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.

Is this an indictment of MPs … or of journalists?

Paul Waugh has blogged today about the question of how long MPs spend in the Commons. As one might expect of a blog which is rapidly moving up many people’s ‘must read’ lists, it’s a better piece than many of those written on the topic. He does give a few outings to the point that if an MP is absent from Parliament, that doesn’t mean they are not working:

A combination of generous holidays and reformed hours means that many MPs now have what is effectively a three day week (tho in some cases it is a two-and-a-half day week).

Posted in Parliament | Tagged | 6 Comments

Labour’s new membership leaflet shows just how unpopular even they think Gordon Brown is

It’s a membership leaflet from Labour.

One side is covered by a large photo of a politician addressing a crowd.

Gordon Brown perhaps? No.

Or even another Cabinet minister? No.

Or a popular figure from the past? No again.

Instead, they seem to have decided they’re all so unpopular that the way to get someone to join Labour is to use the picture of the leader of another country:

Labour recruitment leaflet

The reverse does have one mention of a Labour member. Admittedly it’s their General Secretary Ray Collins, and he only gets named in …

Posted in News | Tagged | 10 Comments

Ministry of Defence under fire following new report into accommodation for the military

The National Audit Office has a new report out which finds that:

While 52% of Service families feel their accommodation is in a good condition, 31% are dissatisfied with the condition of their property.

The MoD is currently undertaking a programme to upgrade Service family accommodation. In the last two years it has upgraded some 1,700 properties and will continue upgrading an average of 800 per year. At the current rate of upgrade, it would take some 20 years before all properties reached condition 1 (the highest of four standards)…

the MoD also has 9,170 vacant properties. This is 18% of its housing

Posted in News | Tagged and | 1 Comment

David Lammy demonstrates how not to carry out a public consultation

The Open Rights Group blog has the story, pointing out how the deadline for comments on the Digital Britain Report was followed so swiftly by a press release that it’s hard to believe that the views submitted by people to the consultation were really considered:

Last Thursday the Open Rights Group along with many others made a submission in response to the Digital Britain Report. In that submission, we said:

This action has the potential for much harm. We call on the final Digital Britain report to
reject the idea of a ʻrights agencyʼ.

Less than 12 hours later,

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

‘Tory new boy apologises for Lib Dem baby rapist comparison’

Headline from the Welwyn & Hatfield Times pretty much says it all, though long-term LDV readers may also be interested in Grant Shapps’s involvement:

A FORMER councillor who branded Liberal Democrat policy as a bigger danger to children than a baby rapist has said sorry.

Sam Smith had caused uproar after posting comments on an internet forum run by Tory MP Grant Shapps.

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment

Why are you a Liberal Democrat?

The Harrogate conference rally was preceded by a film of various people explaining why they are a Liberal Democrat, including a particularly pithy contribution from Paddy Ashdown right at the end:

Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged | 7 Comments

Why David Laws was right

Appearing on the BBC earlier today, David Laws made the point that the Conservative Party’s lead in the opinion polls is fairly modest at the moment compared with Labour’s in the run-up to 1997.

This led Mike Smithson to blog:

Why’s the LD schools spokesman getting it so wrong?

You’ll have to indulge me if you think I’ve banged on about this too much – but I have a real “bee in my bonnet” about the phoney invalid polling comparisons that journos, pundits and politicians are rushing to make when they compare the polling position at the moment with what went on

Posted in Polls | Tagged and | 21 Comments

Keeping your social network presences under control with NutshellMail

One of the most common reasons I hear people give for not joining a social network site such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is, “I know it’s useful, but where would I find the time to keep up with what’s happening?”

A typical way of tackling, at least in party, this dilemma is to go through carefully tweaking your email alert settings on each service, so that you get emails for the information you want to know about – but nothing more. Then you can set up some rules and a folder in your email program to file these alerts conveniently together in one place, away from the immediate urgent items in the inbox.

It’s what I’ve been doing, but it can take a bit of time to create and refine the setup. And for many people saying “set up an email rule” is rather off-putting. It may not be nearly as hard as they think, but whatever the reason, if they’ve been put off then that’s that.

Enter then, stage left, NutshellMail.

Posted in Online politics | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments

Banks getting taxpayers’ money should not be dodging paying tax

From Politics Home:

Mr Clegg said that not only should a gagging order preventing the release of documents showing how Barclays help companies avoid tax be lifted immediately, but any bank which has received taxpayer help should stop aiding tax avoidance.

He said it is, “simply intolerable to have taxpayers pass billions through the front for, whilst banks avoid billions in tax through the back door.

Posted in News | Tagged and | Leave a comment

‘Sent back by Britain. Executed in Darfur’

So reports The Independent today:

A failed asylum-seeker who returned to Darfur under a government repatriation scheme has been murdered by Sudanese security officers after they followed him home from the airport in Khartoum, The Independent has learnt.

Adam Osman Mohammed, 32, was gunned down in his home in front of his wife and four-year-old son just days after arriving in his village in south Darfur.

