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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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The weirdest criticism of Gordon Brown, ever – FACT

By Mark Pack | Tue 10th November 2009 - 8:55 am

Weirdness is in the eye of the beholder of course. But I think I’m on safe ground on this one.

Cast your mind over the many things Gordon Brown has and hasn’t done. Plenty to criticise. Plenty of criticisms made.

But what did The Sun wheel out yesterday? In amongst the story about his letter-with-spelling-mistakes to a dead soldier’s mother was this:

He also wrote the letter “i” incorrectly 18 times – mostly by leaving the dots off them.

Yes, verily – The Sun decided to criticise Gordon Brown for not dotting all his i’s. Let’s hope he crosses his t’s or we are all …

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Posted in News | Tagged gordon brown and the sun | 5 Comments

Should Apple sell copies of Mein Kampf?

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th November 2009 - 7:32 pm

The Jerusalem Post is one of several with the story:

Apple Inc. on Friday approved for sale a Spanish-language eBook version of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, complete with a swastika application icon.

A day later, presumably due to the blogosphere uproar, the $1.99 offering disappeared from the Apple’s Application Store…

9to5Mac, a Apple Intelligence site, questioned Apple Inc.’s policy, saying, “We know the App Store won’t sell overt erotica – even eBooks carrying the ancient love manual, the Kama Sutra, have been banned from the store – so we’re really, really keen to know how come the company approved a Spanish App containing Adolf Hitler’s Mein

…

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Posted in News | Tagged apple and microsoft | 21 Comments

Mystery emailer targets Cllr Jo Crotty

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th November 2009 - 7:24 pm

The Warrington Guardian reports:

AN e-mail has been sent to every councillor in the town claiming that one of them is trying to recruit unpaid workers – ignoring national minimum wage guidelines.

Clr Jo Crotty is the target of the e-mail claiming that the Warrington South Lib Dem MP hopeful has been advertising for an intern to work for her without pay.

But the Bewsey and Whitecross member says that the mystery e-mailer’s allegations are incorrect as not only does she not have any interns working for her but it is also within legal guidelines to take on interns.

She said: “The party

…

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Posted in News | Tagged jo crotty | 3 Comments

How Mike Hancock saved George Osborne

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th November 2009 - 7:22 pm

The FT has the story:

Now here is a heart-warming tale of goodwill and political selflessness to start this cold winter day, a story of how a Lib Dem turned away an extraordinary piece of Tory intelligence and helped scupper Gordon Brown’s election plans.

Who is the man of honour in this a place of skulduggery and low politics? Arise Mike Hancock, the maverick Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth South.

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Posted in News | Tagged george osborne and mike hancock | 1 Comment

Glenrothes by-election marked register set to rise from the dead

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th November 2009 - 10:20 am

A week today, starting at 10am on Monday 16th November, an act of political record keeping resurrection will commence as the lost marked register from the Glenrothes Westminster Parliamentary by-election is recreated.

The lost of the Glenrothes marked register caused more controversy than such loses usually do both because it happened at a Parliamentary by-election and because the result in that election was, to many people, a surprise.

The Goverment’s reaction to the loss of marked registers after the 2005 general election was underwhelming. As I described it in February:

In other words : ‘we don’t know on what dates records were

…

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged andrew reeves, glenrothes by-election and marked registers | Leave a comment

Sopel on Sunday: Afghanistan

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th November 2009 - 3:49 pm

Today’s round-up from Jon Sopel of the morning political shows is now up on the BBC website, complete with clips. You can read and watch here. It’s mainly about Afghanistan, but MPs’ expenses also feature.

Posted in News | Leave a comment

Lest we forget

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th November 2009 - 10:31 am

What do we forget when we remember
What are the stories left untold
What do we think each November
As we march down that glory road
As we march down that gory road

One hundred million
Don’t come home from war
Another eight hundred million
Who lived to bear its scar
Who lived to bear its scar

Lest we forget
What they were dying for
Lest we forget
What they were killing for
Lest we forget
What the hell it was for

What do we forget when we remember…

Owen Griffiths

The British Legion’s Poppy Appeal is here.

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Daily View 2×2: 8 November 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th November 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time to find out how peanut butter is made. But first, the news.

2 Big Stories

Gordon Brown floats idea of tax on financial transactions

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s idea of a financial transactions tax has received a lukewarm response from G20 countries.

The proposal, which took delegates by surprise at the meeting in St Andrew’s overshadowed other items on the agenda.

The US said it would “not support” a transaction tax and Canada added it was “not an idea we would look at”.

