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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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Test your political knowledge and acumen: the answer

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th December 2009 - 11:50 am

Yesterday I posed this puzzler:

Which year was this observation made and, for double bragging rights, by who?

The tit-for-tat arguments presented in ‘balanced’ television programmes may have helped to confuse the public’s sense of the differences between the parties, and to add to their cynicism about any party’s claims to have a monopoly of wisdom. The idea that one party represented the working class and the other the middle and upper class hardly fitted the predominantly middle class university graduate character of the two front benches.

The answer? David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh in the book on the 1979 general election, …

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Posted in News | 2 Comments

Big Brother winner backs Lib Dem Kevin Lang to win

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th December 2009 - 8:52 pm

A bit of variation from the weighty national matters of the moment comes in the form of this welcome news from Edinburgh, where Kevin Lang has an excellent chance of winning the Westminster Parliamentary seat from Labour:

John Loughton, the winner of Big Brother and former Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, has joined the Scottish Liberal Democrats and today announced his backing for Kevin Lang to become the new MP for his home constituency of Edinburgh North & Leith.

John won Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack in January 2008 and served as the Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament. He went on

…

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Posted in Scotland | Tagged big brother, edinburgh north & leith, john loughton and kevin laing | 3 Comments

Test your political knowledge and acumen: place this quote

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th December 2009 - 11:50 am

Which year was this observation made and, for double bragging rights, by who?

The tit-for-tat arguments presented in ‘balanced’ television programmes may have helped to confuse the public’s sense of the differences between the parties, and to add to their cynicism about any party’s claims to have a monopoly of wisdom. The idea that one party represented the working class and the other the middle and upper class hardly fitted the predominantly middle class university graduate character of the two front benches.

Guess away in the comments thread and check back same time tomorrow to find the answer.

UPDATE: The answer is …

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Posted in News | 8 Comments

So, why can’t you call yourself an MP?

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th December 2009 - 10:26 am

The rules against people calling themselves an MP usually get a flurry of publicity in the run-up to a general election. Indeed, it’s part of the pre-election “Will it be an internet election this time?” tradition to have a story about how “MPs who use face disaster because they’ve called themselves an MP”.

This time round it’s been Twitter, with the story that MPs who have chosen a Twitter username containing “MP” will run into problems as they officially stop being MPs when Parliament is dissolved for a general election. So if they tweet during the campaign as if …

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Posted in Election law | Tagged featured, Parliament and twitter | 5 Comments

Hereward Cooke dies

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th December 2009 - 9:04 pm

The Eastern Daily Press has the sad news:

Hereward Cooke, a hugely popular Norwich priest and former leader of Norwich City Council’s Liberal Democrat group, has died while at the Copenhagen climate change conference.

The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham James, announced with great regret the unexpected and sudden death of the Revd Canon Cooke.

He died in his sleep at the age of 70…

In 2000, Hereward became involved in local politics as city councillor for the Lakenham ward and went on to be leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the city council.

He retired in 2008 and in 2009

…

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Posted in Obituaries | Tagged trevor ivory | 3 Comments

Reasons not to have an ‘early’ general election: a footnote

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th December 2009 - 5:10 pm

At the weekend I threw in another reason why Gordon Brown is very unlikely to call a general election before May.

The Times’s Danny Finkelstein has a good perspective on the issue today:

“In every election I have been involved in, there has been a last-minute rumour about an early poll date. And every one has involved a mad dash to get things ready, all those little practical details that you were going to get round to but hadn’t. Followed by anticlimax.”

Quite.

It’s sensible to err on the side of caution and be prepared (who has ever regretted being prepared in …

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged danny finkelstein, gordon brown and john major | 1 Comment

ASA bans ‘misleading’ Twiggy advert

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th December 2009 - 2:20 pm

From a party press release:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against an Olay advert containing a heavily airbrushed image of the model Twiggy on the grounds that it was misleading following a campaign led by the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats have called for airbrushed ads to be clearly labelled, and for airbrushing to be banned in adverts aimed at children.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who has led the campaign, said:

“I hope this decision marks the first step in really getting airbrushing in advertising under control.