The case is to be used by asylum campaigners to counter Home Office attempts to lift the ban on the removal and deportation to Sudan of failed asylum-seekers. Next month, government lawyers are expected to go to

Posted in News | Tagged and | 1 Comment

Ooops! Someone forgot to double-check a written answer in Parliament

The last five words are not perhaps the best in this written answer from last year:

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many letters his Department has received (a) in favour of and (b) opposed to post office closures in the last 12 months.

Mr. McFadden: The Department does not hold this information in the form requested. I understand that, nationally, Post Office Ltd. has received over 180,000 pieces of correspondence in response to the local area plan consultations on its Network Change proposals, half by e-mail (or …

Posted in Humour and Parliament | 1 Comment

Are you squandering the votes of 1 in 10 of your supporters?

The latest Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties (Volume 19, Number 1) has some interesting research into how many votes people cast in English local elections where this is more than one vacancy to be filled at once, e.g. a three member ward with all the seats up for election at once:

7-15% of total potential votes are unused …

Unused votes occur when electors have a restricted choice of candidates, principally when parties fail to field as many candidates as there an available seats … unused votes stem from a misunderstanding of the electoral procedure … even when parties

Posted in What do the academics say? | Leave a comment

City Hall, a lift, a barchart, a photo

Photographed this week inside a London City Hall lift: a barchart showing how good or bad different GLA departments have been at replying to a survey.

City Hall survey response rates

The worst performer by some margin? The Mayor’s Office. Ah well, nothing like leading by example from the top is there?

Posted in London | 1 Comment

What did Voltaire really say?

Liberals frequently quote Voltaire saying, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. But did he really say it? The provenance of this quote is often given as disputed, but Danny Finkelstein in The Times this week had an excellent summary where those words really came from. You can read his piece here.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments

Peter Mandelson vs Norman Baker

From the Daily Mirror:

Lord Mandelson yesterday was at the centre of a secrecy row after refusing to reveal his business interests.

The Business Secretary has placed all his shareholdings in a blind trust – meaning they cannot be seen by the public…

Lib Dem MP Norman Baker said: “He must know what has been put in and we ought to know too or it subverts the announcement.” No10 said: “The point is Lord Mandelson doesn’t even know, therefore it doesn’t affect his decisions.”

The Downing Street ‘rebuttal’ strikes me as particularly weak, because if you’ve put a whole load of investments in …

Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments

Slough Conservatives update: three convicted of electoral fraud

An update on our story from April last year:

Three men have been found guilty of charges relating to election fraud in a Berkshire town.

The counts related to an election in the Slough Central ward in May 2007 where Labour councillor Lydia Simmons lost her seat to Tory Raja Khan.

Khan, along with two others, had previously admitted the offences. Three other men were convicted by a jury. (BBC)

In addition to the three who pleaded guilty and the three who were convicted, a seventh man was cleared after the jury could not reach a verdict on him.

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment

Opinion: Can Google’s dominance be broken?

Google dominates the search engine market, both in the UK and internationally. Although there are some countries where a local search service has the lead (e.g. Russia), overall Google is undoubtedly number one.

The world however is full of companies which used to be massive, even dominant, but fell from grace. Remember the days when Novell dominated the server market? Or watch Blade Runner and look at the brand names used back then, firms so big that it was easy to believe the future would include them. Names such as Pan-Am.

So could Google too fall from grace? And if so how?

Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged | 9 Comments

Mainstream media catches up with concerns over Haringey Chief Exec Ita O’Donovan

Evening Standard, 12 March 2009:

The head of the council at the centre of the Baby P scandal faces questions today over a series of other child protection failures.

Haringey chief executive Ita O’Donovan has held senior positions at three councils that were condemned for failing children so seriously that the Government was forced to intervene.

Dr O’Donovan has worked in authorities embroiled in some of the country’s most shocking child deaths. She has said she considered resigning over the Baby P tragedy but decided the council needed stability.

She was in charge of Stoke-on-Trent council when 15-year-old Gareth Myatt choked and died

Posted in Local government and News | Tagged , and | Leave a comment

What would you ask Paddy Ashdown?

Paddy Ashdown is being interviewed next week by Iain Dale for a piece to appear in Total Politics magazine. Iain’s soliciting ideas for questions or topics to cover, so post up your suggestions below.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 8 Comments

Police investigate Labour’s Lewisham by-election campaign

Dave Hill reports:

Lewisham police are investigating a campaign leaflet published on behalf of two London Labour Party byelection candidates to consider if it transgresses electoral law. The leaflet, which appears to have been distributed on polling day during the recent campaign for Lewisham Council’s Downham ward, claimed:

Our exit polls show: the BNP winning in Downham. It’s more important than ever to VOTE LABOUR TODAY

Lewisham has confirmed that its returning officer has passed the leaflet to the police, who are looking into any breach of the 1983 Representation of the People Act. This sets out restrictions relating to the use

Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments

A surprising result of the economic downturn: the death penalty in the USA

CNN reported earlier this month:

Budget concerns force states to reconsider the death penalty
… Amid a time of economic turmoil some legislators in Kansas and elsewhere say the price of justice is too high. They have introduced legislation to take the death penalty off the books over financial concerns…

“Because of the downturn in the national economy, we are facing one of the largest budget deficits in our history,” state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican, said in an opinion piece posted on TheKansan.com Friday. “What is certain is we are all going to have to look at new and creative ways to

Posted in LDVUSA | Leave a comment

Quite simply, the best headline in a Labour leaflet – ever

Courtesy of the Hull Labour Party, from the May 2008 elections. You can’t really argue with that headline can you?

