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

Should Police Commissioner candidates get election addresses?

By Mark Pack | Sat 21st January 2012 - 2:25 pm

The Electoral Commission’s Peter Wardle last week gave a speech to local government Chief Executives, during which he made this point about election addresses:

The constituencies in the PCC elections are big, with over a million voters in some cases. There’s currently no provision for candidates to have Freepost facilities to deliver their election addresses to voters. Nor is there a provision for any sort of booklet for voters that would include candidates’ election addresses. Alongside the PCC elections, of course, there may well be elections for Mayors in the larger English cities. And candidates for Mayor will, on current plans, be able to pay

…

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

Ken Livingstone attacks Boris Johnson for, er…, agreeing with Ken Livingstone

By Mark Pack | Sat 21st January 2012 - 8:55 am

Ken Livingstone has me a bit confused.

Hearing him attack Boris Johnson is certainly not a surprise.

But hearing him attack Boris Johnson for saying what Ken Livingstone himself said previously? That’s a bit odd, shall we say.

Compare and contrast now and then.

The now:

Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone were engulfed in a war of words today over whether Londoners are too “lazy” to find work. The Mayor claimed some young people in the capital lacked the “energy” to go out and get jobs which were instead going to immigrants. His Labour challenger Ken Livingstone immediately accused him of branding Londoners “lazy and workshy”.

And …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

How should Diana Wallis be replaced?

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th January 2012 - 11:22 pm

A question for Liberal Democrat members to mull… Under the law used for regional list elections, the decision over who should take over following Diana Wallis’s resignation as an MEP is up to the party (technically, the party’s Nominating Officer).

The general assumption in the past has been that if a list member stands down, it is whoever would have got their place on the list that takes over. That is the process followed in the past, such as in deciding Liz Lynne’s replacement as an MEP on her retirement or Lynne Featherstone’s replacement as a GLA member on her election …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 54 Comments
Mark Pack

The trade unions could be doing Ed Miliband – and all of us – a favour

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th January 2012 - 3:56 pm

No doubt, both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, joined by a select band of Blairite survivors, would be rather chipper if the trade union chiefs currently making threatening noises about cutting Labour Party funding  turn out to really mean it.

But the real benefit could be much wider: if Labour loses a large chunk of its funding from trade unions bosses then it could unlock the long-running saga that political party funding reform.

Back in December I wrote:

The strong historical links between trade unions and the Labour Party means that any proposals which would curb the amount unions can give to Labour are

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Learning lessons from the US elections: four legal differences you need to know

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th January 2012 - 10:56 am

With a new American Presidential cycle producing, as ever, near obsessional coverage (and ignoring other more important electoral news), now is a good time to update a post from the last cycle about learning lessons from the US:

This year is already seeing all sorts of prognostications about the lessons UK political parties and campaigners can and should be drawing.

However, many of the differences between American and British election campaigns are not the result of American campaigners having good ideas the British should copy, but rather are the result of four key legal differences between the two countries.

First – and …

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Posted in Election law, LDVUSA and Op-eds | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

The best spoof political interview. Ever.

By Mark Pack | Wed 18th January 2012 - 10:25 am

Earlier in the month I shared my two favourite clips of political canvassing going wrong from TV drama shows. Today it’s the turn of the best spoof interview, courtesy of Australian TV in the 1990s. Enjoy:

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Posted in Humour | Tagged | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Wanted: a new form of capitalism

By Mark Pack | Tue 17th January 2012 - 9:25 am

Look through the grand sweep of history and times of severe economic turmoil have often been accompanied by times of ideological ferment. That ferment has often thrown up the extreme and the nasty – think fascism or Communist dictatorship – which makes the absence of an equivalent post-financial crash ferment not wholly a bad thing. Yet so far there is very little sign of the sort of ideologically coherent new approach to economics that we have seen in similar previous periods.

The Occupy moment symbolises that absence wonderfully – for it too does not offer solutions, it offers a process for …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How do I deal with information overload?

By Mark Pack | Mon 16th January 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: Aarrgh! There’s just too much information online. How do I cope?

