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

Councillor movements: Conservatives lose majority on Southend Council

By Mark Pack | Sat 6th February 2010 - 6:50 pm

Stockport’s Mayor, Colin MacAlister has switched to the Liberal Democrats from Labour (via Independent), whilst the Conservative deputy leader also recently switched to Independent.

That’s not the only bad news for the Conservatives though. In Aberconwy the local Conservative president (and councillor) Dennis Tew has also quit the party, switching to Plaid. Meanwhile in Southend, Jason Luty’s switch to Independent removes the Conservative Party’s overall majority on the council.

Perhaps surprisingly, Labour has also picked up two councillors recently – John McNamee from the SNP and Arshad Hussain from the Conservatives.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

How to turn a contradictory comment into a media quote

By Mark Pack | Sat 6th February 2010 - 5:43 pm

Start with this pair of sentences:

Policing isn’t about communicating with people. It’s about communicating with people.

That would be a pretty daft instant contradiction, wouldn’t it?

But wait. Let’s say “PR” instead of “communicating”. Because PR = boo! bad! nothing to do with communicating!

Policing isn’t about PR. It’s about communicating with people.

Doesn’t quite work, does it? So let’s throw in something about the nasty internet:

Policing isn’t about PR and fancy websites. It’s about communicating with people.

Ah, that’s better. Second sentence is still a bit contradictory though. So let’s add in something about cutting crime. Cutting crime and communicating aren’t contradictory of course, …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Sat 6th February 2010 - 4:20 pm

Four 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 , , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

“BAE guilty plea a damning indictment of the Government”

By Mark Pack | Sat 6th February 2010 - 2:20 pm

So says Norman Lamb, who has campaigned for corruption charges to be brought against BAE since 2001, in response to the news that BAE admits guilt over corrupt arms deals … firm pays out £300m:

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

Parliamentary candidate told to remove large helium balloon

By Mark Pack | Sat 6th February 2010 - 1:12 pm

Conservative candidate for Edmonton, Andrew Charalambous, has run into trouble with the law after tethering a large advertising helium balloon to the grounds of his office and also placing advertising hordings outside it (see photo in the Enfield Independent’s story).

Such actions normally require planning permission and although there is a special exemption for the period of an election campaign, that exemption has not yet come in to play for the general election. Despite this, Andrew Charalambous has been unapologetic, defending to the media his use balloons and posters as a matter of freedom of speech.

However, seeing how countries which …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

The most improbable MP expenses defence: my bank told me to do it

By Mark Pack | Fri 5th February 2010 - 10:29 pm

It’s a toughly contested field. But I think we have a clear winner in the “most improbable excuse for expenses claims” stakes.

Step forward David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West.

He previously took to hiding in a hairdressers to avoid answering questions about his expense claims, he was one of the MPs who voted to block expense reform in the summer of 2008 and now he’s come out with this:

Southend Echo - Amess - Bank Told Me To Overclaim

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Test your political knowledge: the answer

By Mark Pack | Fri 5th February 2010 - 11:50 am

Yesterday’s political poser was:

The Swedish election of 1956 saw a political first. What was it?

The answer? This was the first election to feature a televised debate. Forget Kennedy, Nixon and 1960: it was the Swedes in 1956 who led the way.

Congratulations to Bernard Salmon for being first with the answer.

(By the way, the 1948 US Presidential election had a set of pre and post surveys to gauge why people voted the way they did, which is why Oranjepan’s and Toby were both wrong.)

I’ll search further in the recesses of history next time to try to fox you all…

Posted in News | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

How did the media do at reporting opinion polls in January?

By Mark Pack | Fri 5th February 2010 - 9:50 am

As I blogged last month, The Voice is going to start rating the quality of the media’s coverage of opinion polls, which is often far from perfect:

There is progress, helped no doubt by the criticism from Anthony Wells and Mike Smithson, both of whom are respected by many of the relevant journalists.