The Conservatives said that Downing Street had previously “poured cold water on this proposal” and that the Treasury had called it “unworkable”.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said the leaders had agreed the International Monetary Fund should now consider the possibility of introducing an international transactions tax, which would be used to create a fund for bank bailouts. (BBC)

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged alistair darling, banking, germany, glasgow north east and gordon brown | Leave a comment

MPs expenses: the details that you’ve probably missed

By Mark Pack | Sat 7th November 2009 - 3:57 pm

The headline recommendations from Sir Christopher Kelley’s review of MPs’ expenses have been widely covered. Despite this coverage, there is a series of detailed proposals which have been largely overlooked – including one which may yet put the leaders of political parties on the spot over cases involving their own MPs which they thought they had dealt with.

You can read the full report here, but these are the details I have in mind:

Travel: “MPs should expect to be treated in the same way as their constituents in this regard, unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary. That …

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Posted in Election law and Parliament | Tagged christopher kelly, jacqui lait, malcolm rifkind and mps expenses | 6 Comments

Tories called on to disown councillor for pro-apartheid article

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th November 2009 - 11:08 pm

This in from Dover & Deal Liberal Democrats:

A Conservative Councillor from Dover who earlier this year was condemned for publishing racist jokes on the internet has re-published an article suggesting Apartheid in South Africa should have been extended.

Councillor Roger Walkden copied onto the DoverForum website a story supposedly written by a Nigerian saying that prosperity evident in South Africa today is attributable to “the white man” and asks “why were the Nelson Mandelas of this world complaining?”

Liberal Democrats have called on the Conservative Party to expel Councillor Walkden.

Antony Hook, Chair of Dover & Deal Liberal Democrats, said,

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Posted in News | Tagged antony hook, conservative party and roger walkden | 8 Comments

Imagine having a well-paid job for life

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th November 2009 - 9:07 pm

So starts Nick Clegg’s comments in the latest Channel 4 Political Slot film from the party, featuring himself and Sarah Teather talking about changing our political system:

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged electoral reform, nick clegg and sarah teather | 1 Comment

Party Election Broadcasts: BBC Trust consults on new complaints procedure

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th November 2009 - 9:20 am

The BBC Trust is running an online survey asking for views on its plans for a new complaints procedure for Party Election Broadcasts. Although the BBC generally steers clear of the content of PEBs – leaving that to the parties in question – there are often issues around who gets how many and when they are shown.

Therefore it is good to see the BBC Trust proposing a clearer and more rigorous process – and also asking for views on these proposals.

(Controversies over the content of PEBs also sometimes rears its head, though these proposals do not cover the system for …

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged bbc and party political broadcast | Leave a comment

Norwich North by-election report undermines the case for Friday counting

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd November 2009 - 11:50 am

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

Although this summer’s Parliamentary by-election in Norwich North kicked off much subsequent debate about the alleged benefits of Friday (rather than Thursday night) counts after it was counted on a Friday, a close reading of the Electoral Commission’s report into the Norwich North by-election reveals that in fact the Norwich experience undermines the case made for moving to Friday counts.

One of the arguments used for favouring Friday counts over Thursday nights is that the anti-postal vote fraud measures introduced in recent years mean that far more checking is required of postal votes than previously, …

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged electoral commission, norwich north and postal voting | Leave a comment

Slough Conservatives update: convictions upheld on appeal

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd November 2009 - 7:50 am

An update on the tale of the six convicted for postal vote fraud in Slough, courtesy of the Maidenhead Advertiser:

A pair of election fraudsters jailed for the ghost vote scandal which rocked Slough politics have failed in an appeal against their convictions.

Tory candidate Raja Mohammed Eshaq Khan … admitted conspiracy to defraud and perjury at Reading Crown Court in January and was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Mahboob Khan, 46, of Quinbrookes, Slough was convicted of conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and perjury and jailed for four-and-a-half years.

At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, both

…

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged postal voting and slough council | 2 Comments

“No one in Norfolk knows how to use Google”

By Mark Pack | Mon 2nd November 2009 - 11:31 pm

So say, umm, a Conservative from Norfolk talking about the controversy over Lizz Truss’s selection as a candidate:

John Mortimer, 62, a member of the Swaffham Conservative club in the constituency for 20 years, said … “They make out we’re stupid, saying details of her affair were on Google, but no one in Norfolk knows how to use Google”.

No comment needed really.

