Author Archives: Mark Valladares

I’m a veteran Party bureaucrat, having joined the old Liberal Party at university. And, perhaps not entirely surprisingly, I’ve held a range of positions since then - everything from Secretary-General of the Young Liberals to being a member of the ALDE Party‘s Financial Advisory Committee. Returning Officer, Presidential consort, committee secretary, you name it, I’ve probably done it. These days, I’m the Chair of the Parish Council for a (very) small rural village in Suffolk’s Gipping Valley, and a member of the East of England Regional Candidates Committee.
Mark Valladares

Diana Wallis MEP announces her candidacy for President of the European Parliament

By Mark Valladares | Sun 15th January 2012 - 5:51 pm

Our apologies for being a little behind with this, but news has reached us of Diana Wallis’s attempt to become the President of the European Parliament, a job that, traditionally, has been stitched up by the two dominant Groups within the Parliament, the Socialists and Democrats, and the European People’s Party. Indeed, the Presidency has been held during the first half of the 2009-2014 term by Jerzy Buzek from the European People’s Party as part of a deal whereby he would stand down part way through to be replaced by a Socialist MEP.

The catch is that a by-election must take …

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Mark Valladares

LibLink: Lord Trevor Smith – looking to the future of the Liberal Democrats

By Mark Valladares | Thu 12th January 2012 - 4:57 pm

Over on the Social Liberal Forum’s website, Lord Smith of Clifton has given a backbench peer’s perspective on political events and where the Party should be going, opening with a warning;

The Lib Dems are in a very serious state, possibly facing meltdown of the kind experienced by the Canadian Conservatives some time ago (though they managed a spectacular comeback), or the Canadian Liberals in last year’s elections. The burning question is how, at the very minimum, to limit the electoral damage and hopefully to revive the party’s fortunes.

For more of his thoughts, the full article can be found here.

Posted in LibLink and Parliament | Tagged | 17 Comments
Mark Valladares

Introducing ‘A postcard from…’

By Mark Valladares | Tue 10th January 2012 - 4:22 pm

Think of this as an experiment.

I’ve always been intrigued by questions such as, “What does the rest of the world think about what we’re up to?”. In a surprisingly parochial political culture, where the debate, if there is any, is about what the big countries are up to, what is the view from other places? And, as those nice young people at Liberal Democrat Voice have left me partly in charge on a day release basis, I thought that I should at least make an effort to find out…

So, …

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

Joint Statement: European Liberal Democrat Leaders Meeting

By Mark Valladares | Tue 10th January 2012 - 8:23 am

Leading Government Ministers, Party Leaders and European Commissioners from Liberal Democratic parties across Europe, meeting in London at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg, and under the aegis of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), yesterday made the following declaration.

Jobs, Growth & Reform

Europe is at a dangerous crossroads. Without decisive and concrete action, we risk recession, rising unemployment and falling living standards. There is a real risk of Europe turning inwards, with a return to the protectionist policies of the past. Our ability to prevent this now depends on our …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Mark Valladares

European liberal leaders gather in London

By Mark Valladares | Sun 8th January 2012 - 11:23 am

Tomorrow sees politicians from across Europe gather for a meeting of Liberal leaders, hosted by Nick Clegg under the auspices of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR). Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn and German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler are among the senior liberal figures joining him at the mini-summit in London.

Having promised to ‘re-engage with Europe’, Nick sees this meeting as part of that process, using the umbrella organisation of European liberalism to gather potential allies and influence the European Commission more positively than David Cameron did at last month’s …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords… 10-20 January

By Mark Valladares | Wed 4th January 2012 - 12:47 pm

Welcome to Liberal Democrat Voice’s coverage of the House of Lords, where we’ll be flagging up some of the forthcoming events at the more reflective end of the Palace of Westminster. So, without further ado…

The House of Lords returns to work next Tuesday after its Christmas recess, with a heavy legislative schedule to be dealt with before the end of the Session, and the first fortnight offers a hint of what is to come.

Days 2, 3 and 4 of the Committee Stage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing …

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Mark Valladares

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 …

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Posted in News and Selection news | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

Graham Watson’s New Year message

By Mark Valladares | Tue 27th December 2011 - 10:50 am

Of course, we now have two British Liberal leaders, one here, and one in Europe. And, for your delectation and delight, Liberal Democrat Voice presents, courtesy of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR), the New Year message of Graham Watson, recently elected as its President…

http://vimeo.com/33963292

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Mark Valladares

Is there a Liberal Democrat stance on HM Revenue & Customs?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 20th December 2011 - 6:22 pm

The news that the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons has condemned the way in which HM Revenue & Customs staff have handled their dealings with the United Kingdom’s largest corporate taxpayers is merely the latest of a series of PR disasters for a Government department that now raises nearly £500 billion for the public purse annually.