However, there is still much more that could be done to raise the overall quality of such reporting, so here at The Voice we’re going to start scoring each poll commissioned by a traditional media outlet and the way in which its initial report is worded.

Once the scores

…

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Posted in Polls | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th February 2010 - 1:20 pm

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 convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

Just go to our email sign up page to start getting these emails. You can also sign up for a special once-a-week email, bringing you …

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Mark Pack

Test your political knowledge: what first took place in the 1956 Swedish election?

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th February 2010 - 11:50 am

Simple question, simple answer. But do you know it?

The Swedish election of 1956 saw a political first. What was it?

Post your guesses below and check back same time tomorrow to find out the answer.

Posted in News | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Social media’s impact on politics, part two: where to find the big impact

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th February 2010 - 10:20 am

Welcome to the concluding part of a two-part series about the real impact social media (or social networking) is having on politics in Britain. Last week I looked at the groups which face extinction; today it’s why pundits searching for the impact of social media on politics in 2010 are looking in the wrong place.

For the third general election in a row, people are lining up to debate whether or not this one will be the internet election; the election when politics radically changes in the face of the technological change that has already swept the world.

Here’s my prediction. …

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Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Luciana Berger hit by yet more Labour infighting in Liverpool Wavertree

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd February 2010 - 8:36 pm

The story so far: Labour selects Luciana Berger as their candidate for Liverpool Wavertree, despite the fact that she was also a candidate for the local elections in Camden, London. Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle attacks Luciana Berger’s selection. Off the back of her Camden connection, a Liverpool paper decides to put Luciana Berger’s Livipudllian credentials to the test; a test that she then fails.

And now there are mutterings of discontent over how the selection process was run – because it turns out that during the selection contest she was staying in same house as Jane Kennedy, the retiring …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Chaos engulfs Southport Conservatives, part 94

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd February 2010 - 7:36 pm

The infighting, missing money and resignations in Southport Conservative Party have been regularly reported over the last few years on The Voice, though our reports have only covered part (!) of the myriad events. So to keep you updated with the latest round as reported by The Champion:

The row over a letter showing infighting within the local Tory group has led to the removal of Jackie Glover as chairman of the Southport Conservative Association.

Last week The Champion reported on a leaked letter from Ken Porter, the husband of the Tory Parliamentary hopeful, Mrs Porter, to councillor Tom

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

The story behind MyDavidCameron: five lessons for everyone

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd February 2010 - 3:20 pm

Clifford Singer of MyDavidCameron, the site which lets you produce spoofs of the Conservative billboard posters such as mine, has written an excellent piece about the lessons he draws from the site’s success.

His points about humour, the role of Twitter but the much greater importance of the concept, the ups and downs of letting people create their own content and why being jolly worthy isn’t enough are all very well made. They are also widely applicable to other internet campaigning. So go and read his post.

Posted in Online politics | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

There are seven suicides for every one murder

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd February 2010 - 1:50 pm

I sort of knew this statistic already, but was quite shocked when working out the actual numbers:

Number of murders in the UK: 786
Number of suicides in the UK:  5,706

The proportion of murders which get reported in the media is extremely high compared with nearly all other crimes or forms of death. Many of the reasons for that are understandable, but one risk of giving murders such prominence is that it unbalances public perception of how many people are murdered compared with other crimes or deaths. That in turn effects the issues which politicians speak out about.

Having looked up the figures, …

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Posted in News | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

Don Foster on the Digital Economy Bill: carrot, pause and then stick

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd February 2010 - 9:10 am

Yesterday Don Foster (Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary) kindly gave over some time to talk about his views on the Digital Economy Bill and the line the party is taking. It’s a topic we’ve often covered on The Voice, particularly the question of the balance between carrot and stick in responding to internet piracy. Should the response be making it easier for people to buy legal content and a move to new business models (the carrot) or should it be a crackdown based on the existing copyright rules (the stick)?