Hat tip: Tory Bear

Posted in News | Tagged conservative party, elizabeth truss, john mortimer and south west norfolk | 20 Comments

BBC launches new Democracy Live website

By Mark Pack | Mon 2nd November 2009 - 10:34 pm

Here’s how the BBC describes its new Democracy Live website, which covers the Westminster Parliament, the European Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly:

It brings together for the first time in the BBC, live and on demand video coverage of proceedings in our national political institutions and the European Parliament. Democracy Live builds on previously available content in the form of video streams, guides and biographies.

But the real magic lies in the site’s search function, which is unlike anything the BBC has done before.

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged bbc and theyworkforyou.com | 3 Comments

The Sunday political TV shows: senior Tories go AWOL

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st November 2009 - 4:08 pm

The latest round up from Jon Sopel of the best bits from today’s TV political shows is now up on the BBC website, including this observation:

If you think there’s a dearth of senior Tories from Sopel on Sunday, that’s because there is.

Could it be that with the MPs’ expenses scandal still raging, senior Conservatives had collectively decided it might be a good weekend to leave the microphones and make-up to politicians from other parties?

Posted in News | Tagged jon sopel | 1 Comment

The plans to cut election expenses may be dead but there are still lessons to learn

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st November 2009 - 1:49 pm

Blink and you might have missed it: first details of a discussion about ways to cut the costs of running elections are leaked and then Jack Straw promptly disowns them and kills off the discussion.

Given how weak the proposals were – and the relatively small sums involved – I think that was the right decision by Straw and, although he and Liberal Democrats are usually not the best of friends, I think there’ll be widespread agreement in the Lib Dems with his comment, “Democracy has to be paid for”. Ideas such as replacing the general election freepost leaflets with one booklet would go quite against the current appetitie from the public to hear more from individual candidates about what the believe and what they want to do.

There are, though, three lessons to learn from the ideas that were floated.

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Posted in Election law and Op-eds | Tagged electoral commission, jack straw, robin cook and turnout | 8 Comments

Forthcoming Parliamentary selections

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st November 2009 - 12:50 pm

Courtesy of the LibDems4Parliament website, here is the list of PPC selections closing this month:

Ealing North – PPC (07 Nov 2009)
Doncaster Central – PPC, Doncaster North – PPC, Don Valley – PPC (13 Nov 2009)
Central Devon – PPC (13 Nov 2009)

For further details on how you could become the Liberal Democrat prospective candidate in any of these constituencies see http://libdems4parliament.org.uk/events.

Posted in Selection news | 3 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 1 November 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st November 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. And we’ve got the definitive musical proof that Australian Premier Kevin Rudd is not US President Barack Obama. But first, the news.

2 Big Stories

Government to set up bank chains
Done well, this could be rather good news. A bit more competition in the banking sector could improve service, reduce costs and – by undermining some of the basis for massive bank profits – indirectly help deal with massive bonus payments:

Three new High Street banking chains are to be created by the government by 2015 as part of a major overhaul.

They will be set up by breaking up Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Northern Rock, the banks it partially or wholly controls after bail-outs…

The aim of the new banks is to increase competition and recoup taxpayers’ cash.

The government, which holds a 70% stake in RBS and a 43% stake in Lloyds after last October’s bailouts, hopes to announce the sell-off plans on Tuesday.

The new banks will be standard retail banks concentrating on deposits and mortgages.

They will be sold to new entrants to the banking market and not to existing financial institutions. (BBC)

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged alan johnson, banking, barack obama, david nutt and kevin rudd | 11 Comments

Mike Crockart selected for Edinburgh West

By Mark Pack | Sat 31st October 2009 - 7:51 pm

Ex-policeman Mike Crockart has been selected for Edinburgh West, the constituency currently held by Lib Dem John Barrett who is retiring at the next general election. The Press Association reports Mike Crockart as saying, “I’m over the moon to be elected, but I’m taking nothing for granted.”

Best of luck with the campaign Mike.

Posted in Selection news | Tagged john barrett and mike crockart | 4 Comments

David Nutt: why was he sacked?

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th October 2009 - 6:13 pm

Earlier today Home Secretary asked the Government’s chief drugs advisor, Professor David Nutt, to resign. The government line is that he was “asked” to resign but, outside the world of pedantic spin doctors who watch too much of The Thick of It, being “asked” to resign is the same as being sacked.

But what’s more concerning is the reason for him being removed. The Home Secretary has said the reason for sacking him is that, “I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy”.

