Author Archives: Mark Pack

Mark was the Liberal Democrat Head of Innovations until June 2009 and is now at Blue Rubicon. He also lectures at City University and is co-author of 101 Ways To Win An Election. He blogs at www.markpack.org.uk and is on Twitter as @markpack. He likes chocolate. Lots of it.
Mark Pack

The problem with the pasty tax? It’s not had enough media coverage

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th March 2012 - 7:25 am

No really. Despite the rush of politicians to recall when they last had a pasty or to be photographed eating one (me? south London, last weekend, Greggs, branch still open, no photo available), the problem is we’ve not had nearly enough media coverage of the pasty tax proposals.

“What?!?! Not enough coverage?!?!”, you might well wonder. But bear with me.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Christian group pledge support for gay couples marrying

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th March 2012 - 12:50 pm

Pink News reports:

The Progressive Christianity Network (PCN) is the latest British faith-based group to come out in favour of legal recognition of gay marriage.

Reverend John Churcher, a Methodist minister and chair of the PCN, said in response to comments from Roman Catholic bishops – who have urged Christians to campaign against the government’s proposal – that there are very few biblical texts that appear to condemn homosexuality, and that the interpretation of those that do is controversial…

There are now a range of Christian groups on both sides of the debate. Those groups who have expressed support for gay marriage

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

A lack of democracy at Unlock Democracy

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th March 2012 - 10:50 am

The pressure group Unlock Democracy is generally pretty good at understanding that having a healthy democracy is more than simply about the narrow confines of casting and counting votes. Healthy democracy involves meaningful debate and choice between a range of views.

That makes the latest mailing I have received from them all the most disappointing. Good news – supporters are being asked to submit nominations for its governing council. Bad news – the highly restrictive campaigning rules that make even the old Liberal Democrat internal election rules seem rather …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

The curious case of Ian Liddell-Grainger and the personal data

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th March 2012 - 8:50 am

The website for Ian Liddell-Grainger, Conservative MP for Bridgwater, is probably the only website for a British Parliamentary to be blessed with a prominent animated cat on its front page. It invites you to click on a link to read Mogg-the-Blog, where a rather darker set of content awaits than the amateurish layout and intensive wall of block capitals on the website’s front page.

In the blog, or rather to give it the full title Mogg-the-Blog, is a series of posts documenting the falling out between Ian Liddell-Grainger and a member of the public. An MP and a member of …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

Some thought-provoking reminders of our liberal history

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th March 2012 - 10:25 am

Alex Wilcock and I penned this list of six things* to remember for Liberal Democrat News, the party’s weekly newspaper:

Paddy Ashdown once admitted to under-estimating the importance of a party’s history: “A political party is about more than plans and priorities and policies… It also has a heart and a history and a soul”.

Yet there is no “history of the party” training session for the keen Conference representative nor history briefings for new members. So here are six snippets from the party’s history to entertain, elucidate and illustrate our heart and soul in ways that should still strike a note today.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

Home Office decides against national spending limits for Police and Crime Commissioner elections

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th March 2012 - 8:50 am

The controversy over the Government’s view that there should be no freepost election addresses for Police and Crime Commissioner elections has caught the headlines so far, but there is something far worse in the details of the draft legislation. Put simply: having considered having national expenditure limits for the elections, the Conservative ministers in the Home Office have decided to have none.

There will be expense limits for individual candidates and their campaigns. However it is proposed that political parties and outside …

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Equal civil marriage consultation: have you responded yet?

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th March 2012 - 12:35 pm

Over on the Home Office website there is a simple* online survey as part of the consultation into introducing equal civil marriage.

It’s an issue that is being effectively pushed by Lib Dem Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone, whose views on the topic you can read here.

If you haven’t yet given your views, why not head over to the Home Office website to do so? And if you have, why not share this post with others to encourage them to do so too?

The …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How can we talk more policy?

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th March 2012 - 4:24 pm

The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch if you have any questions you would like to suggest.