Don’s answer was that the carrot should be tried …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

It’s better by blog: why councils should embrace blogging

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd February 2010 - 10:20 am

The January edition of Total Politics had the third in a series from me on councils and communicating. The first part, Yes, council websites can, looked at lessons from the Obama campaign for local council use of the internet. The second part, Adding some colour to council emails, looked at ways to make better use of email. Now it’s the turn of blogging.

“Councils should get blogging” – that was one of the headlines generated by a report from the local e-Democracy National e-Government project – back in February 2005.

Yet since then, although internet usage and tools have …

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Posted in Local government and Online politics | Tagged | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Chaos engulfs Conservative position on Regional Development Agencies

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd February 2010 - 8:55 am

Back in December I reported how Caroline Spelman had dropped the Conservative Party’s policy of abolishing Regional Development Agencies. Then last week Ken Clarke was reported as ordering a review of the nine English RDAs to decide what to do with them, but now the Conservative Party has denied there’s a review. So there’s going to abolish them, but not and going to review them, but not. All clear I trust?

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Jenny Watson warns Friday Returning Officers to get it right

By Mark Pack | Mon 1st February 2010 - 10:19 pm

Speaking to the conference of the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Electoral Commission’s Jenny Watson warned those planning to hold general election counts on Friday rather than Thursday night that,

There may not be a lot of sympathy for a count that declares the next day and doesn’t appear to be run efficiently.

Jenny Watson did also highlight the need to ensure accuracy saying,

It is entirely appropriate for returning officers to decide to hold the count the next day – if they are clear that this is necessary to ensure an accurate result.

But as I’ve previously pointed out, the evidence from past …

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

Forthcoming Parliamentary selections

By Mark Pack | Mon 1st February 2010 - 10:10 pm

No listing this month as there are no selections currently planned to close during February (except for one which closed at 5pm today).

    But for further details on how you could become a Liberal Democrat prospective candidate see http://libdems4parliament.org.uk.

    Posted in Selection news | 2 Comments
    Mark Pack

    How do the Lib Dem MPs compare on Twitter?

    By Mark Pack | Mon 1st February 2010 - 1:50 pm

    Although as I’ve said before I’m very sceptical of lists which rate users of Twitter by the number of followers they have, there is some merit in some of the more complex Twitter rating schemes. A good example of these is TweetLevel which, as you can see from the details on its site, includes factors such as how well people are using Twitter and how much other people on Twitter respond to them.

    So for a bit of mildly instructive fun, I’ve plugged all the Liberal Democrat MPs on Twitter into the tool to see how they rate. …

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    Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 8 Comments
    Mark Pack

    So, what do you make of this graph about gender and politics?

    By Mark Pack | Mon 1st February 2010 - 11:20 am

    Here’s the proportion of local election candidates of the three main parties who were female over the last twenty-five years. As you can see, proportions for all three parties grew in the late ’80s and since then have stalled (Lib Dems, Conservatives) or only crept up (Labour), all remaining under 40%.

    The dips every four years are due to county council elections having a much lower proportion of female candidates than other local elections.

    Gender of local election candidates

    So, what do you make of this? Does …

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    Posted in Local government and News | Tagged | 33 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Book review: How grassroots activists saved the Liberal Party

    By Mark Pack | Sun 31st January 2010 - 4:20 pm

    Mark Egan’s book Coming into Focus: The Transformation of the Liberal Party 1945-64 examines how and why the Liberal Party survived its bleakest decades and survived a run of dismal general election results. He’s not the first to look at this question but the book takes a unique approach, being based on an extensive set of interviews carried out in the 1990s with Liberal activists from 1945-64. These are supplemented by an analysis of how local party structures fared during this twenty year span.

