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.
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Liberal Democrat members support proposed changes to planning rules, just

By Mark Pack | Fri 7th October 2011 - 7:25 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

Our latest survey of party members finds a small majority backing the government’s controversial plans for the planning system in England. By a margin of 48% – 39% Liberal Democrat members in the survey supported the scheme to cut central control over planning but also introduce a presumption in favour of development if plans are sustainable and in line with local policies.

However, …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged high-speed rail, human rights act, immigration, marriage, railways, tax, transport and trident | 5 Comments

“Toffs legislating for toffs” – how Cotswold Conservatives fear they are viewed

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th October 2011 - 8:43 pm

The Cotswolds were the scene for some of the best Liberal Democrat and worst Conservative local election results in May, with the Tories losing 10 seats. A local newspaper has got hold of an internal Conservative post-mortem:

The document reveals concerns within Cotswold Conservatives that the organisation is seen by voters as: “toffs legislating for toffs.”…

Concerns were also raised about the impact of the cabinet’s links to Cotswold Media, which is run by cabinet leader Cllr Lynden Stowe (Campden-Vale ward) and also employs Cllrs David Fowles (Hampton ward) and Susan Jepson (Campden-Vale ward).

You can read the full story about the …

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Posted in News | Tagged cotswold district council, david fowles, lynden stowe and susan jepson | 2 Comments

The cat, Theresa May and what the courts really said

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th October 2011 - 7:29 pm

Lots has been written about the cat that did, didn’t, did, didn’t help stop someone being deported. The best analysis and summary I’ve seen of what the legal system really decided in the case and on what basis is the one over on the UK Human Rights blog. Well worth a read.

But if you want a short version: the Home Office messed up by failing to follow its own rules. A cynic might suggest the cat provides a rather convenient alibi…

Posted in News | Tagged theresa may | 29 Comments

The Bigger Book of Boris: lots of jokes, not much politics

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th October 2011 - 10:50 am

One of the questions that ambitious politicians often struggle to answer safely is, “Do you want to be leader of your party / Prime Minister?” Answer ‘yes’ in some form and journalists will line up to write stories about party splits, pending leadership challenges and the like. Answer ‘no’ and many will not believe you – whilst also quietly filing away the answer to quote back at the politician at an embarrassing later date.

The Bigger Book of Boris (an expanded version of the earlier Little Book of Boris) shows Boris Johnson’s political skill with humour in his answer to this question. …

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Posted in Books | Tagged boris johnson and iain dale | Leave a comment

Fixing the economy is the top priority, according to survey of Lib Dem members

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th October 2011 - 7:50 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

Fix the economy, protect the environment – those are the priorities for government according to Liberal Democrat party members in our latest survey. Perhaps most surprising in the results is the high showing for improving public transport, appearing above health and schools, most likely reflecting people’s views about the current relative state of those different public services.

LDV asked: On a scale of …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 2 Comments

Daily Mail sued by Carina Trimingham

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th October 2011 - 10:33 pm

The Press Gazette reports:

MP Chris Huhne’s partner Carina Trimingham today brought a High Court damages action over a “cataclysmic interference” with her private life.

The PR adviser, whose adulterous affair with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change became public in June 2010 – with Huhne leaving his wife of 26 years – is suing Associated Newspapers for misuse of private information.

Her counsel, William Bennett, told Mr Justice Tugendhat in London that – in eight newspaper articles and on its website Mail Online – the Daily Mail had exercised its expertise and determination to dig into 44-year-old Trimingham’s private life and

…

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Posted in News | Tagged carina trimingham, chris huhne, daily mail and journalism | 12 Comments

What Liberal Democrat members think of different tax policies

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th October 2011 - 1:50 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

Cut income tax and VAT but raise taxes on property: that’s the message from Liberal Democrat party members in our latest survey. Some answers to our tax questions are unsurprising, such as the North Korean style (or, for older readers, the Albanian style) majority in favour of raising the personal allowance threshold for income tax to £12,500, approximately equivalent to what a …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged council tax, Danny Alexander, income tax, mansion tax, tax, vat and vince cable | 8 Comments

Individual electoral registration: consultation response

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th October 2011 - 7:50 am

Here’s the response I’ve sent to the Electoral Registration Transformation Programme ([email protected]) in response to the consultation on the draft legislation for individual electoral registration, which closes on 14 October. For the background on the benefits of individual electoral registration, see What’s the point of switching to individual electoral registration?