Today’s Campaign Corner question: A strange question perhaps, but we seem to spend all the time in my local party talking about campaigning and never about policy. Maybe that didn’t matter in opposition, but it certainly matters in government! How can we get a better balance?

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Electoral Commission points finger at media on people’s concerns over electoral fraud

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th March 2012 - 5:15 pm

Commenting on the newly published review into allegations of electoral malpractice in the 2011 elections, the Electoral Commission had this to say:

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

LibLink: Chris Rennard – how the Lords reminds him of Lesotho

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th March 2012 - 10:25 am

Writing for Public Service, Lord (Chris) Rennard has focused on just how unusual the House of Lords is:

In one of the many debates in the House of Lords about its future, I recently explained how, “like many noble lords, I take great pleasure in occasionally being able to show visitors around this place. Sometimes they are parliamentarians from other countries. Often they ask ‘How do you become a Lord?’ When you begin by explaining that perhaps your ancestors fought with the King in battle hundreds of years ago, or perhaps that they were what have been called ‘special friends’ of

…

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Mark Pack

How do you keep a secret? Or why Chris Leslie shouldn’t become an undercover detective

By Mark Pack | Fri 23rd March 2012 - 2:55 pm

Imagine you have something you want to keep secret. You’re going to do something, and you don’t want anyone to know.

Chances are, you’ll take a look around and make sure there aren’t any  TV cameras pointed at you and rolling away live coverage to several channels. Perhaps the memory of politicians running into problems with comments caught on microphones come to mind, and you’ll take a good look around to ensure there aren’t any in the same room as you that might be used by a national radio station or two.

Then you’ll remember to check you’re alone. Don’t want to …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

“Budget 2012: new tycoon tax in victory for Nick Clegg”

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd March 2012 - 9:11 am

“Budget 2012: new tycoon tax in victory for Nick Clegg” – so reports the Daily Telegraph:

In a significant victory for the Liberal Democrats, the Chancellor effectively introduced a 25 per cent minimum rate of tax in the Budget.

Under the changes, he will limit how much people offset their tax bills by investing in businesses or donating to charity.

Anyone seeking to claim more than £50,000 of tax relief in any one year will have a cap set at 25 per cent of their income from 2013.

Accountants said this means the wealthiest will have to pay at least 25 per cent of their income in tax. Although the highest rate of income tax is 50 per cent, reducing to 45 per cent next year, some wealthy people reduce their bills to almost nothing using different reliefs available from HM Revenue and Customs.

The introduction of this major change to the tax system is one of the main reasons why, as I wrote yesterday, if you are on more than £150,000, you will pay an extra £1,300 a year in tax on average as a result of this Budget.

As for what Labour would do on the 50p rate they seem to be flip and flopping with each new interview – sometimes saying they would reintroduce it if they had the chance tomorrow/next week, and sometimes not.

For more on the Budget see a couple of the media interviews I did yesterday – first on the News Channel and then on Radio 4:

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Mark Pack

Electoral Commission warns government over refusal to provide election freepost to Police Commissioner candidates

By Mark Pack | Tue 20th March 2012 - 12:55 pm

In the run-up to the first London Mayor election in 2000 there was a fierce stand-off between the House of Lords and the then Labour government over whether there would be a ‘freepost election address’ for the contest. This service, used for elections such as to the House of Commons and the European Parliament, provides for the free delivery of one leaflet from each candidate to each voter, providing a basic minimum level of communication to the public about the contest.

During the stand-off, the late Conrad Russell led an effective rebellion invoking rarely used Lords procedures. I remember talking to two senior peers, one Tory and one Lib Dem, as he walked down the corridor in the distance. “That’s the man the government is scared of,” one said to the other, and rightly so as the dispute threatened to derail the whole contest.

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

What are Britain’s millionaires actually like? Or why we should get them umbrellas

By Mark Pack | Tue 20th March 2012 - 11:25 am

With questions of taxing the richest in the news in the run-up to the Budget, some of the findings from Skandia’s latest survey of millionaires (carried out for the wealth  management industry) are of much wider interest.

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Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How can we run our committee meetings better?