But David Nutt isn’t being accused of getting evidence wrong (even though some of it gets into …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged alan johnson, chris huhne and david nutt | 53 Comments

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th October 2009 - 12:50 pm

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

Chris White – good to see another councillor using ALDC’s excellent MyCouncillor system.
Giles Wilkes – a think tank blogger spawns his own blog, which is an interesting take on the question of why there are so few successful think tank blogs. His explanation? “‘Institutional’ blogs look and feel terrible. You need individual personality.”
Jeremy Rowe – do not look at the photograph on this post if you are easily scared.
John Ault – the man who triumphed on Top Gear turns to blogging.
Nigel Roberts – a

…

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged blogging, chris white, giles wilkes, jeremy rowe, john ault, nigel roberts and roger harmer | Leave a comment

LibLink … Ed Davey: The Wrong Brit for the Wrong Job

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th October 2009 - 8:53 pm

Over at The Independent, Ed Davey writes about the possibility of Tony Blair becoming the EU’s President:

It’s a long-standing gripe of pro-Europeans that historically Britain has played a poor hand in Europe. Too often disdainful, disengaged or domestically divided, Labour and the Tories have sold the country short. For different reasons, their posturing over Blair’s presidential ambitions is in danger of throwing away another golden opportunity for Britain.

Labour’s push for Blair is wrong on two counts. Firstly, he is simply too soiled for export. His disastrous decision to side with President Bush over the invasion of Iraq was horribly divisive

…

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Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Tagged ed davey and tony blair | 7 Comments

Your Caroline Righton reader

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th October 2009 - 8:08 pm

On Sunday Stephen blogged about the behaviour of Caroline Righton, the Conservative candidate for St Austell & Newquay, whose campaign is being accused of faking a message about her Liberal Democrat opponent, Stephen Gilbert, in a botched smear attempt.

The story has also been taken up on quite a few other Lib Dem blogs so, bearing in mind that our readers often ask for more links through to stories on other Lib Dem blogs, here is a selection of the most recent posts:

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Posted in News | Tagged caroline righton and stephen gilbert | 2 Comments

Scientology convicted of fraud in France

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th October 2009 - 12:50 pm

Back in May I blogged about the then forthcoming trial for fraud the Church of Scientology was facing in France. A quick update seems in order now that the case has taken place:

Two flagship branches of the Church of Scientology in France have been sentenced to pay fines of over €600,000 (£550,000) after being convicted of “fraud in an organised gang” today by a court in Paris.

The judgment against the Scientology Celebrity Centre and a related bookshop in Paris is one of the most important to involve the controversial organisation in recent years.

The judges stopped short of the total

…

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Posted in News | Tagged scientology | Leave a comment

Illegal file-sharing: what does the public think?

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th October 2009 - 12:30 pm

The latest Ofcom survey of internet users in the UK shows that less than half believes downloading shared copies of copyright music and films should be illegal. 42% say it should be illegal, against 33% who believe it shouldn’t be illegal and 25% who don’t know.

I’m not aware of comparable figures for other laws, but 42% strikes me as being a very low figure. It highlights another problem with the Government’s dalliance with taking tough (sounding) measures to enforce the law. Though Labour now is backing away from the idea that someone could be cut off from the internet …

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Posted in News | Tagged internet piracy and ofcom | 9 Comments

David Lammy and Quentin Davies provoke warning from Treasury over ministerial behaviour

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th October 2009 - 11:50 am

Rapid criticism of Public Accounts Committee reports from Quentin Davies (defence minister) and David Lammy (higher education minister) have resulted in the Treasury issuing a memo warning that such behaviour can result in ministers being censured.

As the November edition of Public Servant reports:

An attack by two ministers on parliamentary reports revealing waste and incompetence in their departments has provoked the Treasury to warn that ministers will face public censure if they make immediate statements to the media on future reports.

Statements by defence minister Quentin Davies and higher education minister David Lammy have led to a new Whitehall member to accounting

…

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Posted in News | Tagged baby p, david lammy, iain dale, lynne featherstone, public servant, quentin davies and sharon shoesmith | Leave a comment

Sopel on Sunday: best of the Sunday political shows

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th October 2009 - 3:36 pm

Here it is.

Posted in News | Tagged jon sopel | Leave a comment

Welcome to Iain Roberts

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th October 2009 - 10:52 am

A parish notice from the team here at The Voice. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that a new person has recently joined the team in the LDV Towers – Iain Roberts.

Iain was elected a councillor earlier this year for Cheadle & Gately, in north west England. You can follow his local work as a councillor here, but he’s been active in the party for many years prior to this election. Indeed, back in 1992 he founded Hairnet, an email discussion list for the then Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS, the forerunner to Liberal Youth). That makes him one …

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Posted in Site news | 4 Comments