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

Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England and a donation to the Conservative Party

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 3:50 pm

UPDATE: Paul Cuttill, the Managing Director of the D Group, has been in touch to say that he is “100% certain” that the D Group has not made a donation to the Conservative Party and that the Electoral Commission’s register of donations is wrong. (The most likely circumstances in which this could happen are if an individual involved with the D Group has made a donation personally but that the donation was wrongly recorded.)

A business networking group that lists amongst its members Buckingham Palace and the Bank of England has given a donation to the Conservative Party.

The D Group …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Why won’t Hampstead & Kilburn Conservatives explain where they got private email data from?

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 3:00 pm

At first it was amusing for Liberal Democrat councillors in Haringey to be getting emails inviting them to come and meet Conservative candidate Chris Philp, particularly as Philp is not standing in Haringey but over the border in Hampstead & Kilburn.

Then there were a few chuckles about how the emails kept on getting people’s names wrong. So, for example, an email from Chris Philp inviting people to come and meet him and David Cameron was sent to Rachel but addressed to “Dear Walter”.

Then the emails switched to coming from the national Conservative Party. And this time Rachel was no longer …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

A tale of two Shadow Chancellors

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 1:20 pm

Two party leaders.

Two manifesto launches.

Two questions asking about financial details.

Two leaders turning to their Shadow Chancellor.

One Shadow Chancellor answers the question straight away.

One Shadow Chancellor, er…, despite having advanced warning is still flipping through the paperwork in front of him when the party leader turns to him and can’t answer the question.

Can you guess which was Vince Cable and which was George Osborne?

Here’s a clue:

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Posted in General Election | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Attempt to set world record for most enthusiastic backer of election candidate narrowly fails

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 12:50 pm

Campaign window April 2010

Posted in General Election and Humour | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Liberal Democrat manifesto by numbers

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 9:35 am

The Liberal Democrat manifesto by numbers:

  • 9 different formats for the manifesto (hard copy, video, on screen, iPhone app etc.)
  • 6 photos of Nick Clegg
  • 5 pages of index
  • 4 pages of detailed costsing
  • 4 steps to a fairer Britain
  • 3 photos of Vince Cable
  • 0 mentions of chocolate
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Posted in General Election and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , , , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservative candidate Caroline Righton ‘goes to ground’

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 9:20 am

Caroline Righton, the Conservative candidate in St Austell & Newquay who was previously implicated in the faking of a message that smeared her Liberal Democrat opponent, Stephen Gilbert, has now turned all elusive again:

Caroline Righton, is one of only 7 candidates across the whole south west not to respond to a BBC request to give her view on the issue of fox hunting and has pulled out of the first local radio debate of the campaign.

The BBC’s Politics Show asked the 110 candidates in the south west what they would do if given a free vote on

…

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

Liberal Democrat manifesto: advance peek

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 10:00 pm

Tomorrow Nick Clegg is launching the Liberal Democrat manifesto, but tonight The Voice can give you an advance peek at what it will be saying. We’d like to report that this is due to our cunning radio controlled artificial pigeon which we have flown in to the roof of Cowley Street and used to point a webcam at the desk of the Director of Campaigns, but instead it’s thanks to the more prosaic method of receiving email, reading it and then blogging. Ah well, next time.

But back to the manifesto and let’s start with the cover:

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Posted in General Election and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

If a party’s leader visits a constituency it doesn’t hold three times…

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 8:26 pm

… in the space of a few months, it’s a pretty big clue that the party believes it has a strong chance of winning – and almost certainly has polling or canvass data analysis to back it up.

I’m thinking of Nick Clegg and Luton South.

And why am I thinking of Luton South? Because of today’s Times which, apart from a most excellent page 16, made rather a misjudgement in reporting on Luton South and not mentioning Liberal Democrat candidate Qurban Hussain even once.

PS Michael Crick has been wondering why “in four leaflets the Lib Dem Qurban …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservative manifesto: the Liberal Democrat reaction

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 7:41 pm

Here’s the party’s line:

The Conservative manifesto is a blueprint for fake change. It is a depressing and dishonest con with a massive spending black hole at its centre, threatening an inevitable hike in VAT.

In the attached document, we detail where the Conservatives have failed to justify their promises, and why they should not be trusted with the keys to No. 10.

Commenting, Nick Clegg’s Chief of Staff, Danny Alexander said:

“The truth is that you cannot trust the Conservatives. David Cameron simply believes it is his turn to take over in the same way the two old parties have taken turns for

…

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Mark Pack

Does the location of polling stations change how people vote?

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 7:20 pm

Daniel Finkelstein poses the question, based on the finding of an academic survey:

The fact that polling stations are generally located in schools and other public buildings influences how people vote . It makes proposals to protect school funding more potent.

More in his post over on The Times.