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft legislation which has been published to implement individual electoral registration in Great Britain. The publication of a full draft for public consultation is a very welcome improvement on the way …

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Posted in Election law | Tagged electoral commission, electoral registration, jury service and michael wills | 16 Comments

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th October 2011 - 11:55 am

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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Local liberal heroes: Ruth Dombey

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Earlier in the year, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten – such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP.

There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure – those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are often …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, local liberal heroes, ruth dombey and sutton liberal democrats | 3 Comments

Kensington & Chelsea spends £4,100 on sending paperwork to councillor’s holiday home

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 9:18 pm

Out campaigning in the Norland ward by-election this evening (including an, er…, interesting delivery round), I caught up on one of the many ways that Kensington & Chelsea Council has been rather profligate with money when it comes to looking after senior council staff or Conservative councillors.

It turns out that Kensington & Chelsea has been spending thousands of pounds on couriering council paperwork to a Conservative Councillor Daniel Moylan’s holiday home … in Thailand. The council’s argument is that this is a necessary action as he has to keep up with the paperwork and it includes large maps which …

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Posted in News | Tagged kensington and chelsea council | Leave a comment

Gender balance amongst the Liberal Democrats: some evidence

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 11:20 am

Over the weekend, Paul Head criticised the party’s Leadership Programme, saying,

While the Candidate Leadership Programme seems like a good idea, giving candidates from underrepresented groups the support and training they need to go on and, hopefully, become MPs, I believe it is destined to failure for the same reasons that shortlists are not the answer.

They both ignore the real problem.

Shortlists in particular are a quick-fix, tinkering round the edges, top-down attempt to create the façade that we are a party that is representative of the whole country. The truth is we aren’t. A quick look around the conference hall and

…

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Posted in News | Tagged diversity, equalities, leadership programme, paddy ashdown and paul head | 5 Comments

Guide dogs allowed on London Underground escalators – Caroline Pidgeon campaign success

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 8:50 am

Following a campaign by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, the legal ban on guide dogs travelling on the escalators on the London Underground is being lifted on Wednesday.

Transport for London and the Government are changing a by-law which originated in the era of wooden escalators which could expand and contract depending on heat and humidity. This meant larger gaps have to be left by default than on modern metal escalators, with resulting fears that guide dogs (now often called assistance dogs) might get their paws stuck …

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Posted in London | Tagged boris johnson and Caroline Pidgeon | 2 Comments

Theresa May succeeds where Nadine Dorries failed

By Mark Pack | Sun 2nd October 2011 - 5:36 pm

As I quipped during Liberal Democrat conference, one of the most popular Conservative MPs with party activists is Nadine Dorries, courtesy of that question at PMQs.

Today Home Secretary Theresa May has shown rather more political skill in making a very similar point. Talking to the Sunday Telegraph, she’s said that “personally” she would “like” to see the Human Rights Act go.

It’s a skilful move because by using that phrasing she isn’t triggering any stories of coalition meltdown. Liberal Democrats saying the Human Rights Act won’t go and Tories saying they personally would like it to go aren’t contradictory …

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Posted in News | Tagged human rights act, nadine dorries and theresa may | 4 Comments

Someone likes Liberal Democrat conference…

By Mark Pack | Sun 2nd October 2011 - 9:50 am

Over on Dale & Co Gareth Knight writes:

Any Conservative, including Iain Dale who attends the Liberal Democrat conference, remarks how impressed they are with the mere fact the conference is where party members openly and robustly confer on policy. The exhibition stands at the Liberal Democrat conference include dozens of party groups as well as the recent deluge of large companies and organisations desperate to suck up to the party they’ve proudly ignored until now. The agenda for conference is focused on policy papers with speeches for and against where the party leadership will frequently get involved in the

…

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Posted in Conference | Tagged gareth knight and iain dale | Leave a comment

And in other news…

By Mark Pack | Sat 1st October 2011 - 1:55 pm

Lib Dem leader of Gosport Council, Peter Chegwyn has been assaulted by one of his predecessors as Liberal Democrat leader, since turned independent, Dave Smith.
The financial sector has accounted for half of the declarable donations to the Conservative Party since the 2010 general election.
John Hemming’s wife has been convicted of stealing a cat.
The former Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate Vincent McKee accused of defrauding students by Sky News has now been charged by the police.

Posted in News | Tagged donations, gosport, john hemming, peter chegwyn and vincent mckee | 1 Comment

Mark Sullivan on how his firm’s software helps win elections

By Mark Pack | Sat 1st October 2011 - 9:25 am

Earlier in the week I blogged my interview with Mark Sullivan, who founded the firm that is supplying the party’s new CONNECT electoral database software. For some further background on him and his firm, here’s an interview Mark Sullivan gave in late 2008:

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged connect, mark sullivan and VAN | 2 Comments

Updating Community Politics: the role for social capital

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th September 2011 - 10:25 am

My short answer in response to David Boyle having only two cheers for Community Politics is: “I agree”.

The slightly longer response to David is: “I mostly agree, but “.

The nearly long enough to justify a blog post version is…

David Boyle is right to raise the concerns he did, and had he been in the hall he would have not only heard Gordon Lishman himself express similar concerns but also the excellent news that Gordon is intending to draw in a wide group of people to some of that thinking and updating that we all think is necessary.

For me at …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged community politics, david boyle, gordon lishman and robert putnam | 4 Comments

The top five London MPs for outside earnings

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th September 2011 - 8:55 am

Via a survey carried out for LondonlovesBusiness.com comes this list of the top five London MPs for annual outside earnings on top of their MP salary of £65,738:

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, MP for Kensington (Con) – upwards of £240,000
Nick Raynsford, MP for Greenwich and Woolwich (Lab) – £60,657
Mark Field, MP for Cities of London and Westminster (Con) – £41,740
Jo Johnson, MP for Orpington (Con) – £12,314
Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Lab) – £10,326

What do you think of these figures: good to see MPs having a range of activities or bad to see MPs spending time earning these sorts of sums?

Posted in London and Parliament | Tagged diane abbott, jo johnson, malcolm rifkind, mark field and nick raynsford | 10 Comments

In case you missed it: Ed Miliband, interview masterclass part 2

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th September 2011 - 9:17 pm

Ouch, ouch, ouch:

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Posted in News | Tagged ed miliband | 9 Comments

Interviewing Mark Sullivan, the founder of the party’s new electoral database supplier

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th September 2011 - 10:25 am

During the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, I had the chance to quiz Mark Sullivan (the founder of VAN, which is becoming the party’s new electoral database software under the name CONNECT).

I’m (like others) excited about the possibilities CONNECT will bring, partly because I’ve worked with EARS for just about two decades now. It has helped produce some stupendous election results and people involved with it have worked tremendously hard. But it also has some major limitations, particularly the number of bugs (including more than once data being lost on polling day), the haphazard record of delivering new …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged connect, ears, featured, mark sullivan and VAN | 15 Comments

Sarah Ludford opposed plans to refurbish MEP offices

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th September 2011 - 8:45 am

Good to see a Liberal Democrat MEP taking up this cause in a press release:

Liberal Democrat London MEP Sarah Ludford has called for the blocking of plans by European Parliament bosses known as the ‘bureau’ to spend £26 million (€30 million) on improving MEP offices in the Parliament’s Strasbourg building.

The Parliament is currently obliged under the EU treaties – fixed by the 27 national governments – to sit in both Brussels and Strasbourg in a ‘travelling circus’. But in June a majority of MEPs voted in favour of maintaining a single seat in Brussels, which would save 19,000 tonnes of CO2 …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged european parliament, european union and sarah ludford | 5 Comments

Why Ivan Lewis isn’t completely wrong about journalists

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th September 2011 - 7:48 pm

The fiasco over Shadow Culture Secretary Ivan Lewis’s call for journalists to be registered has rather obscured what should be a good point of debate: the degree to which journalists or editors should be held personally responsible for what they do.

As I wrote earlier in the year about media regulation:

There needs to be a much greater sense of individual, personal responsibility by journalists and editors for how they behave. This is best illustrated by the classic doorstepping exercise trawling for a story that many newspapers carry out. That sort of exercise can be justified – it is, after all,

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ivan lewis and journalism | 4 Comments

Good news on candidate selection rules

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th September 2011 - 11:06 pm

A welcome update to my post from earlier this week: the decision banning candidates from calling on members during the Merton & Wandsworth GLA selection has been reversed. Candidates may now call on members.

In the thread on the earlier post Matthew Green, one of the selection committee members, explained his reasoning:

Well, I was part of the selection committee that made the rule. There was a wide range of views expressed at the committee, from more liberal to more restrictive. We were mainly guided by precedent – the RO’s previous seat (Greenwich & Lewisham, I think) having very similar restrictions.

There

…

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 11 Comments

I want to hear a speech from Tim Farron that I disagree with

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th September 2011 - 5:55 pm

Over on his blog Jonathan Calder makes a good point about the speech-making abilities of Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron:

My impression of Tim is that he is very good at saying things people agree with. So in Cumbria he is against second homes and in favour of farming subsidies and Kendal mint cake…

Now that Tim Farron is being spoken of as a possible party leader, he needs to risk the odd unpopular speech. Someone in that class cannot always be telling people what they want to hear.

Tim </a srcset= …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged jonathan calder and tim farron | 19 Comments

Ed Balls has a new take on having your cake and eating it

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th September 2011 - 9:19 pm

There are two problems with a Liberal Democrat like myself blogging about Labour Party conference. First, as I’ve so often seen from the other side of the fence, an outside blogging about another party’s conference frequently misreads what is really happening. And second, no blogger can compete with Hopi Sen and his cat.

So caveats deployed and on to the confusion that Ed Balls’s speech today left me in. For he had two messages: first, that Labour can’t promise to undo the government’s cuts and, second, that many of the cuts are wrong. Either on its own would be a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged centreforum, ed balls, ed miliband, higher education, hopi sen, tuition fees and universities | 2 Comments

The strangest political interview you’ve never heard: Cllr Peter Martin

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th September 2011 - 12:25 pm

“Want to hear the most ridiculous beginning to a political interview that you’ve possibly ever heard?” So starts a clip from BBC Surrey’s breakfast show featuring an interview with Conservative Cllr Peter Martin, the person in charge of education at Surrey County Council.

You can listen to the clip here.

(Remember to listen all the way through to hear how Peter Martin takes a leaf out of Ed Miliband’s interview book.)

Posted in News | Tagged ed miliband, peter martin and surrey county council | 4 Comments

Only 3% swing to Tories in key Con/Lib Dem marginals

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th September 2011 - 8:55 am

The detailed polling by Lord Ashcroft published today on ConservativeHome brings some encouraging news for the Liberal Democrats. In a set of key marginals held by the Conservatives and where the Liberal Democrats were second in 2010, there has only been a modest swing to the Conservatives since May 2010.

In the eight seats polled, the Conservative Party has a lead of 8% compared to an actual lead in May 2010 of 2%. This swing of 3% is much smaller than national opinion polls show. The vote share figures are:

Conservative 39% (-2% on May 2010)
Liberal Democrat 31% (-8%)
Labour 19% (+6%)

Con lead …

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Posted in News and Polls | Tagged ConservativeHome, featured and lord ashcroft | 11 Comments

Candidates banned from calling on party members in selection contest

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th September 2011 - 3:10 pm

Very odd news from the Merton and Wandsworth London Assembly constituency, where members will shortly be voting to select the Liberal Democrat candidate for next May’s elections.

The candidates have been told that they are banned from calling on party members at home during the selection contest. They have also been given extremely tight restrictions on what else they can do – just one leaflet, one email and one phone conversation.

As regular readers will know, I’m a strong advocate for more campaigning to be allowed in internal party contests – and the party has made some significant progress on that in …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 16 Comments

House of Lords reform: the next steps

By Mark Pack | Sat 24th September 2011 - 9:55 am

As I mentioned when blogging Ming Campbell’s speech from Liberal Democrat conference, the motion in favour of Lords reform was passed overwhelmingly.

That in itself was not a surprise, but that does not mean actually securing Lords reform will be easy. Two immediate ways you can support the campaign for House of Lords reform are:

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Posted in News | Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lords reform and Ming Campbell | Leave a comment