Labour leaflet, Avenue ward, Hull, 2008

Posted in News | Tagged | 12 Comments

Conservative councillor news

Harrow: “Eileen Kinnear has been expelled by the Tories for ‘a number of serious group breaches’ … Councillor Kinnear, who represents Harrow on the Hill ward, is the second Conservative to face the boot in the past six months” (Harrow Observer. And do check out the picture.)

South Dorset: “Top Tory from Crossways guilty of theft and forgery … The prosecution claims the total amount stolen is around £58,000 but the defence believes the figure to be in the region of £30,000.” (Dorset Echo)

Poole: “Two Conservative councillors, who were previously suspended, have been expelled from the ruling party group. …

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments

Somehow I think that if this was a Lib Dem council, there would be a whole load of Tory bloggers hurling insults…

From the Daily Mail:

They’re never going to have to deal with a difficult route across country, or conquer the maze of an inner city.

In fact, the trickiest test of navigation they are likely to face is getting from one side of a field to the other.

But that hasn’t stopped council chiefs buying a set of sophisticated satnavs – for their fleet of lawnmowers.

They spent £6,000 hooking up the devices to 14 mowers because gardeners claimed they kept getting lost in long grass…

Launching the system this week, David Parsons, leader of the Tory-led council, said wet weather and

Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments

Things you should know if you’re going to make a sales pitch to me

I receive a fair few phone calls from people wanting to sell the Liberal Democrats the latest / neweset / best technology. So I thought I’d share some tips on how to ring me. Alas, all of these are based on actual events. The worst sales call I can recall managed six of these in one nine minute call of pure joy.

1. If you’re ringing an organisation, it’s a good idea to get its name right. And no, I don’t work for “The Democratic Party”. (If you’ve got any doubts on the importance of this, try ringing M+S to sell …

Posted in Humour | 27 Comments

Brian Coleman and large sums of money – again

The Evening Standard reports:

‘Marmite mayor’ with four different jobs earns £104,000 plus expenses
A leading London Tory at the centre of an expenses row is on a six-figure pay package funded by the taxpayer.

Brian Coleman will become Mayor of Barnet in May after he was nominated by fellow councillors – taking his annual pay for a variety of public roles to £104,503.50.

He is also a London Assembly member and chairman of the capital’s fire authority. As a council mayor, he will be able to claim thousands of pounds extra in expenses.

It comes after Mr Coleman was criticised for claiming £2,275 travel

Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments

Makes you proud to be British, part 94

Perhaps it’s a good thing the Daily Mail thinks I’m a foreigner, because if I was British I’d have to be rather ashamed of my country today:

Baby’s DNA was held on database … Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said it was “ludicrous” to have stored the DNA profile. He said: “It is illegal, immoral and ineffective to keep the DNA of a baby on a national police database as if they had committed some felony.” (BBC)

and

Britain has been accused of taking part in US “renditions” of terror suspects in a United Nations report. UN Special Rapporteur

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments

Police investigate Tory councillor after comments broadcast on YouTube

The Leicester Mercury reports:

Police are investigating remarks made by a councillor at a meeting to discuss plans for a travellers’ site.

Robert Fraser, county councillor for Groby and Ratby, said Romanians would “stick a knife in you as soon as look at you”, and that some Europeans “make the Irish look like complete amateurs”.

Travellers’ spokesman, Alfred Kefford, said he was outraged by the Conservative councillor’s “racist” comments.

He heard them after footage of the meeting was posted on video website YouTube. He complained to the police.

Today, Coun Fraser, a former county council member for equality, apologised and said he

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments

What’s the point of switching to individual electoral registration?

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

After a long period of stalling, the Government recently finally announced a timetable for switching Britain’s electoral registration system from one based on households to one based on individuals. The Electoral Commission, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats have been calling for such a switch for a long time, but what’s the reason for making the switch?

The current electoral registration system is based on one registration form being delivered to each household, with the head of the household completing the form on behalf of everyone there and sending it back (“household registration”).

One reason therefore for …

Posted in News | Tagged and | 5 Comments

Labour Mayor quits, sort of, following corruption probe

Stoke-on-Trent Mayor Mark Meredith has been arrested and questioned as part of the police investigation into plans to close the splash pool in Burslem. The closure plans were defeated in June 2008 after vigorous public protests.

The Sentinel reports:

The 43-year-old has stepped down from all his major political roles as he fights to clear his name over what he calls “unfounded and politically motivated” allegations against him.

But he is still working on key housing, sport and leisure policies for Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Meredith had been questioned by police on Friday after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and complicity

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
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