Accusations that Vodafone was allowed to avoid more than £1 billion in tax, and that Goldman Sachs was erroneously allowed to pay an enquiry settlement without interest amounting to £10 million, are alleged to be just the tip of the iceberg, with …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Mark Valladares

Norfolk’s Green Group Leader defects… to the Tories

By Mark Valladares | Tue 20th December 2011 - 11:53 am

Courtesy of Andrew Sinclair, BBC East’s political correspondent…

Philip Hardy, the Group Leader for the Greens on Norfolk County Council, and councillor for Thorpe Hamlet has defected to the Conservatives, the first Green councillor thought to have done so. Elected to the council in 2009, he gained the seat from the Liberal Democrats, before becoming Group Leader in July last year.

From the Eastern Daily Press;

Derrick Murphy, leader of Norfolk County Council hailed Mr Hardy’s move as a “major coup”. He said: “Philip is a fantastic councillor who has already managed to make Norfolk a better place through his work on

…

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Mark Valladares

New ELDR President Sir Graham Watson: ready for the challenge

By Mark Valladares | Tue 6th December 2011 - 11:54 am

At last week’s Congress of the European Liberal Democrats, the umbrella grouping of liberal parties across the continent, Graham Watson, our list MEP in South West England (and Gibraltar), was elected to the position of President. Here are his thoughts on the task ahead…

Last week I had the honour of being elected the new President of ELDR, the European political party federation to which the Liberal Democrats belong, at its annual congress in sunny Palermo, Italy.

I was unopposed as a candidate, so the result was not quite the surprise as it might otherwise have been. I’m not sure whether the …

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Valladares

ELDR Congress: that’s another fine Mezzogiorno, they’ve gotten us into…

By Mark Valladares | Sun 4th December 2011 - 1:48 pm

Liberals from across Europe and, according to one vocal member of our delegation, beyond, gathered last week in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, under rather tighter security than usual, to discuss the gathering Euro crisis and the future of the European Union budget. As Liberal Democrats, we’ve grown used to meeting with rather depressing levels of security but, for a change, this wasn’t intended for us. Our hosts, Italia dei Valori, included the former Mayor of Palermo and current ELDR Vice-President, Leoluca Orlando, whose anti-mafia campaigning probably still makes him a potential target.

The theme for the Congress was the 2014-2020 EU …

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Mark Valladares

ELDR Congress – let’s hope it isn’t a lemon…

By Mark Valladares | Wed 23rd November 2011 - 3:25 pm

It’s a long way from Creeting St Peter to Palermo, which partly explains why this piece comes to you from Linate Airport in Milan. But if my eight hour journey feels arduous, it is as nothing compared to the journey back to stability that is the mission of the Eurozone’s finance ministers.

In the midst of this crisis, ELDR (the European Liberal Democrats) delegates from across Europe (and I’m beginning to appreciate just how far that might be) are gathering in Sicily’s capital to discuss the European Union’s budget for 2014-2020. I’m here because you sent me (or at …

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Mark Valladares

Graham Watson runs for the Presidency of the European Liberal Democrats

By Mark Valladares | Thu 17th November 2011 - 9:15 am

Next week sees the annual Congress of ELDR, the European Liberal Democrats, which takes place in the Sicilian city of Palermo from 23-25 November.

Apart from the debates on the current economic crisis and the 2014-20 EU budget, there will be elections for the President and four Vice-Presidents. At the time of writing, there is only one declared candidate to succeed Annemie Neyts, whose three terms as President have seen ELDR grow and flourish — Sir Graham Watson, MEP for South West England and Gibraltar. You can read his manifesto here.

Graham has been a Member of the European Parliament …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

Opinion: Ever wanted to be a European Liberal Democrat, if only for forty-eight hours…?

By Mark Valladares | Thu 13th October 2011 - 12:15 pm

In my capacity as one of Liberal Democrat Voice’s foreign correspondents, I’ve been covering ELDR events for a few years now. So, why might you be interested, and how do you get to go to an ELDR Congress?