“If advertisers think that someone as beautiful as Twiggy needs to be so heavily airbrushed, …

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Posted in News | Tagged ASA, Jo Swinson and real women | 10 Comments

Should all fun events in December have to include “Christmas” in their title?

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th December 2009 - 1:30 pm

That would seem a pretty far-fetched demand. But what else to make of the complaints from Labour councillor and Methodist Rev Paul Flowers?

Bradford Council has been involved in organising and/or publicising a large number of events this year which feature Christmas, as shown by these examples:

German Christmas Market
Christmas Light Switch On Events
Victorian Christmas Market
Bradford Christmas Street Market

There’s also the event called “Midwinter Medieval Celebration”.

Clearly Bradford isn’t banishing Christmas, but should it have to stick Christmas in the name of all events?

Well, Rev Paul Flowers has complained (in the Daily Mail):

Why, oh why, must they now resort to the stupidity

…

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Posted in News | Tagged bradford, christmas, paul flowers and winterval | 6 Comments

Furore over twitter transport joke doesn’t stop international diplomacy in 140 characters

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th December 2009 - 11:50 am

Shashi Tharoor is probably not a name familiar even to readers of The Voice who follow online politics closely, but he’s one of the highest profile politicians on Twitter. The Deputy Foreign Minister of India, he has approaching half a million followers on Twitter.

He’s had some criticism for travelling in first class air travel and staying in five-star hotels, even though in both cases he says he pays for it himself.

Asked in September whether he’d consider travelling in standard (aka “cattle class”) in future, he deployed humour: “Absolutely, out of solidarity with all our holy cows.” The result? Complaints from …

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Posted in Europe / International and Online politics | Tagged india, shashi tharoor and twitter | 1 Comment

Who has too much influence in Liberal Democrat candidate selections?

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th December 2009 - 11:50 am

This is what female members of the party’s list of approved candidates for the Westminster Parliament thought in 2007:

National leaders:
Have too little / far too little influence over the selection process: 26%
Have about the right influence: 58%
Too great / far too great: 5%
No view/ answer: 11%

Regional officers:
Too little / far too little: 21%
About right: 56%
Too great / far too great: 12%
No view/ answer: 12%

Local constituency officers:
Too little / far too little: 8%
About right: 62%
Too great / far too great: 18%
No view/ answer: 12%

Local party members:
Too little / far too little: 6%
About right: 71%
Too great / far too great: 13%
No view/ answer: 10%

Party agents:
Too …

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Posted in News and Selection news | 8 Comments

Lib Dems move to clip Mandelson’s power over copyright

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th December 2009 - 11:50 am

The Digital Economy Bill currently going through Parliament would give Peter Mandelson huge powers to rewrite the country’s copyright laws in future – and all without much in the way of Parliamentary scrutiny or checks and balances.

But Liberal Democrat peer Tim Clement-Jones has tabled an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to delete the controversial Clause 17.

He’s said:

This clause would give the Government carte-blanche to change all copyright law relating to the internet as and when they please.

Such powers are unnecessary and over-reaching and we have tabled an amendment to delete Clause 17.

Good news.

Whilst the Parliamentary Party’s approach seems to the …

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Posted in News | Tagged digital economy bill, don foster, peter mandelson, tim clement-jones and tim razzall | 8 Comments

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th December 2009 - 4:50 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 …

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Posted in Site news | Tagged featured | Leave a comment

Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith accused of avoiding £5.8m tax as non-dom

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th December 2009 - 1:07 pm

So writes today’s Observer:

Zac Goldsmith, David Cameron’s green adviser and a prospective Tory MP, has been accused of avoiding the payment of nearly £6m in tax during the past 10 years by adopting non-domiciled status.

Goldsmith, the prospective Conservative candidate for Richmond Park, is estimated to have a personal fortune of at least £200m, inherited from his late father, Sir James Goldsmith.

Goldsmith admitted last month that he had claimed off-shore “non-dom” status. Since the news became public, he has said he has given it up.

However, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, has calculated that Goldsmith is likely to have

…

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Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, richmond park and zac goldsmith | 74 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 13 December 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th December 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for feline table tennis, but first the blogs and 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:

Esther for Luton – What’s that all about then? asks Jeremy Rowe. He says, “I couldn’t honestly tell you that I’m any nearer to understanding what she believes or why she’s descended on Luton.”
ID cards – the death knell? asks Lisa Harding

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

Untouchable: Blair to give Iraq War evidence in secret

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged china, climate change, copenhagen summit, esther rantzen, id cards, iraq, luton south and tony blair | 1 Comment

‘Best MP’ competition: don’t forget to ask a question

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th December 2009 - 4:10 pm

A few days ago The Voice covered Yoosk’s competition to find Britain’s Best MP.

The shortlisted MPs are all going to be asked to answer a set of questions taken from suggestions made by the public. As our post from Yoosk’s Keith Halstead explained:

If you would like to post your own question, please visit our site here, and click the ‘ask’ button in the panel at the bottom of the page (you will be asked to register with Yoosk which is easy, but will require an email address, username and password). Alternatively, you can add your question as a comment

…

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Posted in News | Tagged yoosk | Leave a comment

A good reason for Gordon Brown not to have an early general election

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th December 2009 - 12:50 pm

I’m pretty sceptical of the chatter about Gordon Brown calling an early general election*. Here’s one the reasons which hasn’t been much talked about.

Imagine we have an early election. Imagine too that Labour manages what is probably the limit of its hopes – largest party in a hung Parliament. (Witness Labour MPs going round telling Liberal Democrats how much they now love voting reform.)

Labour then hangs on to power.

But in May along comes a round of local elections, in which Labour will – almost certainly – suffer massive losses. If you’ve got experience of a no overall majority council, you’ll …

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged gordon brown | 15 Comments

Warning: do not read this photography post if you are prone to dizziness

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th December 2009 - 9:20 am

ITN film crew is stopped by police whilst filming in central London’s financial district, the City. So much, so usual as far as “police stop innocent, legitimate use of cameras” stories go.

But in a touch of genius, it turns out that the ITN crew was filming a story … about someone who had three cars and a van of anti-terrorism police descend on him after taking photos of a church near a bank. I hope this circularity isn’t making you dizzy.

Oh, and he was wearing an “I’m a photographer not a terrorist” badge, just to add to the fun.

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Posted in News | Tagged anti-terrorist legislation, photography and policing | 9 Comments

Local blogger turns local election candidate in Barnet

By Mark Pack | Wed 9th December 2009 - 8:42 pm

Excellent news from Barnet, where Roger Tichborne – who has run an excellent blog about local issues and the council – has decided to join the Liberal Democrats and will be standing in Mill Hill.

The local newspaper reports:

Roger Tichborne, who writes the BarnetEye blog as RogT, is one of the three candidates named to fight the Mill Hill ward seats, along with standing councillor Jeremy Davies and businesswoman and Times Series blogger Kim Checchetto.

Mr Tichborne was a member of the Labour party for more than 20 years, but said recent policy decisions by the government had caused him to change

…

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Posted in News | Tagged barnet and roger tichborne | 5 Comments

Book review: British Electoral Facts

By Mark Pack | Wed 9th December 2009 - 11:50 am

For decades, FWS Craig was the doyen of British electoral statistics. His reference works were widely used and often contained facts and figures that he had created from original sources. Yet today he is almost completely unknown.

The reason? He died just before the internet took off. His hard work was locked away in reference volumes either sat on the shelves in libraries beyond the reach of an internet connection or available to purchase – at eye-wateringly expensive prices.

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Posted in Books | Tagged colin rallings, featured, fws craig and michael thrasher | 1 Comment

Boris Johnson gets a touch of the Gordon Brown

By Mark Pack | Tue 8th December 2009 - 11:10 pm

The Guardian, today:

Boris Johnson today signed City Hall up to the 10:10 climate change campaign.

Mayor’s Question Time, two months ago:

I supported the 10:10 campaign when it was launched in September, and have signed up City Hall to the initiative.

Re-announcing something you’ve already announced previously? How very Gordon Brown.

Mind you, it’s often been rumoured that Boris Johnson has his eyes on 10 Downing Street, so perhaps he’s just putting in some practice 🙂

Posted in London | Tagged 10:10 campaign and boris johnson | Leave a comment

Winston Churchill: your Lib Dem Voice reader

By Mark Pack | Tue 8th December 2009 - 11:20 am

Unsuspecting reader, you may be thinking that Winston Churchill was a fine Prime Minster, a great wartime leader, a patriotic Englishman and an inspiration to millions of Britons and generations of tabloid newspaper editors.

You would, of course, be quite wrong.

For if we apply the standards of tabloid newspaper editors to Winston Churchill, you find that the shocking truth is:

Churchill disgracefully insulted wartime heroes (by not dotting the letter i properly – just as The Sun criticised Gordon Brown for).

Churchill outrageously mocked our history (by removing any trace of Christianity or winter from the cover of his Christmas cards).

And, …

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Posted in News | Tagged winston churchill | 5 Comments

Boundary Committee recommends new unitary authorities

By Mark Pack | Tue 8th December 2009 - 8:50 am

The Boundary Committee for England has just published its report into local government arrangements in Devon (including the Lib Dem minority control council of Exeter), Norfolk and Suffolk.

In Devon, the Committee has put forward a single unitary council for the current Devon county area.

In Norfolk, the Committee has put forward a single unitary council for the whole of Norfolk.

In Suffolk, the Committee has made two proposals: a unitary county of Suffolk (the Committee’s preferred alternative proposal for Suffolk); and a two-unitary pattern comprising an Ipswich & Felixstowe authority and a Rural Suffolk authority.

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Posted in Election law and Local government | Tagged devon, local government boundary commission, norfolk and suffolk | 5 Comments

Rwandans set to get vote in UK elections (updated)

By Mark Pack | Mon 7th December 2009 - 10:45 am

Back last year I asked the question “Rwandans set to vote in UK elections?” The answer has now arrived and it is ‘yes’.

As I blogged last November:

One of the quirks of Britain’s imperial past is that Commonwealth citizens living here are able to vote, including in Parliamentary elections. This includes Mozambique residents who are able to vote because, although Mozambique was not part of the British empire, it was admitted to the Commonwealth in 1995 for political reasons.

As with Mozambique previously, Rwanda has now joined the Commonwealth despite not having been part of the British empire. In Rwanda’s …

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Posted in Election law | Tagged rwanda | 3 Comments

What does Glenda Jackson do?

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th December 2009 - 4:50 pm

My eye was caught by the figures put together by Ed Fordham, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Hampstead & Kilburn who is up against Glenda Jackson at the next general election. They are for various MPs in and around this new constituency.

Number of appearances in Hansard since 2005 general election, excluding votes
Lynne Featherstone 2,559
Sarah Teather 2,542
Frank Dobson 2,508
Average MP 1,822
Karen Buck 1,814
Mark Field 981
Rudy Vis 219
Glenda Jackson 40

In other words, Glenda Jackson would have to be an MP for 64 years in order to chalk up as many appearance in Hansard as Lynne Featherstone manages in one …

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Posted in News | Tagged ed fordham, glenda jackson, hampstead and kilburn, lynne featherstone and sarah teather | 2 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 6 December 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th December 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for a special Alan-rich (or is it Steve?) YouTube treat, but first the blogs and 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:

The truth may not be out there after all: Peter Black reports on the Ministry of Defence winding down its UFO hunting activities. The fight on terrorism has been used to justify all sorts of policies, though the argument (made by someone Peter quotes) that UFO hunting is essential to the fight against terrorism is a new one to me.
ACPO U-turn on photographers and stop and search: But talking of absurdities done in the name of fighting terrorism, Carl Minns has welcome news on the police deciding that they’ve gone too far in stopping people taking photos.

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

Harman attacks Tory tax break ‘for philanderers’

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged harriet harman, photography and rwanda | Leave a comment

Councillor is arrested after drugs incident

By Mark Pack | Sat 5th December 2009 - 6:20 pm

From the Sheffield Star:

A WELL-KNOWN councillor and former leader in Sheffield’s war on crime has been arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs.

Sheffield councillor Mazher Iqbal, a prominent member of the city council’s Labour shadow cabinet, was one of two men arrested in the Handsworth area on suspicion of possessing a controlled drug.

He has been released on police bail while officers carry out further investigations.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in News | Tagged mazher iqbal and sheffield | 7 Comments

Second Adur Conservative councillor switches to Liberal Democrats

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th December 2009 - 2:50 pm

From Gav’s View:

The ruling Conservatives in Adur have been rocked by a second defection in a fortnight, as Southlands Councillor Carl English has followed colleague Gavin Ayling in choosing to cross the floor to the Liberal Democrats

“Since my election in 2006, I have found it increasingly difficult to defend Tory policies, locally or nationally,” said Councillor English. “On the doorstep, when people have attacked the Tories, I have found myself agreeing with them more and more that Adur is being let down by the Conservative administration. When you are asked to put party ahead of people; when you’re told what to

…

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Posted in News | Tagged adur | 4 Comments

Support the Liberal Party’s 150th anniversary plaque appeal

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th December 2009 - 2:20 pm

On 6 June 1859, at Willis’s Rooms in King Street, St James, London, three groups of MPs – Radicals, Whigs and Peelites – met to formalise their parliamentary coalition to oust the Conservative government of Lord Derby and bring in a new administration under Lord Palmerston. Thus was born the first Liberal government, and the meeting in Willis’s Rooms marks the foundation of the Liberal Party.

To mark this 150th anniversary of the formation of the Liberal Party, and to commemorate the Willis’ Rooms meeting permanently, the Liberal Democrat History Group is arranging to erect a Westminster Council ‘heritage plaque’ on the current-day site, Almack House in King Street.

The cost will be approximately £1,000, so the Group is launching an appeal to meet the cost of th project.

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Posted in News | Tagged liberal democrat history group | Leave a comment

Referendum: what’s going on?

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th December 2009 - 10:45 am

As The Voice and others have covered this week, the Liberal Democrat policy on a Euro-referendum – or not – has been in the news. Understandably the media reports have caused some confusion over what the party’s current policy is – and on this occasion I don’t think the media is to blame.

The party’s policy has been that if there is to be a European referendum, it should be an in/out referendum. However, lurking behind the word “if” were two different points of view earlier this year. One group of people believed that an in/out referendum was a good …

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Posted in Europe / International and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged european union, Ming Campbell and nick clegg | 13 Comments

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 5:10 pm

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

Allum Bokhari – http://anotherliberalblog.wordpress.com/
Victor Chamberlain – http://victorchamberlain.blogspot.com/
Fortune Green Spotlight – http://fortunegreenspotlight.blogspot.com/
Simon Kaye – http://simontkaye.com/
Carl Minns – http://carlminns.blogspot.com/
Sanjay Samani – http://sanjaysamani.com/blog/

This time I note they split 50/50 between Blogger and WordPress. The debate on which is the best to use will rumble on I’m sure, though if you are a councillor don’t forget the many merits of using ALDC’s (WordPress-based) MyCouncillor system.

Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a …

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged blogging | 3 Comments