    Whilst other studies have concentrated on issues of national policies, personalities and politics, Mark Egan draws out how the party survived thanks to its grassroots activists (and often despite the national policies, personalities and politics). He also adds a twist to the usual history of community politics:

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    Posted in Books | Tagged and | 7 Comments
    Mark Pack

    YourThurrock.com talks to PPC Geoff Williams

    By Mark Pack | Sun 31st January 2010 - 3:50 pm

    An email arrives from the editor of YourThurrock.com pointing us to a YouTube interview they’ve done with local PPC Geoff Williams (South Basildon and East Thurrock):

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    Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Two-thirds of key helicopters for Afghanistan unavailable

    By Mark Pack | Sun 31st January 2010 - 11:33 am

    A news release from the party pings into my inbox:

    Almost 2/3rd of the RAF’s Merlin helicopters, which the Government has hailed as a key part of increasing capacity and ‘ideally suited’ to Afghanistan, are incapable of carrying out their planned missions, according to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats.

    Answers to Parliamentary Questions have shown that of the 19 RAF Merlins in the ‘Forward Fleet’ (those aircraft which frontline commands are meant to be able to use), just seven – or 37% – are classed as ‘available’ (defined as ‘considered capable of carrying out their planned missions on a given

    …

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    Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Daily View 2×2: 31 January 2009, presenting RISO: The Movie

    By Mark Pack | Sun 31st January 2010 - 9:00 am

    It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for RISO: The Movie, but first the news.

    2 Must-Read Blog Posts

    What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s 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.

    It’s nearly time for RISO: The Movie. Nearly, but not quite…

    2 Big Stories

    India keeps Copenhagen pledge on emission cuts

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    Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , , , and | 3 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Crikey, I appear to know more about Liverpool than the new Labour candidate

    By Mark Pack | Sat 30th January 2010 - 1:50 pm

    A few days ago I blogged about the infighting in Liverpool Labour over the selection of Luciana Berger to be their Liverpool Wavertree candidate (majority: 2,911 over the Lib Dems) with Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle attacking her.

    As the Liverpool Daily Post pointed out, some in Labour have complained that Luciana Berger is a “young southerner”. In fact, until selection in Liverpool she was one of the candidates for the Camden council elections in London.

    So perhaps no surprise that another Liverpool paper, the Liverpool Echo, decided to put her to the test by …

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    Posted in News | Tagged and | 11 Comments
    Mark Pack

    The Saturday debate: it’s no longer about market versus state

    By Mark Pack | Sat 30th January 2010 - 8:50 am

    Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a Saturday slot posing a view for debate:

    For the last hundred years the big organizational question has been whether any given task was best taken on by the state, directing the effort in a planned way, or by businesses competing in a market. This debate was based on the universal and unspoken supposition that people couldn’t simply self-assemble; the choice between markets and managed effort assumed there was no third alternative. Now there is. Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action, enabling the creation of collaborative groups that

    …

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

    Reminder: an easy way for by-election candidates to communicate with voters

    By Mark Pack | Fri 29th January 2010 - 11:50 am

    votewise.co.uk is an independent website which lists forthcoming by-elections and candidates. It geto a decent audience, making it well worth using – but not all by-election campaigns make use of it.

    The site displays page view figures on the biography pages for each by-election candidate and the numbers (even allowing for being page views rather than absolute unique visitors) are generally impressive, with a candidate’s page typically viewed several hundred times. This traffic is driven from respectable and relevant sources, such as the Electoral Commission and search traffic from people hunting for by-election information.

    Given the number of votes it takes …

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    Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 1 Comment
    Mark Pack

    Twitter, Taxpayers’ Alliance and claims of dodgy journalism

    By Mark Pack | Thu 28th January 2010 - 9:18 pm

    Well well well, this is a bit of a rum turn of events in Cornwall.

    Councillors send tweets during council meeting.

    Western Morning News runs a story about this, taking a few potshots and quoting The Taxpayers’ Alliance slamming the councillors for this behaviour.

    One of the councillors then points out that someone from the TPA was actually sending them messages on Twitter during the meeting asking them questions.

    But TPA then say, no – they weren’t being hypocritical for criticising councillors for tweeting whilst also encouraging them because the quote they gave the press was in fact in response to being …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
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