Tag Archives: michael crick

Opinion: I’d rather be boring than bonkers

By Tom Papworth | Published 20th September 2011 - 9:35 am

Monday night’s Channel 4′s coverage of the Liberal Democrat conference ended with Michael Crick interviewing Ann Treneman and Michael White about the general feel amongst Lib Dems.

Among the usual sniping from a reactionary sketch-writer and the doyen of the urban intellectual elite came a lament that the Liberal Democrat conference did not feel like a Liberal Democrat conference. People were too on message, they moaned; there was not enough rebellion; nor enough eccentricity. Michael White in particular bemoaned the absence of beards and sandals. Lib Dem conference, they felt, had become boring.

Too right.

We are not in the 1970s, when …

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Posted in Conference, Op-eds | Also tagged , , | 23 Comments

Government scraps plan to fund primaries for Westminster candidate selections

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd December 2010 - 8:55 am

Michael Crick has the scoop about the ending of plans to fund open primaries:

A very senior Cabinet minister has told me that the Coalition has now scrapped its radical plans to pay for primary elections to choose party candidates in 200 safe seats.

The full Coalition Agreement last May said: “We will fund 200 all-postal primaries over this Parliament, targetted at seats which have not changed hands for many years.”

The money would have been allocated to parties which now have seats in Parliament, according to their shares of the vote in May 2010.

Primaries have been very controversial, so the need …

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged | 3 Comments

Lib Dem ministers follow advice for councillors and give 10% to the party

By Mark Pack | Published 8th December 2010 - 5:48 pm

Over the last few years there has been an increasingly common pattern in the party of asking or expecting councillors to contribute sums to their local party or council group to help pay for the campaigning that got them elected and for other support. The standard request is for the equivalent of 10% of what they receive in allowances (often with adjustments for less well off councillors).

As Michael Crick reports, Liberal Democrat ministers are taking a similar approach:

Nick Clegg and his 19 fellow Liberal Democrat ministers are giving around 10% of their ministerial salaries to the party.

“We are asked

…

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Posted in News | 29 Comments

So, how did Michael Crick do?

By Mark Pack | Published 20th November 2010 - 1:26 pm

Exhibit A:

“I hear from a well-placed source that the list of peers, with about 55 names from across the party spectrum, will be published on Wednesday 1 December.”

The list was published on Friday 19 November with 54 names from across the party spectrum, so not bad at all.

Exhibit B:

“A normally astute and well-informed Lib Dem observer reckons the following people are in line to be among the expected 15 new Liberal Democrat peers:

* Brian Paddick (2008 London Mayoral candidate and former senior Metropolitan Police officer)
* Sal Brinton (Parliamentary candidate in Watford in 2005 and 2010)
* Dee Doocey (member …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 10 Comments

BBC: Coalition faces Lib Dem revolt on free schools

By The Voice | Published 31st July 2010 - 11:15 am

Michael Crick reported for BBC2′s Newsnight on a potentially controversial debate at this September’s Lib Dem conference:

September’s Lib Dem conference in Liverpool will be a pretty tame affair, I predict, since most Liberal Democrats are still on cloud nine over the fact they are now in government for the first time in 65 years.

The biggest controversy, I reckon, could well be over a motion denouncing Michael Gove’s radical policies on free schools and academies. The resolution has been specifically picked by Lib Dem conference organisers for a substantial debate.

First, it calls for local councils to keep their role in

…

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , | 31 Comments

If a party’s leader visits a constituency it doesn’t hold three times…

By Mark Pack | Published 13th April 2010 - 8:26 pm

… in the space of a few months, it’s a pretty big clue that the party believes it has a strong chance of winning – and almost certainly has polling or canvass data analysis to back it up.

I’m thinking of Nick Clegg and Luton South.

And why am I thinking of Luton South? Because of today’s Times which, apart from a most excellent page 16, made rather a misjudgement in reporting on Luton South and not mentioning Liberal Democrat candidate Qurban Hussain even once.

PS Michael Crick has been wondering why “in four leaflets the Lib Dem Qurban …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , | 3 Comments

Tory candidates put on watch

By The Voice | Published 6th January 2009 - 7:25 pm

Via James Graham:

This is probably little more than pre-election nerves, but Michael Crick has been having fun with it:

The Conservative Party high command is so worried about some of David Cameron’s Parliamentary candidates that they’ve started holding meetings every two weeks to monitor what they call a “watch-list” of those “have the potential to embarrass the Party”.

The interesting thing about this is a) what does it say about CCHQ morale that the minutes got leaked in the first place and b) what do they mean by “potentially embarrassing”? Based purely on anecdote (and admittedly I am hardly unbiased), they do

…

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Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged | 3 Comments