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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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Why David Cameron was right to claim for chocolate bars on expenses

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 4:41 pm

Given my love of chocolate, today’s Daily Mirror front page at first made me happy. Four big colour photos of bars of chocolate! And David Cameron in an expenses scandal!

But once I read the story, it quickly became clear David Cameron has done nothing wrong.

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Posted in News | Tagged chocolate, daily mirror, david cameron, featured and taxpayers alliance | 8 Comments

Spelman drops Conservative pledges to abolish RDAs

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 11:40 am

So, what is the Conservative Party policy on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)?

Well, here is Iain Dale on the matter in February:

Cameron Reinforces Pledge to Abolish RDA’s & Assemblies
David Cameron has given an interview to BBC South East, to be shown at lunchtime tomorrow in which he pledges to abolish Regional Development Agencies. Good. There had been some speculation that the Tories were wavering on that commitment.

Or here is what Public Servant magazine reported last year of both Cameron and Eric Pickles:

Tory leader David Cameron has confirmed what Public Servant magazine reported in its April issue, that the Conservatives

…

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Posted in News | Tagged caroline spelman, david cameron, eric pickles and regional development agencies | 12 Comments

Peckham Labour councillor quits party

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 7:51 am

This in from Peckham Liberal Democrats:

Labour Councillor for Peckham Ward, Ola Oyewunmi has sensationally quit the party and applied to join the Liberal Democrats. In her letter of resignation she accused Labour of ‘running out of ideas, energy and time.’

Ola had been a member of the Labour party for more than 10 years and was elected as a councillor in 2006. Ola has worked with people with mental health problems for many years and it was a combination of Labour closing the emergency clinic at the Maudsley hospital and Nick Clegg’s commitment to a fairer deal for

…

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Posted in News | Tagged labour party, nick stanton, ola oyewunmi and southwark | 10 Comments

Parliamentary by-elections get four weeks shorter – and why it matters

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd December 2009 - 11:50 am

The average length of Parliamentary by-election campaign has shrunk by four weeks since the 1970s, sharply narrowing the chance for the public to find out about the candidates presented to them and stifling openness in the candidate selection processes which frequently now have to be run at break-neck pace.

The legal timetable for a Parliamentary by-election between moving of writ and polling day has some scope for variation, but essentially is three weeks. However, there is no fixed time between a seat falling vacant, e.g. due to an MP dying or stepping down, and the writ being moved.

In the 1974-79 Parliament, …

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Posted in Election law and Parliamentary by-elections | 15 Comments

+++ Labour set to legislate for a referendum on AV to be held after general election

By Mark Pack | Tue 1st December 2009 - 11:05 pm

The news from the Labour Party is that they will legislate before the general election for a referendum on PR – to be held after the next general election.

The referendum would be on AV (the alternative vote versus the status quo).

UPDATE:

The proposal raises two issues: timing of referendum and choice of options within it.

My own preference on timing would have been for Tony Blair to have stuck to his promises, and Labour to have stuck to their manifesto, with a referendum on electoral reforms years ago. But given where we are now, this proposal is the best of the options …

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Posted in News | Tagged electoral reform | 26 Comments

Libel law reform proposed by Lib Dem Lord Lester

By Mark Pack | Tue 1st December 2009 - 11:50 am

The Press Gazette reports:

Human rights barrister Lord Lester has drawn up a defamation reform bill which he says has cross-party support and would be available to whoever wins next year’s general election.

According to the Sunday Times, the Lib Dem peer’s “moderate” bill would tackle the issues of libel tourism and the huge costs to publishers of cases brought under no win, no fee rules…

Lord Lester’s bill would:

Reform the no-win no-fee which makes the costs so high for publishers that they often settle just to minimise their risks.

End the rule whereby every time a web story is downloaded it counts

…

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Posted in News | Tagged libel and lord lester | 2 Comments

Christmas posting dates 2009

By Mark Pack | Tue 1st December 2009 - 11:20 am

On the obviously very slim chance that The Voice’s activist readers haven’t already finished sending off all their Christmas cards (paper or electronic) to family, friends, deliverers, helpers, councillors, would-be candidates, favourite members of ex-party staff (hint, hint) and so on – and are still stuck using that largely nineteenth century technology, the Christmas Card – the last posting dates are:

Posting Christmas cards

International Airmail: 4 December is the earliest (varies with country)
Second Class: 18 December
First Class: 21 December
Special Delivery: 23 December

Details for other postal options and the full list of countries …

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Posted in News | Leave a comment

Majority of public think men are paid more than women for doing equal jobs

By Mark Pack | Tue 1st December 2009 - 9:40 am

According to a poll carried out last month by MORI, the majority of people believe that men are paid more than women for doing equal work.

The poll found that 52% of people disagree with the statement that men and women receive the same pay for doing jobs of equal value. Overall 40% think that men and woman are paid equally. There is however a big gender gap – 48% of men think men and women are paid equally but only 32% of women.

The poll also found that 85% of people agree with introducing “a legal requirement for employers to conduct annual pay …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged equalities and mori | Leave a comment

House of Lords reshuffle: Chris Rennard joins front-bench team

By Mark Pack | Mon 30th November 2009 - 10:44 pm

There’s been a small reshuffle of the Liberal Democrat team in the House of Lords. The most notable change is Chris Rennard joining the front bench teams for Constitutional Affairs and for Communities & Local Government.

Other changes included Sue Miller stepping down from Home Affairs, to be replaced by Sally Hamwee. Graham Tope takes over at Communities & Local Government.

The full Lords team is:

Leader

Lord McNally

Deputy Leader

Lord Dholakia

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

Lord Razzall
Lord Vallance of Tummel
Lord Sharman
Lord Cotter (Small Business)
Baroness Sharp of Guildford (Science and Technology)

Innovation, Universities and Skills

Baroness Garden
Lord Cotter (Skills)

Cabinet Office

Lord Maclennan of Rogart

Children, Schools and

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged chris rennard | 33 Comments

The FT on Zac Goldsmith

By Mark Pack | Mon 30th November 2009 - 8:45 pm

The Financial Times Westminster Blog gives Zac Goldsmith a thorough going over today over his tax affairs and his status as a non-dom.

The FT piece includes pointing out how the Richmond Conservative Party’s own website talks about their desire to crack down on non-doms and also David Cameron’s past criticisms of non-doms for not paying enough tax. I wonder if they knew they were talking about their own candidate, Zac Goldsmith, at the time…

You can read the full post about Zac Goldsmith here.

Posted in News | Tagged zac goldsmith | 2 Comments

Has Conservative candidate Margot James been breaking the law?

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th November 2009 - 11:10 pm

The BBC reports:

The Electoral Commission will be asked whether a Conservative Vice Chair has broken the law in the marginal constituency she is contesting at the next election.

Margot James is the Conservative candidate in Stourbridge – one of the most marginal seats in the country.

The seat’s current Labour MP, Lynda Waltho, is to ask the Electoral Commission for clarification of the law on “treating”.

At issue is whether Ms James might have committed an offence by hosting a lunch for a group of pensioners at her constituency home and some receptions for the local Muslim community.

I don’t know more about …

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Posted in News | Tagged electoral commission, lynda waltho and margot james | 14 Comments

Latest turnout news: bring on the curate’s egg

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th November 2009 - 4:36 pm

A rather mixed tale from the latest election turnout figures I’ve been looking at. Given how I’ve previously blogged about how figures showing turnout on the up usually get overlooked or misquoted by the media, it is only fair to present the less good evidence too.

First, Glasgow North East. Widely reported as having the lowest turnout ever in a Scottish by-election, the 33% turnout figure is certainly not good. The fall on the last general election, at 11%, puts it in the mid-range of Scottish by-elections this Parliament though, with the other changes having been -4, -6, -12 and -20. …

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Posted in News | Tagged glasgow north east and turnout | 1 Comment

Daily View 2×2: 29 November 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th November 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for cats, but first blogs and 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:

Zac Goldsmith admits to being a ‘non-dom’ and avoiding paying tax in UK: I think you can guess the general message Andrew Reeves wants to get out.
ACT: The Lib Dem Network: Simon Goldie casts his eye over the new Liberal Democrat social network.

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

Apologies for those of you, such as the editors of our rolling news TV channels who believe that a sportsman having a minor car accident should be the top story in the news with specially extended coverage. Apparently there is other stuff going on in the world, involving minor matters such as nuclear weapons and global climate change negotiations. And so…

Iranian lawmaker: Iran could leave nuclear treaty

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged ACT, climate change, iran and zac goldsmith | 1 Comment

Winterval: the Christian media has more questions to answer than local councils

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th November 2009 - 10:19 pm

It’s become a seasonal cliché of British journalism. In the run-up to Christmas there is a flurry of stories about political correctness gone mad as the word Christmas is left to one side by local councils in particular as festive lights get switched on, celebrations run and greetings cards sent out. Following hard on the heels of the flurry of stories is a series of much less noticed debunking of many of them. But why let the facts get in the way of the annual season of such stories?

This year, in fairness to the media (and perhaps partly a reflection of the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged baroness buscombe, birmingham council, dundee council, rochdale council and winterval | 7 Comments

Nick Clegg’s Eid greeting message

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th November 2009 - 7:06 pm

Via the LibDem website, here’s the text of Nick Clegg’s Eid message:

Eid Al-Adha is preceded by the day of `Arafah and is one of the important days of Hajj. Eid Al-Adha is a joyous time and reminds us of all of the importance of hard work, togetherness and family.

I send my warmest wishes at this very special time.

Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg | 3 Comments

Big increase in the number of people who say they can name their MP

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th November 2009 - 12:05 pm

A new survey out from the British Computer Society / Chartered Institute for IT says that “Only 53% of Britons can name their MP”.

Whilst it’s not a number to make democrats cheer to the rafters, the use of “only” is rather misleading as this figure is in fact a substantial increase on previous research. For example, an Electoral Commission / Hansard Society report in 2004 found that 42% could name their MP. Other previous research has also found figures under 50%.

If anything, the 53% finding is cautious (because of issues around details of research and margins of …

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Posted in News | Tagged british computer society, chartered institute for IT, electoral commission and hansard society | 2 Comments

Prime Minister removes all Christmas imagery from official Christmas cards

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 12:53 pm

In a move sure to get Christians and tabloid newspaper journalists up in arms, the Prime Minister has removed all Christian imagery from his Christmas cards.

The picture on the front of his cards does not contain any sign of angels, crosses or any other Christian imagery.

But it’s not only Christianity that has been removed, so too has all trace of winter. In a move some will suspect is making the cards a tool in the political battle over global warming, the “Christmas” cards paint a picture of a spring or summer day.

“This is an appalling case of political correctness gone …

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Posted in News | Tagged christmas and winston churchill | 13 Comments

Should copies of the electoral register be put on sale?

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 11:50 am

The Ministry of Justice is running a consultation on whether bodies such as marketing firms and charities should be able to buy copies of the electoral register to use for their direct mail and other operations. There is a high chance this review could lead to a change in the law.

There are currently three electoral registers:

The full electoral register, which is used for running elections and which is available to political parties and election candidates for them to contact voters and other electoral purposes. It is also available to various law enforcement and other public sector organisations for use in

…

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged electoral registration and ministry of justice | 16 Comments

Since when is something debated in public, in front of journalists called “hidden”?

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 9:20 am

Since yesterday, in fact. Because in an otherwise thoughtful piece on hung Parliaments in The Independent, Steve Richards made this comment:

If there is a hung parliament there will almost certainly be no formal coalition government, even if Nick Clegg and Vince Cable would like to join one. Clegg is trapped by what is known as his party’s “triple lock”, a hidden rule that might become of vital relevance. Before entering a coalition he is bound to secure the agreement of his MPs, other national representatives and the membership.

Credit to Steve Richards for knowing about this rule. But “hidden”? It …

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Posted in News | Tagged baroness barker, hung parliament, steve richards, the independent and triple lock | 3 Comments

More provisions of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 kick in

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 7:50 am

In a written answer in Parliament this week, Jack Straw confirmed that several more parts of the Polities Parties and Elections Act 2009 are now kicking in or will do so soon. There don’t look to be any surprises in the list and dates he’s given. Most importantly, the new election expense provisions with a long and short campaign period are taking force as expected.

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged jack straw and political parties and elections act 2009 | 2 Comments

Follow the yellow brick road? The Liberal Democrats’ general election campaign

By Mark Pack | Wed 25th November 2009 - 10:20 am

Here is my chapter from the Total Politics Guide to the 2010 General Election, looking at the prospects for the Liberal Democrats:

The 1997 general election turned out to be a once in a generation opportunity for many local Liberal Democrat campaign teams to gain a Parliamentary seat from the Conservatives. At the tail end of a by then deeply unpopular Conservative Government, the election saw unprecedented numbers of seats falling to the party. A few seats that were not quite gained from the Conservatives in 1997 did subsequently fall in 2001 and 2005, but it was the 1997 election with the Conservatives in government that was the main opportunity. Nearly every campaign that missed then did not subsequently win.

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Posted in Books and General Election | Tagged charles kennedy, chris fox, featured, hilary stephenson, john sharkey, nick clegg, norman baker, paddy ashdown and vince cable | 7 Comments

Liberal Democrats back campaign to free our postcodes

By Mark Pack | Wed 25th November 2009 - 8:51 am

Welcome news from the blog of Lynne Featherstone (who, apart from being a LibDem MP, is also chair of the party’s Technology Advisory Board):

We need postcodes to be owned by the public – not sold to the public. Postcodes are the basic pre-requisite for allowing services to be developed that support democratic accountability.