The annual Congress of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) is an opportunity for liberals from across Europe, including beyond the European Union, to discuss the issues of the day, and to get a sense of how liberals in the European Parliament are responding to them. Delegates get to debate with parliamentarians, take part in sessions with Commissioners and leading academics and, perhaps of …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

Opinion: David Laws takes another step on the road to redemption

By Mark Valladares | Tue 19th July 2011 - 12:53 pm

Last night, despite the rather unpleasant efforts of a handful of Labour backbenchers to throw stones from an already rather damaged greenhouse, the House of Commons overwhelmingly passed a motion proposing six members to form the Joint Committee to scrutinise the draft Financial Services Bill.

Usually, such motions are passed without a murmur, especially as the nominees are proposed by the various political parties. However, on this occasion, the presence of David Laws, the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, drew the ire of, amongst others, Thomas Docherty, the Labour MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, and John Mann, …

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Mark Valladares

Does a political party really need a manifesto or… what is policy for?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 18th July 2011 - 10:21 am

On Saturday, I found myself in an all day meeting of the strategic body of a campaigning organisation, and I found myself thinking something that hadn’t previously shown a fin in the ocean that is my political consciousness – is having policy spelled out to the nth degree really a good way to run a society? Indeed, how many people care about the details?

I am a member of a political party, and therefore have more of an interest in ideas of governance than most. But, like most members of political parties, I have an awareness of our policies, rather than …

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Mark Valladares

House of Lords Reform: the Joint Select Committee calls for evidence

By Mark Valladares | Fri 15th July 2011 - 1:41 pm

Whilst the News of the World scandal has drawn virtually all of the attention, the clock has started ticking on the work of the Joint Select Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill. Comprising twenty six members appointed from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, it is charged with considering the draft Bill and reporting by 29 February 2012.

At its first meeting, which took place on Monday, such decisions as how often it would meet were discussed, but the key decision was to proceed with a Call for Evidence. This represents your …

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Mark Valladares

Opinion: Liberal Bureaucracy – Killing Your Party With Its Song?…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 12th July 2011 - 3:13 pm

This is quite a hard post to write. After all, I’ve been a party bureaucrat for more than a quarter of a century, from my embryonic days as Secretary General of the Young Liberals, via incarnations as a Returning Officer, a member of the English Candidates Committee and stints as Regional Secretary in both London and now the East of England.

Once upon a time, I took the view that, if I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, campaign, what I could do was do the boring, yet necessary stuff that enabled the Party to fulfil its organisational obligations, thus freeing up people …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | 15 Comments
Mark Valladares

Local parties should start early when it comes to AGMs

By Mark Valladares | Sat 25th June 2011 - 1:15 pm

Yes, I know that it’s only June, but have you given any thought to your Local Party’s AGM?

The Party’s Constitution specifies that it should take place between 1 October and 30 November, so it isn’t as far away as you might think. And there are things that can be done now that will help to make it more successful than might otherwise be the case.

Firstly, have you decided upon a date yet? Apart from the limitations on timing noted above, you don’t want to clash with your Regional Conference, so you might want to rule that out. Is a weekend …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Valladares

You! Yes, you! Ever thought about being a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate?

By Mark Valladares | Sun 29th May 2011 - 1:57 pm

At March’s Federal Conference, a motion was passed setting up the new Candidate Leadership Programme, designed specifically to identify and develop candidates from currently under-represented groups (i.e. everyone other than white men).

Candidates will be given structured support, development and training all the way through to the General Election, and it is particularly aimed at those wanting to take part in competitive seat selections. Further information and application packs will be available from late June.

So, what’s the hurry, I hear you ask? The catch is, you’ve got to be an approved candidate to get a place, and if you aren’t …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | Tagged and | 26 Comments
Mark Valladares

Mark Valladares writes: ELDR Council, Dresden 2011: it was the best of times, it was the wurst of times…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 27th May 2011 - 2:07 pm

Last week, I described ELDR Council as being rather like our Federal Executive. I was wrong, but I’ll come back to that…

Having dropped Ros off at a VIP lunch, I made my way to a room in a distant and poorly signposted corner of Dresden’s shiny new Congress Centre, cunningly designed to make it virtually impossible to tell which floor you are actually on, for a delegation pre-meeting. It was agreed that there was very little in the way of controversy to be expected.