Posted in Election law | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

The other TV election debates

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 6:10 pm

Here are the details of the debates the BBC is hosting between various Cabinet ministers and their shadows from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. All will be on the BBC’s Daily Politics show on BBC2.

Monday 19th April 2:15-3:00
The Foreign Affairs Debate. David Miliband for Labour, William Hague for the Conservatives and Ed Davey for the Lib Dems go head to head in live debate. Cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner.

Tuesday 20th April 2:15-3:00
The Crime Debate. Alan Johnson for Labour, Chris Grayling for the Conservatives and Chris Huhne for the Lib Dems go head to head …

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Posted in General Election | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Good news on turnout and engagement

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 2:20 pm

Two pieces of cheery news.

First, from the latest Sunday Times/YouGov poll:

I am so disillusioned with politics that I am seriously thinking of not voting at all in the coming general election:

Agree 15%
Disagree 73%

All things considered, 15% is a pretty low figure.

Second, from a survey of 18-25 year olds:

A survey of 18-25 year-olds, commissioned by new media age and conducted by Lightspeed Research, found 46% of those aged between 18 and 21 believe increased political activity online has stimulated their interest in the election, with the figure at 41% for 22-25 year-olds…

Posted in General Election, Online politics and Polls | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Tactical unwind or tactical rewind?

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 1:49 pm

For a long time after David Cameron’s election to leader of the Conservative Party there was widespread talk of “tactical unwind”, that is how his changes to the Conservative Party may result in much less anti-Tory tactical voting at the next general election. It’s one of the range of reasons that many Tories quote for believing that they will do better in terms of seat numbers than the overall vote numbers suggest.

However, what’s struck me for some time is how the overall political campaigning is playing out in a way that is likely to rewind the unwind.

For example, on cutting …

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Posted in General Election, Op-eds and Polls | Tagged | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

How are the party leaders doing on Twitter?

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 12:45 pm

I’ve used Edelman’s Tweetlevel tool for my monthly round-ups of how Liberal Democrat MPs are doing on Twitter, so the figures just outabout how the party leaders are doing as measured by that tool caught my eye.

Some of the headline findings are:

  • Gordon Brown wins Twitter war by volume
  • Clegg is the leader with most favourability
  • Cameron “gets people’s goats” – exciting most negative Tweets, but Cameron’s negative ratings have decreased since the call of the General Election
  • Tory NI pledge gives Cameron significant uplift in favourability
  • Over 50,000 Tweets on the party leaders since 22nd March, with nearly half of that since General

…

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Posted in General Election and Online politics | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 11:20 am

Eight blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read and post a comment?

Whether you are a new or experience blogger yourself, you may also find our compilation of “how to blog” posts useful:

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Online campaigning’s reach lags only modestly behind offline campaigning

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th April 2010 - 8:20 pm

A new survey about how many people have been reached by the online campaigning of political parties has been written up in the media as a bad news story, in more than one place, even though the data shows online campaigning reaching not that many fewer people than offline campaigning.

The Nesta survey (carried out 31 March – 9 April) found 21% of people saying they could recall emails, adverts or websites from the political parties. This compares with 27% of the electorate who say in the recent Brunel survey that they have been reached by the offline campaigning …

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

What is Labour planning on electoral registration?

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th April 2010 - 8:13 pm

As NextLeft pointed out on Twitter, Labour’s manifesto launch included a promise about electoral registration:

Labour will act ‘and legislate if necessary’ to end ‘unacceptable situation were 3m eligible voters cannot vote because not registered’

Anyone who qualifies to register is already legally obliged to, so what might this reference to possible legislation mean?

It could mean making the punishment for non-registration more stringent. It’s rare for someone to be prosecuted and it would be very much in line with the style of Labour’s approach to other issues to go for tougher punishments. However, whilst the reasons for non-registration have often been …

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Posted in Election law | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Didn’t quite turn out like that, did it?

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th April 2010 - 2:50 pm

This is from Labour’s 2005 manifesto:

Extract from Labour's 2005 general election manifesto

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Mark Pack

New government powers to snoop on your post – forced through by Labour and Tories

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th April 2010 - 12:20 pm

The ramming through of the Digital Economy Bill during Parliament’s ‘wash-up’ period has got the most attention, online at least. However there is another measure that was forced through, and this one without even a proper vote, which should have people up in arms.

A change to Section 106 of the Postal Services Act 2000 might not at first sound that important, but the change means that in future postal operators (such as the Royal Mail) can decide to detain any item of post and send it on to Customs and Excise for inspection.

Previously this could be done, but only if …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Election timetable: this week’s deadlines

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th April 2010 - 8:50 am

The deadlines coming up this week are:

  • Proclamation of dissolution / issue of general election writ: Monday 12 April
  • Statement of persons nominated for local government election: Noon on Monday 12 April
  • Receipt of general election writ: (Probable date) Tuesday 13 April
  • Publication of notice of general election: (Probable date)  Tuesday 13 April
  • Deadline for withdrawal of nominations for local government election: Noon on Tuesday 13 April
  • Deadline for appointment of election agents for local government election: Noon on Tuesday 13 April
  • General election nominations begin: (Probable

…

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Mark Pack

Is David Herdson right about Labour and the Lib Dems?

