall debate what it all means for the Lib Dems…

Stephen Tall: So we now all know the painful financial reality. With growth forecasts revised down by the Chancellor in his autumn statement, austerity is here to stay.

Both Lib Dems and Tories had hoped and expected that three years of painful cutbacks would be followed by a year or two of pre-election giveaways — the Lib Dems would press for a balanced mix of increased public spending …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , | 30 Comments

Lib Dem Bloggers’ Christmas stocking fillers… Part IV

By Stephen Tall | Published 30th November 2011 - 5:55 pm

What presents are you looking forward to giving or receiving this year? That’s the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with link-throughs to Amazon for your shopping convenience (and ‘cos the referral fees help support LibDemVoice: so get clicking and ordering). Part I is available here; Part II here; and Part III here. In part three, our fourth trio of bloggers – Jonathan Calder, Caron Lindsay, and Mark Pack – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves…

Jonathan Calder

It is impossible to dislike

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LibLink: Mark Pack – The Graph May Be Boring; The Political Message Isn’t

By Nick Thornsby | Published 26th November 2011 - 1:58 pm

Over at the Huffington Post, the Voice’s Mark Pack has a post examining some interesting – and surprising – polling data, complete with a graph (don’t say Mark doesn’t spoil you).

Here’s Mark explaining what the graph shows:

It comes from polling carried out by MORI, asking the same question over the years: “How interested would you say you are in politics?” The graph shows how many people gave one of the two positive answers (“very” or “fairly”) – and so also shows how the public’s interest in politics has been pretty consistent, at a high level. (You can get the

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , | 5 Comments

Opinion: Will fixing the planning system improve the housing supply?

By Alex Marsh | Published 18th November 2011 - 10:25 am

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Britain has a housing problem. There are problems of shortage and, consequently, access and affordability.

There are three principal mechanisms for dealing with significant housing shortage and indirectly reducing the affordability problems that go with it: (1) You can reduce the number of households needing to be housed; (2) You can increase the number of properties available; and (3) You can improve the utilization of the existing stock of properties.

You can try to do something on all three fronts. A couple of weeks ago LibDemVoice co-editor Mark Pack identified six …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments