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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It’s a busy Saturday for the spinners

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th June 2011 - 10:21 am

With the new version of the government’s health plans due out on Monday or Tuesday, expect tomorrow’s papers to be full of pre-briefing from the different camps – the pro-Lansley Tories, the rest of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The first of that trio are likely to have by far the toughest, verging on implausible, task given the major changes coming to the original NHS plans. The bigger media battle is between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (or Cameron and Clegg if you prefer your politics in distilled personalised format) over the relative credit for those changes.

The news from the Liberal …

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Posted in News | Tagged andrew lansley, david cameron, NHS, nick clegg and shirley williams | Leave a comment

Pressure builds on Great Ormond Street Hospital as second inquiry author joins criticisms

By Mark Pack | Fri 10th June 2011 - 7:26 am

Yesterday I blogged about Lynne Featherstone‘s call for Jane Collins to quit as Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital following revelations that key information was withheld from the first inquiry into Baby Peter’s death and, despite the Hospital’s claims to the contrary, the public statement from the chair of the second inquiry that he was not shown the full evidence either.

Today The Guardian has a damning verdict from the author of that first inquiry, Edi Carmi:

The author of the serious case review, Edi Carmi, said she was shocked by the BBC’s report and that much of

…

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Posted in News | Tagged baby p, edi carmi, great ormond street hospital and lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

Great Ormond Street Hospital under fire over claims it covered up blunders

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th June 2011 - 9:13 pm

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone today called for Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), to resign after the BBC published evidence that key criticisms of the hospital were withheld from an inquiry into the death of Baby Peter. In a further twist today, claims by the hospital that they subsequently did provide all the evidence to a second investigation were denied by the person who ran that investigation.

An investigation by BBC London found that Great Ormond Street Hospital did not pass on to the first Serious Case Review into the death of Baby Peter several key …

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Posted in News | Tagged baby p, featured, great ormond street hospital, jane collins and lynne featherstone | Leave a comment

Sanctions bring benefits one time in three

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th June 2011 - 12:27 pm

That’s the message from an interesting research nugget quoted by the Financial Times:

A careful study by the Peterson Institute of 115 uses of economic sanctions by major countries between 1950 and 1990 concluded that, in about a third of cases, they helped those wielding them achieve their goals. The research shows they were most likely to be successful when this objective was modest and clear, the target was in a weakened position, economic links were significant, sanctions were heavy, and the duration was limited.

Helping in only one in three cases leaves an awful lot of misery and horror unaffected, …

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Posted in News | Tagged syria | 5 Comments

Please send the deregulation hit squad: all I want is some double-glazing

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th June 2011 - 6:44 am

Getting double-glazing fitted at home seemed such a good idea to begin with.

It then got better when I had the fun of watching of Ricky Gervais type character doing acrobatics on the hinge of a sample double-glazing unit to demonstrate its strength. I may now know that the hinge can take the full weight of a fully grown man, though I must admit I’m still not quite sure why I’d want to know thiat.

But then came sorting out the administration.

Five different pieces of legal authorisation are required. Plus two maps. With all the charges put together adding an extra 25% …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured | 19 Comments

How do you pick an expert? The flawed argument against Lords reform

By Mark Pack | Wed 8th June 2011 - 8:43 am

You need an expert. What do you do? There are plenty of different ways of going about finding one, I’m sure.

But I bet you don’t dig out the books from 20 years ago, look who was an expert back then, place the names in the hat and then pick out a name or two at random.

That, however, is how the House of Lords works – and that’s why I am unconvinced by those who argue that democracy has no place in one half of Parliament because ‘we need experts’.

Certainly there are some experts in the Lords. Just as there are …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged constitutional reform, featured, house of lords, lords reform and rory stewart | 9 Comments

Fashion students taught body confidence

By Mark Pack | Tue 7th June 2011 - 8:38 pm

So reports the Home Office, including a comment from Lynne Featherstone that’s good to see about how legislation should not be seen as a magic wand to fix all ills:

A new educational institution teaching fashion graduates to design clothes for a diverse range of body shapes has been launched today by equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone.

The Centre for Diversity has been created by All Walks Beyond the Catwalk, an initiative founded by Erin O’Connor, Caryn Franklin and Debra Bourne, that works with influential catwalk designers and top industry creatives to celebrate diversity within the fashion industry.

Speaking at the launch,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged campaign for body confidence and lynne featherstone | Leave a comment

Trial and error is the most successful problem solving technique

By Mark Pack | Tue 7th June 2011 - 6:54 am

So said Tim Harford (known to many as the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less as well as a distinguished economics writer) last night at the Royal Society of Arts. Harford was kicking-off a week long series of talks to promote his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure and was making the point that the modern world is too complex for us to hope to solve many problems by simply getting the best brains to think up the one answer. A far better route to take is to experiment with many different solutions and see …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged postcode lottery, public services and tim harford | 8 Comments

The perils of projecting the impact of boundary changes from previous election results

By Mark Pack | Mon 6th June 2011 - 10:35 pm

There’s been an understandable flurry of interest in The Guardian’s reported projections of what boundary changes might mean for the parties, but there are two major caveats about the nature of such projections.

From what I’ve seen, Lewis Baston (as I would expect) has done the numbers well, but not only do we not yet have the actual boundaries on which to make projections but also projections based on looking at previous election results have a decidedly ropey record when it comes to Liberal Democrats MPs.

That is because the party’s voting support is far less polarised demographically than that of …

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Posted in News | Tagged brent central, lewis baston, malcolm bruce, parliamentary boundaries, parliamentary boundary review and sarah teather | 14 Comments

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Mon 6th June 2011 - 12:54 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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Posted in Site news | 1 Comment

Lords reform: the Liberal Democrat trio announced

By Mark Pack | Mon 6th June 2011 - 7:23 am

Over the weekend Mark Valladares blogged about the three Liberal Democrats being appointed to the Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny committee on Lords reform:

From the Lords, representing the constitutional wonk tendency (in a good way), Lord Tyler is the first of the two nominees. Paul has been leading calls for a complete overhaul of the Second Chamber for a very long time and is one of the Party’s foremost constitutional experts…

From the Commons, that rather unusual beast, a former member of the House of Lords, John Thurso. As he has already been abolished once,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged constitutional reform, david steel, house of lords, john thurso, lords reform, mark valladares, paddy ashdown, paul tyler, paul walter and ros scott | 12 Comments

Headline tax rates: down and down

By Mark Pack | Sat 4th June 2011 - 9:54 am

Two graphs for your Saturday enlightenment:

Posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments

Legal action may bar council leader from office – and raise questions about the Electoral Commission’s lack of action

By Mark Pack | Fri 3rd June 2011 - 11:55 am

North West Leicestershire District Council leader Conservative Richard Blunt is facing High Court action from a defeated opponent over whether or not he was actually qualified to stand.

Blunt appears to have qualified to stand under the provision that he owned property in the area. However the wording of the law is unclear, talking about “occupying as owner” with the possible implication that therefore you also have to actually be living or otherwise have use of the property. In Blunt’s case, though, the property was rented out to others – leading the defeated independent candidate Colin Roberts to argue that …

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Posted in Election law and Local government | Tagged colin roberts, electoral commission, north west leicestershire council and richard blunt | 20 Comments

Andrew Reeves passes away

By Mark Pack | Fri 3rd June 2011 - 11:00 am

Many Liberal Democrats are in mourning this morning after the sudden death of a long-time colleague and friend, Andrew Reeves. He died of a heart attack last night.

Andrew had a long career in the party, including working for Vince Cable in Twickenham and Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey & Wood Green and stewarding at party conferences, before becoming the party’s Deputy Director for Scotland. Andrew was always one of the happiest and kindest people on the campaigns I worked with him on, and never let the occasional inevitable moments of stress or tension sour personal friendships. He had also in recent …

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Posted in Obituaries and Scotland | Tagged andrew reeves | 38 Comments

Rory Bremner does Paddy Ashdown with the aid of a little song and dance

By Mark Pack | Fri 3rd June 2011 - 8:58 am

Courtesy of YouTube, a musical trip down memory lane:

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Posted in Humour | Tagged paddy ashdown and rory bremner | Leave a comment

What I would have liked to hear Paul Burstow say more of this week

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd June 2011 - 9:57 pm

You might think it’s a small point, and it’s certainly not only applicable to Paul Burstow.

But in all the fallout since Panorama’s harrowing documentary this week, what a shame that so little has been said to praise the whistleblower who didn’t just try blowing the whistle once but again and again until he finally had success.

It’s been good to see Paul Burstow face up to the issue in the media and promise quick action to learn the relevant lessons. But no system is perfect and we’re always going to be reliant on whistleblowers as a crucial safety net.

It’s a …

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Posted in News | Tagged NHS, panorama, paul burstow and terry bryan | 7 Comments

Do CCHQ staff have to bring their own toilet paper in to work?

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd June 2011 - 8:34 pm

I only ask, you see, because earlier today the Conservative Party’s press team decided to highlight the fact that a Labour MP, Chuka Umunna, claimed £43.12 for “soap, toilet roll etc”.

Toilet paper Well, the claim was for his office where staff work. So quite why would someone want to pick on an employer providing toilet roll (and soap! yes, soap! the sheer luxury!) for his staff?

But perhaps that’s how CCHQ works and the staff there are so used to having to bring their own toilet paper …

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Posted in News | Tagged chuka umunna, conservative party and mps expenses | 4 Comments

In which I praise two Labour bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd June 2011 - 7:24 am

Given I’ve spoken before about the importance of a broad cross-party coalition to back Lords reform, it’s only right that I compliment two Labour bloggers who have spoken up on the topic in the last few days.

Luke Akehurst over on Progressonline wrote,

Labour’s constitutional conservatives are gearing up for another rearguard action … Unlike the AV question, when the party outside parliament was as divided as the PLP, the wider Labour party has a clear and settled view on this one. The National Policy Forum, representing all the key party stakeholders, voted at the ‘Warwick II’ meeting in July

…

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Posted in News | Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, jessica assato, lords reform, luke akehurst and nick clegg | 8 Comments

Nearly three years on, how does the Bones Report look?

By Mark Pack | Wed 1st June 2011 - 8:21 am

Back in 2008 the Report of the Party Reform Commission to the Federal Executive was published, more commonly known as the Bones Report after its Chair, Chris Bones. Both the process for drawing up the report and the report itself was not without its critics at the time (e.g. see here and here) but since then it has been a topic only rarely talked about, even amongst party administration insiders.

So how does it looking, approaching its third anniversary, and does it set the right or wrong course for the party organisationally – or has it become an irrelevance?

In one respect, …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged chris bones, chris rennard and party reform commission | 15 Comments

Liberal Democrat peers: oh dear

By Mark Pack | Tue 31st May 2011 - 8:58 pm

No point beating about the bush, if you want to find several handful of Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians who I think are wrong just look to the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords where, as today’s news showed, there is a very large minority opposed to introducing elections for the upper house.

Despite Lords reform having been a long-standing Liberal Democrat (and before that both SDP and Liberal Party) policy, despite the party being in a coalition committed to Lords reform (a pretty remarkable opportunity when you consider the Conservative Party’s traditional view), despite Liberal Democrat party leaders having …

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Posted in News | Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lord mcnally, lords reform and paul tyler | 21 Comments

One cartoon, years of political experience

By Mark Pack | Tue 31st May 2011 - 12:25 pm

Canvassing yesterday in Harrow brought to mind one of my favourite political cartoons, by Chris Radley from the 1980s, which still says an awful lot about politics in just two panels:

Chris Radley was the cartoonist for the SDP’s weekly newspaper, the Social Democrat, for many years and his work was featured by the Journal of Liberal History in 2003.

Posted in News | Tagged chris radley | 6 Comments

The Cameron-Clegg Government: or the perils of publishing a book early in the Parliament

By Mark Pack | Mon 30th May 2011 - 3:54 pm

Simon Lee and Matt Beech’s new book The Cameron-Clegg Government: Coalition Politics in an Age of Austerity has, at first glance, a lot going for it. A line-up of significant academic names, a well-known and reputable publisher (Palgrave Macmillan) a subject matter that is rarely out of the news and (unlike for books about the 2010 general election) a field relatively clear of rival publications.

A second glance suggests one of its problems: although nominally about both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, there are five contributors who are listed as having published books purely about the Conservative Party but …

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Posted in Books | Tagged coalition, emma sanderson-nash, matt beech and simon lee | 2 Comments

Where’s the list of the ten worst benefit administration blunders?

By Mark Pack | Mon 30th May 2011 - 9:27 am

We’ve had in the media the list of the ten worst excuses given by benefit fraudsters. To be fair, the ladder one is particularly fine … yet when you total up the sums, the amount lost in benefit fraud is about the same or less than the amount lost due to administrative mistakes*.

I’m sure the list of the ten worst administrative blunders by civil servants is in the media grid coming up shortly, aren’t you?

* Calculations on this vary depending on precise definitions and data used, but see The FactCheck Blog for an example.

Posted in News | Tagged benefits | 10 Comments

Lord McNally fully backs reforming the Lords

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th May 2011 - 5:06 pm

There’s been quite a lot of muttering from politicians about now Lords reform, although featuring in the manifestos of all three main parties at the general election, might not quite be needed or quite yet. That’s even included, regrettably, Liberal Democrat ranks in the Lords.

But Tom McNally, Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords, gave those who think 100 years hasn’t been long enough to think about change or that democracy isn’t what Parliament requires, short shrift in the latest Liberal Democrat News:

One hundred years ago the Liberal government committed itself to a second chamber “constituted on a popular basis instead

…

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Posted in News | Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lord mcnally and lords reform | 3 Comments

Timetable for selecting London Mayor candidate published

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th May 2011 - 9:54 am

Readers of the week’s Liberal Democrat News will have seen the advert kicking off the party’s candidate selection for the Mayor of London. The planned timetable is:

June 17 Close of applications

July 3 Interviews and shortlisting

July 11 Deadline for appeals

July 11 Deadline for candidates to submit manifestos

July 12 Publication of shortlist

July 18 Postal ballot mailed out to members in London

July 25-29 Hustings meeting

August 10 Deadline for returning ballot papers

August 12 Count and declaration of result

Posted in London and Selection news | 3 Comments

Praise for Green Investment Bank plans

By Mark Pack | Sat 28th May 2011 - 4:58 pm

Sage Construction reports:

The Green Investment Bank is set to be a “transformational institution”, Transform UK has claimed.

Following deputy prime minister Nick Clegg’s recent speech on the establishment, programme director for Transform UK Ed Matthew welcomed the news that investment opportunities will be open from April 2012.

However, he noted that there are a number of points that need to be addressed.

“The key thing is to have a process where they confirm that the bank will have the power to borrow from the capital markets and not just the treasury,” Mr Matthew commented.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in News | Tagged environment, green investment bank and nick clegg | Leave a comment

Tidy up the loose ends about that cycle route meeting

By Mark Pack | Sat 28th May 2011 - 4:43 pm

(Warning: this post contains facts and documentation. If you are of a nervous disposition and are easily confused by evidence you may wish to skip the post before posting the obligatory comment saying ‘It’s all spin!’)

There are a couple of loose ends to tidy-up from the non-emergency, non-Liberal Democrat meeting featuring a cycle lane that Harry Cole and Guido Fawkes got so wrong during the week.

Getting a story wrong is, in itself, something many bloggers (including myself) have experienced. But even after having the errors in the story pointed out to him, Harry Cole has continued to try to …

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Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, guido fawkes and harry cole | 6 Comments

Electoral Commission rejects expenses complaint against Chris Huhne

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th May 2011 - 10:39 pm

The Electoral Commission earlier today rejected one of the complaints made over Chris Huhne’s election expenses. It was the complaint made by two former Liberal Democrat councillors who claimed the party had spent more than the legal limit.

However, as I pointed out at the time:

For somewhere such as Eastleigh with local elections on the same day as the general election last year, campaign activities could have had to count against the constituency expense limit (Chris Huhne’s), the council ward expense limits, the general election national expense limit and even – in a few cases – the law says that

…

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged chris huhne, electoral commission and guido fawkes | 1 Comment

Glympse: a glimpse of the next wave of political technology innovation

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th May 2011 - 8:45 am

Although many election campaigns and candidates are still rather old-fashioned in their approach to technology, the bundle of services that a cutting-edge campaign uses has rather settled down for the last few years, in particular since Twitter and Facebook have grown to dominate their niche and push their rivals into obscurity. What people do with these tools still sees plenty of innovation, but the range of tools has become rather standard.

However, that may be about to change as geo-location based tools spread. Once you get beyond doing clever things with Google Maps or postcode lookups, you quickly get into the …

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Posted in News | Tagged glympse | 5 Comments

Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield convicted of expenses fraud

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th May 2011 - 6:54 am

The courts have convicted Lord Hanningfield of expenses fraud, following his failed attempt earlier in the year with other accused MPs to claim that Parliamentary Privilege protected them from prosecution.

The Guardian reports:

Lord Hanningfield – tried at Chelmsford crown court under his name, Paul White, on Thursday – had denied six counts of false accounting relating to his parliamentary expenses.

The prosecution said he had claimed for overnight stays in London, between March 2006 and April 2009, when he had actually returned home to Essex.

White told the court he had seen it as a “living out of London allowance” rather

…

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Posted in News | Tagged expenses and lord hanningfield | 2 Comments