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th April 2010 - 11:27 pm

Over on Political Betting, David Herdson has several times made comments such as this:

Since the start of March, there have been sixty national opinion polls published and they have shown a remarkable consistency in the total share identified for Labour plus Lib Dems. When one party rises, the other tends to fall.

I’ve been intrigued by this because David certainly knows his stuff, but that’s not been my impression of the data – which has been that changes in Lib Dem support are more equally balanced between Labour and Tory than the much more lopsided position David suggests.

So I’ve done …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Joan Ruddock and the Iraq war: an unusual self-description

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th April 2010 - 7:50 pm

Joan Ruddock didn’t vote in four of the six key Parliamentary votes on going to war in Iraq used by the independent Public Whip website (which sorts and reformats the official Parliamentary voting records) to analyse MPs’ voting records on the war.

So how do you think Joan Ruddock describes this two-thirds absent record in a target letter to voters?

This is how:

I have always acted with integrity and stuck to my principles – voting against the government going to war in Iraq.

As local Liberal Democrat blogger Max puts it:

So, I don’t think she’s being straight at all by saying

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

Sunday Mirror plunges to new low in poll “reporting”

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th April 2010 - 11:05 am

So, you commission a poll from ComRes.

It shows a Conservative lead of 7%.

Just like the previous ComRes poll.

So what headline do you put on the story?

Why “Tory lead cut to just 7 points” of course.

Take a bow, Sunday Mirror who seems to be following in the footsteps of the Daily Mirror.

Posted in Polls | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Daily View 2×2: 10 April 2010 – featuring a Monty Python political broadcast

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th April 2010 - 9:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for some Monty Python, but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Katyn touches another Polish generation

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Stockton North: deselected Labour MP to run as an independent

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th April 2010 - 8:12 pm

The Independent has the news:

A veteran Labour MP who was deselected by his party more than two years ago has announced that he would stand at the General Election as an independent.

Frank Cook, MP for Stockton North, attacked the Labour Party, saying it was no longer the party he joined nearly 60 years ago.

Philip Latham is the Liberal Democrat candidate in the seat.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Margaret Moran makes £177,000 profit on tax-payer funded house

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th April 2010 - 5:20 pm

MPs’ expenses – the scandal that just keeps on giving:

MPs’ expenses: Margaret Moran sells taxpayer-funded Luton home for £177,000 profit

The MP for Luton South, who was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party over the expenses and lobbying scandals, bought the semi-detached property for £72,995.

She “flipped” her second home designation to the house for just one year but in that time used £22,341 of public money on it, which included the installation of a new central heating system and bathroom, a complete overhaul of the garden and the redecoration of several rooms…

Her three-bedroom house is now being sold for £250,000, making

…

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Mark Pack

Digital Economy Bill: the key decision to be made after the election #debill

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th April 2010 - 11:20 am

Although Labour, with Conservative support, managed to ram through the Digital Economy Bill, that’s not quite the end of the matter as far as votes in Parliament are concerned.

That’s because one concession the Liberal Democrats did manage to extract was the provision that no ‘technical measures’ (i.e. cutting off people’s internet connections) can be introduced for at least a year, and only then can be done so after a period of analysis and consultation. Parliament will get a chance to vote on these  measure – even if the Government is a Tory or Labour one that doesn’t want to change …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Missteps on the online campaign trail

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th April 2010 - 9:50 am

Although I’m an enthusiast for the possibilities for sensible use of the online world in political campaigning, it doesn’t always go right for people:

…

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Posted in General Election, News and Online politics | Tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

How to get your picture to appear next to your comments on Lib Dem Voice

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th April 2010 - 8:20 am

It’s been a while since we last reminded readers about this, so now seems a good time to publish the information again. You may have noticed that next to some people’s comments is a small picture of themselves, such as:

If you want a picture to appear next to your comments you need to do two things.

  1. Visit Gravatar.com, create an account

…

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Mark Pack

Racist comment not such a problem for UKIP after all

By Mark Pack | Fri 9th April 2010 - 8:51 pm

I’d previously blogged about UKIP Parliamentary candidate for Ilford South and London chair Paul Wiffen being suspended by the party after the Community Care site reported, “A senior UK Independence Party member has posted a racist comment”. Not just a brief comment, but a multiple-sentence rant about Romanians, Muslims and Africans, with an extra general insult thrown in at the end.

Now however UKIP has decided to reinstate him. As the local newspaper reports:

Mr Wiffen, who is chair of UKIP London, was reinstated after saying sorry for the email and following an internal party inquiry.

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