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th March 2012 - 3:50 pm

The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch if you have any questions you would like to suggest.

Today’s Campaign Corner question: Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Why yes, I’ve just come out of a local party campaign team meeting. Many hours, no decisions. Please help!

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Labour picks an unusual poster location in Bradford

By Mark Pack | Sun 18th March 2012 - 9:11 pm

It’s not unusual for parties to put up posters in by-elections, far from it. But Labour don’t seem to have fully thought through their choice of one poster location in the Bradford West by-election.

One of the issues coming up in the campaign is Labour’s neglect of the town centre. So where has Labour put up one of its posters? On a run-down building just outside the town centre, neatly not only drawing more attention to the building but also associating Labour with it. Why, thank you Labour poster team.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservatives drop controversial Halifax candidate

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th March 2012 - 10:50 am

No real surprises that the Conservatives have decided to drop David Ginley as a local election candidate in Halifax, though it is rather a puzzle as to how he got through to being a candidate again.

As the Halifax Courier reports:

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Mark Pack

Paddy Ashdown: A Fortunate Life

By Mark Pack | Thu 15th March 2012 - 4:50 pm

It is a tribute to Paddy Ashdown’s varied and fascinating careers that even hardened politicos reading his autobiography, A Fortunate Life, do not express regret at how relatively briefly his British political career features in it.

Around two-thirds of the book document his times as a Royal Marine, in the Special Boat Service, then as a spy and finally, after time as an MP and leader of the Liberal Democrats, international peacemaker in the former Yugoslavia. Even if his time as leader of the Liberal Democrats had ended quickly in ignominious failure, Ashdown would have multiple impressive legacies to outweigh it. That in fact his time as leader saw remarkable success in rescuing the party from death’s door makes all but the most hardened reader end up feeling their life is just rather tame, straight-forward and under-performing compared to Ashdown’s.

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Mark Pack

A story, a story, my kingdom for a story

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th March 2012 - 3:50 pm

Neil Stockley has often, and rightly, written about the power of stories in conveying a political message. A dry recital of bullet points and decimal points may make for a good conference motion or a useful background briefing document. What it does not make for is a message that will move and convince people. It needs a story to bring it to life.

Last week I heard Norman Lamb talking to Twickenham and Richmond Liberal Democrats, at a fundraiser for Munira Wilson’s GLA campaign. His speech neatly illustrated the point. As he was getting into the flow, he veered …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Plan C: The Social Liberal Forum’s economic prognosis

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th March 2012 - 10:50 am

There has been a very welcome recent revival of policy thinking in the Liberal Democrats, despite the large cuts to the party’s official policy research staff. This has included a new think tank (Liberal Insight) and good work by Richard Kemp and the local government sector in encouraging imaginative plans for making use of the new legal powers going to local government.

Added to this is the Social Liberal Forum’s further foray into economic policy-making, following up on some of their successful events with their first policy pamphlet. Prateek Buch’s “Plan C – social liberal approaches to a fair, …

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Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How do we get more people phoning?

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th March 2012 - 2:25 pm

The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch if you have any questions you would like to suggest.

Today’s Campaign Corner question: You’ve talked before about how to get more leaflet deliverers and how to doorstep canvass, but what about the telephone? How do I get more people in my branch doing phone canvassing?

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Mark Pack

Health Bill debate at conference: live blog

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th March 2012 - 9:25 am

Welcome to our live blog. Updates added at the foot.

No, the packed hall isn’t here to see my questions to the reports of the Parliamentary Parties (shocking, I know). It’s people filling up the hall early ahead of the big debate of conference: the NHS.

First up, moving the motion is Judith Jolly: “No one thinks this bill is perfect … but it is a hugely better, safer bill because of Lib Dems”. Shirley Williams is presumably waiting in the wings to make the last speech of the debate. She goes on to detail many of the doors opened to privatisation …

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged and | 22 Comments
Mark Pack

The 50p tax rate is not for dropping – the leadership’s line

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 12:46 pm

Given some of the recent speculation over the 50p tax rate, the speech from Stephen Williams (Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Party Committee on the Treasury) opening the debate on tax policy was significant:

Now is not the right time to drop the 50p tax rate.