By mid-afternoon, we were all ready to go, and we took our seats on the centre-left …

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Mark Valladares

There is a corner of a foreign field that is forever… ELDR Council

By Mark Valladares | Thu 19th May 2011 - 9:53 am

Welcome to Dresden, the capital of Saxony, famous for being the last place mentioned by a Liberal minister at the dispatch box before the Coalition. Admittedly, on that occasion, he was announcing its carpet-bombing, but I’m optimistic that this visit will be rather less traumatic for all concerned…

So, why are a dozen or so Liberal Democrats gathering here? The Council of ELDR (the European Liberal Democrats) – think of it as the European equivalent of the Federal Executive – is holding its first meeting of its current two year term, hosted by the FDP, and a delegation of people for …

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Mark Valladares

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 3)

By Mark Valladares | Thu 3rd March 2011 - 2:43 pm

In the first two parts of this mini-series, I looked at how policy is made, and how its creation is managed. Today, I want to look at its failings, the implications of those failings, and how future policy making might be shaped.

As a party of perpetual opposition, our inclusive but often ponderous policy-making regime allowed members to influence core policy, in the knowledge that it would be a means of attacking the Government, but was unlikely to be applied. Occasionally, that led to somewhat populist ideas being espoused but, if a Government did something in a field where our policy was obsolete, or overtaken by events, our spokespeople had a set of principles to fall back on.

Such an arrangement worked, for the most part, especially in small Parliamentary Parties. However, its weaknesses became more apparent as Labour’s mania for legislation produced a plethora of technical changes in need of detailed scrutiny.

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Mark Valladares

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Sat 5th February 2011 - 11:55 am

(This is the third column from Lib Dem Voice’s Party Bureaucracy Columnist Mark Valladares – for Part 1 see here.)

Ah yes, the Federal Policy Committee, or FPC for short, a body of twenty-nine members, consisting of Nick Clegg, as Leader, one other MP elected by and from the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, one MP each elected by and from members of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons representing constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales respectively; one Peer elected by and from the Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords; one MEP elected by and …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Mark Valladares

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 1) – at the beginning was the word

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th January 2011 - 1:47 pm

A fortnight ago, the question was put to me, “How do you influence the Parliamentary Party?” At the time, I indicated that this was a very complex question – normally shorthand for “You don’t think that I’m going to touch that with a bargepole, do you?”. But not this time… So, how do Liberal Democrats make policy?

The sovereign policy-making body of the Party is the Federal Conference, and policy motions can be submitted by State Parties (England, Scotland and Wales), the regional parties in England, local parties, Specified Associated Organisations (e.g. Liberal Youth), any ten conference representatives or the Federal …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 7 Comments
Mark Valladares

Everything you ever wanted to know about the internal workings of the Liberal Democrats but were afraid to ask…

By Mark Valladares | Thu 6th January 2011 - 12:25 pm

Welcome to my new column, a humble bureaucrat’s contribution to internal Party debate and participation. When Mark Pack invited me to become a columnist for this august website, I was a mite surprised but, after some thought, realised that this might be an opportunity to help people to take a greater role in their Party. So here we go!

The Party’s internal workings are varied and strange. Indeed, so strange are they that when Ros Scott asked for an organogram before taking office as President two years ago, she was moved to remark, “Shouldn’t the boxes be joined to each other?”. …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 17 Comments
Mark Valladares

Some final reflections on the Second Chamber

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd July 2010 - 11:27 pm

I hope that readers of Liberal Democrat Voice have enjoyed today’s series of pieces on the House of Lords – I know that I’ve had a lot of fun writing, editing and commissioning the various postings. However, I’d like to finish with a few serious points.

Firstly, I am of the view that we need to value our Peers more and, whilst that may seem like special pleading, I’m convinced that, by doing so, everyone gets to benefit. For instance, there are parts of the country, my own county of Suffolk for example, where we don’t have an MP, but do …

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Mark Valladares

The House of Lords does social media

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd July 2010 - 2:57 pm

Much is made of our MPs and their use of social media. Steve Webb and Facebook, Jo Swinson and Duncan Hames announcing their engagement via Twitter (we only had Facebook in my day…), the increasingly sophisticated websites, all of these serve to connect Parliamentarians to the communities they serve. However, on the red benches, the need to reach out is heightened by the relative lack of coverage for their activities in the mainstream media, and there is increasing use of social media to achieve that.

Perhaps the best known source of commentary comes from Lords of the Blog, a collaborative …

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Mark Valladares

Pay attention, there’s more than one Parliament, you know!

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd July 2010 - 7:40 am

One of things that has bothered me for longer than I care to remember is the Party’s fixation on the green benches at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, almost to the total exclusion of anything, and everything, else. As a bureaucrat deep within the Party’s structures, I long for the day when more and better people come forward to be Local, Regional and State Party officers, candidate assessors, returning officers and trainers. But we bureaucrats are not alone in being overlooked in favour of the Commons…

Down the corridor, there are seventy-nine Liberal Democrat Peers (with Richard …

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