It’s an important issue because the Royal Mail’s decision to take a hard line in enforcing its legal rights means a range of useful public services – including ones to help unemployed people find jobs and to help residents hear about planning applications near them – have …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged don foster, ernest marples, john thurso, lynne featherstone, postcodes and tom watson | 10 Comments

Is keeping the way MPs vote secret really the way to reform Parliament?

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 11:18 pm

There’s an intriguing detail in today’s widely welcomed proposals for reforming how the House of Commons works. In a bid to weaken the power of the whips and to strengthen that of backbenchers of all parties, the House of Commons Reform Committee has recommended that MPs vote in secret for a new body that will control some of the business in the House.

Secret voting would reduce the influence of the whips certainly, but it would also reduce accountability to the public. It’s not hard to imagine a controversial decision by this new body – or a controversial election to …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | 10 Comments

“Race advisor slams Lewisham Labour over ‘apartheid system'”

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:54 pm

So reports the Lewisham News Shopper:

A RACE and equality advisor to the Mayor has resigned from the Lewisham Labour Party claiming it runs an “apartheid system”.

David Michael, chairman of Lewisham Local Police Consultative Group and Sir Steve Bullock’s advisor on community cohesion, was due to contest the Whitefoot ward in 2010 but has resigned claiming he was not supported by branch members…

Mr Michael, a resident of Catford for 26 years, says he and a number of other ethnic minority candidates have been marginalised by the party in a “scandalous apartheid system”, being put forward for unwinnable seats and given

…

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Posted in News | Tagged david michael, duwayne brooks, labour party and lewisham council | 2 Comments

“You should have slept with mayor’s wife instead”

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:04 pm

So reads the headline in today’s edition of The Star from Sheffield. It reports on the latest fall out amongst local Conservatives over the sacking of their prospective Parliament candidate for Sheffield Hallam, Daniel Gage:

A TOP Sheffield Tory told a parliamentary candidate he had to quit for missing town council meetings – but may have been able to stay on had he “slept with the mayor’s wife” instead.

Alan Ryder, deputy chairman of Sheffield Hallam Conservatives, emailed barman Daniel Gage, aged 24, after he stood down as the party’s candidate against Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg at the general

…

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Posted in News | Tagged conservative party, daniel gage and sheffield hallam | 1 Comment

Adding some colour to council emails

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:20 am

The November edition of Total Politics has the second 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. This piece now looks at email in more detail.

In October’s Total Politics I wrote about the broad lessons councils can learn from Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, for both councils and election campaigns need to communicate successfully online with large numbers of the public.

Despite this similarity of aim, many of the internet techniques which are now second nature to most political campaigns are still almost unknown in local councils. As I wrote of one example, “Whilst for political websites the email sign-up box is a near ever-present feature, on council websites it is almost never there.”

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Posted in Local government and Online politics | 4 Comments

Tavish Scott on devolution, Donald Trump, liberalism and more

By Mark Pack | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 8:08 pm

At the weekend, the Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Tavish Scott gave an interview to a group of Lib Dem bloggers meeting at the party HQ in Clifton Terrace for an ‘unconference’.

Devolution and independence referendum

I kicked off with one of the main issues in the news at the moment: should there be a referendum on Scottish independence, and hence should the Liberal Democrats be supporting one?

Tavish was scathing about the idea of a referendum, calling it an SNP trick which the party shouldn’t go along with. His argument was that there is one pro-independence party and there is a vote coming …

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Posted in Blogger Interviews and Scotland | Tagged donald trump, featured, snp and tavish scott | 8 Comments

Electoral fact of the day: turnout and age

By Mark Pack | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 11:50 am

“Nearly three-quarters (74%) of people aged 65 or over said that they had voted in the European Parliamentary elections, compared with only 13% of those aged 18 to 24.”

(From the Electoral Commission’s report in to the June 2009 elections, p.26.)

Posted in News | Tagged electoral commission, european elections and turnout | Leave a comment

Former Islington Conservative candidate backs Bridget Fox

By Mark Pack | Sun 22nd November 2009 - 3:10 pm

This just in from Islington Liberal Democrats:

John Szemerey, former Conservative parliamentary candidate for Islington South & Finsbury, has thrown his support behind local Lib Dem campaigner Bridget Fox.

“Bridget Fox and the Lib Dems offer the real change that Islington and Britain desperately needs” said John.

“It’s clear that at the next General Election, the Conservatives just can’t win here in Islington South & Finsbury. If people are fed up with Gordon Brown and his failed Labour Government, they should support Bridget Fox’s Lib Dems. The fact of the matter is that voting Conservative in Islington South & Finsbury will actually help

…

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Posted in News | Tagged bridget fox, emily thornberry and islington south and finsbury | 6 Comments