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg unites with Lords in battle to alter benefit cuts

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th January 2012 - 8:29 pm

So reports tomorrow’s Observer:

David Cameron has been lobbied by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, on the need to rewrite the government’s flagship benefit reform to help children suffering as a result.

Clegg proposed a series of changes to the £500-a-week cap, including exempting current claimants, in an attempt to ameliorate some of the worst consequences of the change, which critics claim will make 40,000 families homeless by making their current homes unaffordable.

It is understood Clegg made his appeal during a meeting attended by the chancellor, George Osborne, and Danny Alexander, chief secretary of the Treasury. Cameron asked the Liberal Democrats

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

LabourList readers: scrap personal privacy over your income

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th January 2012 - 9:25 am

LabourList has been running a series of posts based on a good idea – asking people to propose policy ideas that don’t cost money, under the banner ‘What’s Labour about when there’s no money left?’.

I was, ahem, a bit underwhelmed then to read one of the ideas – to strip away personal privacy from everyone and publish all income tax returns in full. Somewhat surprised, too, to find that former Labour MP, and when I’ve come across him in the past good egg, Alf Dubs was proposing the idea – his argument being that publishing figures in full would cut …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 25 Comments
Mark Pack

Ed Balls: My starting point is we are going to have keep all the cuts

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th January 2012 - 11:23 pm

Saturday’s Guardian has an interview with Ed Balls:

Ed BalsEd Balls, the shadow chancellor, has moved to challenge accusations that Labour is not credible on the economy by telling the public sector unions that he endorses George Osborne’s public sector pay freeze until the end of the parliament, and that he accepts every spending cut…

“My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. The squeeze on defence spending, for instance, is

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 32 Comments
Mark Pack

This 2008 political advert is still hard to beat

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th January 2012 - 11:25 am

Enjoy (but please, don’t copy):

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg’s social mobility drive wins backing from banks and law firms

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th January 2012 - 8:25 am

The Evening Standard reports:

Banks and law firms in London today backed Nick Clegg’s campaign to open up recruitment to all social backgrounds.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced that Barclays, HSBC, Credit Suisse, RBS and a string of other City institutions have signed up to his “business compact” on internships, work experience and recruitment…

“This is an important step towards a society where it’s what you know, not who you know, that counts,” Mr Clegg said.

“Working with the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

You know what we’re doing wrong? We’ve not introduced tax breaks for wooden arrows

By Mark Pack | Wed 11th January 2012 - 4:55 pm

What do we want? Section 503.
When do we want it? Now.

Oh, you want to know what Section 503 is? Read here.

Posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

How the left/right balance of Liberal Democrat voters has changed

By Mark Pack | Wed 11th January 2012 - 10:25 am

It is common to use two political spectrums to sort out where people or parties sit ideologically: the left-right spectrum and the authoritarian-libertarian spectrum. The latter is important in explaining the politics of the coalition’s formation, as it was a defence of civil liberties against New Labour’s post-9/11 authoritarian streak that both saw senior figures in the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives often co-operating in Parliament and also carved out a large area of policy agreement between them.

Since the coalition’s formation, its importance has rapidly dropped. Some of the reasons are straightforwardly good ones – such as delivering on several of …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 30 Comments
Mark Pack

What do the academics say? Using betting markets to predict election outcomes

By Mark Pack | Tue 10th January 2012 - 9:55 am

Welcome to the latest in our occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today it is a study into how good, or not, the betting markets are at predicting the results of elections.

A few years ago, when spread betting on election results first became popular, there was a brief period when the state of betting markets was touted as a good guide to election results. The theory was that when people decide whether or not to stake their money on a bet they are revealing what they really think, in the way that public comments often do not. Moreover, …

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Posted in What do the academics say? | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How do we get more people to our next campaign session?

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th January 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: How do we get more people to our next campaign session?

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: recap

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th January 2012 - 11:55 am

To mark the start of 2012, last week we ran a series of posts on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. Here in one handy recap is the full list:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: A coherent narrative

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th January 2012 - 9:25 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Yes, the party still needs a narrative.

No, a shopping list isn’t one as Neil Stockley explains.