The full context left open if there might ever be a right time, but unlike speculation in The Times a few days back, there was no offer of trading off the 50p rate against the introduction of a mansion tax.

His comments also reflected the text of the motion passed, which included:

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Brian Paddick: It is vital that we maximise our vote for the London Assembly

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 11:43 am

The fantastic Sage conference hall was the venue for Brian Paddick’s speech to the Liberal Democrat spring conference.

Or rather, his co-speech. Because for the purposes of the London 2012 campaign, Brian Paddick is no more. Instead he has been merged into Brian-Paddick-Caroline-Pidgeon.

It is one of the lessons from previous London campaigns that the party needs to be far better at turning profile for a Mayor candidate into votes for the London Assembly list, the best prospect for the party to gain new seats.

This then was not Brian Paddick’s speaking slot. It was the Brian-Paddick-Caroline-Pidgeon speaking slot, preceded by the Brian-Paddick-Caroline-Pidgeon …

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Posted in Conference and London | Tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Two useful steps forward in party business at conference

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 10:05 am

Despite a resurgence in recent years, the tabling of questions to party committee reports at Liberal Democrat conference is still very much a minority sport. So much so that 100% of questions to the Federal Policy Committee came from a certain North London Doctor with an penchant for chocolate…

The questions do however provide a good opportunity to ferret out information or push for a decision where you know the door is half-open. In my case this morning at Gateshead that resulted in questions to both the Federal Conference Committee and the Federal Policy Committee asking them to start publishing reports …

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Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Major investment in Post Offices announced

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 9:25 am

The BBC reports:

More than 6,000 branches of the Post Office are to be revamped by the government in the next three years.

An investment programme costing £1.34bn will modernise the sub-branches…

The government repeated its pledge that there would be no further closures of post office branches…

The postal affairs minister, Norman Lamb, said: “This government has made a commitment that there will be no closure programme and invested £1.34bn to secure the long term future of the Post Office.

“However, change is needed to secure the long term future of post offices; the pilots are showing the new ‘locals’ and ‘mains’ models

…

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Mark Pack

Lib Dem spring conference: a quick guide to the highlights

By Mark Pack | Fri 9th March 2012 - 1:50 pm

The traditional pre-conference rally at Liberal Democrat conferences seems more lively and informal than the main set piece speeches during conference, so expect even more football references than usual from Party President Tim Farron this evening when he speaks in Gateshead.

Nick Clegg’s speech rally speech will feature an attempt to set a different message for the party, looking much more positively to the future:

We’re in Government, and it is a better Government for it. Fairer, freer and greener.

Lower taxes for working people. Fairer chances for our children. And the beginnings of a new, green economy that benefits everyone in

…

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Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Thu 8th March 2012 - 3:50 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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Mark Pack

I don’t want you to read 160 tips for local councillors and campaigners

By Mark Pack | Thu 8th March 2012 - 10:25 am

ALDC has just published a new collection I’ve edited: Top Tips for Local Campaigners, packed with 160 tips.

Here is how my introduction starts:

I don’t want you to read this book.

That may seem an odd request for an editor to make at the start of a book. But if you just sit down, read it, think a quick thought afterwards about what you made of it and then leave it at that, the book will have been a failure.

This is not a book to sit and

…

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Posted in Local government | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Local council by-elections: the recovery continues, again

By Mark Pack | Wed 7th March 2012 - 10:55 am

Two months on, it’s time to update my post about the trends in local government by-elections.

Week by week local by-election results can fluctuate greatly as the luck of the draw over which seats are up adds to the variations in local circumstances to produce a large spread of results. However, aggregated over longer periods the pattern of local by-elections does say something about the state of the parties, which is why I’ve been looking at the trend in Liberal Democrat performances since May 2011.

This following graphs show the change in the Liberal Democrat vote share in by-elections, measured since …

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Posted in Local government and News | Tagged | 27 Comments
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