Yes, it needs to be consistent.

No, it shouldn’t major on the bad news.

Yes, it should feature fairness.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Michael Brown arrested in Dominican Republic

By Mark Pack | Sat 7th January 2012 - 5:25 pm

The Guardian reports:

The Liberal Democrats’ biggest donor, who has been on the run for three years after being convicted of a multimillion pound theft, has been arrested by police in the Dominican Republic, the Guardian can disclose…

A City of London police spokesman confirmed Brown’s arrest. “We are pleased to hear that Michael Brown has been detained by authorities in the Dominican Republic, and are currently establishing contact with them to find out further details about his arrest.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 23 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: Communicative ministers

By Mark Pack | Sat 7th January 2012 - 9:25 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Quite simply, too many Liberal Democrat ministers have too low a profile. If low profiles came despite working hard to get coverage and to communicate, that might be excusable. After all, that was the fate of some very hard working shadow ministers before 2010.

That excuse does not apply – for those with low profiles not only do not secure media coverage, they do not make use of the channels of communication open to them, such as emails to party members of guest posts on Lib Dem Voice. If you are not getting much coverage and not even taking the easiest steps, there is no-one to blame but yourself.

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

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: Wealth taxation

By Mark Pack | Fri 6th January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

To re-cap:

As with many other liberals, Nick Clegg is strongly  motivated by the issue of fair taxation of wealth. In addition, pursuing the issue provides three neat political benefits. First, it offers a clear distinction

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Flying Free: Nigel Farage’s take on his own life

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th January 2012 - 10:25 am

Events and the political calendar are likely to keep UKIP as one of the most prominent ‘other’ political parties in the UK over the next few years, making this newly revised and expanded autobiography of its most high-profile and flamboyant personality, Nigel Farage, timely not only for the party’s own fans but for anyone else interested in British politics.

It is a well written, lively book, full of the sort of pugnacious language that has helped give Farage his high popularity. It is also rather kinder to some of his opponents that you might expect if you had only come across Farage through his headline grabbing strings of insults aimed at others, though when it comes to the EU and its main functionaries he doesn’t hold back. He even has some kinds words to say for the man who threatened to kill him – and rightly so given the person’s mental health had fallen apart.

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Posted in Books | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: Treating supporters as active participants

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Despite my comments about how risky the predictions business is, regular readers would hardly have been taking much of a gamble expecting me to return to the issue of treating people as active participants rather than passive spectators in this series.

Embracing the campaigning power of members and supporters (as Willie Rennie has done) would not only boost the party’s impact on government, it would also give members and supporters ways of feeling involved, committed and motivated – and to see how Liberal Democrat presence and pressure can make a difference:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Wed 4th January 2012 - 2:46 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

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: May’s elections

By Mark Pack | Wed 4th January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

When the May 2012 set of seats were previously contested in May 2008 the party made net gains – up 33 seats overall – despite a 4% fall in the party’s notional national vote share* – …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

How you can help make the workings of party committees more accountable

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 1:50 pm

One issue which comes up regularly in different ways is party members feeling they do not know what the party’s federal committees are up to in their name. Without getting too lost into the rights and wrongs of each individual case, I think we have a problem from both ends – committee members do not communicate enough and also members do not get in touch with them enough.

The way to break that is to improve the basic flow of information, so more information comes out from committees, prompting members in turn to ask and lobby more, prompting committee members in …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The perils of political canvassing

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 10:25 am

May your new year on the doorsteps go better than this pair of all too true scenes from Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: The Budget

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Political pundits rarely get their predictions right. It isn’t that they are particularly bad at punditry, it is just that – as research has shown across several fields – experts generally have a pretty poor predictive record. One prediction, however, that is rather safer than leaving your chocolate in my safe-keeping is that the economy will continue to be the dominant political issue.

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

Campaign Corner: Is it better for a candidate to have a website or a blog?

By Mark Pack | Mon 2nd January 2012 - 2:55 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: I’m standing in May and not sure what matters most – my website, having a blog or both?

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Posted in Campaign Corner and Online politics | Tagged | 4 Comments
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