Category Archives: Party policy and internal matters

Anything to do with Lib Dem internal business, including policy development, consultations, rules and constitutions.

Mark Pack

What happens if someone tries to join the Liberal Democrats?

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th January 2012 - 10:55 am

No reply. That’s what happens a third of the time if a member of the public contacts a Liberal Democrat local party via the internet according to a ‘mystery shopper’ exercise I carried out earlier this month.

Taking the publicly advertised email addresses for 25 local parties, I tried sending them all a test email from someone asking about joining the party. Just under two-thirds responded within 48 hours, which is a good response time. However, beyond that there were only a couple of further replies and the others have, after more than two weeks, not replied at all.

It is a …

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Mark Pack

How should Diana Wallis be replaced?

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th January 2012 - 11:22 pm

A question for Liberal Democrat members to mull… Under the law used for regional list elections, the decision over who should take over following Diana Wallis’s resignation as an MEP is up to the party (technically, the party’s Nominating Officer).

The general assumption in the past has been that if a list member stands down, it is whoever would have got their place on the list that takes over. That is the process followed in the past, such as in deciding Liz Lynne’s replacement as an MEP on her retirement or Lynne Featherstone’s replacement as a GLA member on her election …

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Norman Lamb MP

Our time to lead the debate: Employee ownership

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 17th January 2012 - 11:29 am

In the debate on so-called crony capitalism two things are clear. First there is genuine and widespread anger at corporate greed and irresponsible capitalism. Second, politicians from the left have been groping around, without much success, trying to come up with convincing responses. Ed Miliband drew a distinction between producers and predators. But he failed to offer any answers.

We see power and wealth concentrated in the hands of the few – the benefits of success going to those at the top rather than being fairly shared between all those who generated that wealth. Even worse, company bosses too often get …

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Also posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged and | 10 Comments
NewsHound

The Beveridge Group announces its relaunch

By NewsHound | Tue 10th January 2012 - 12:18 pm

The Liberal Democrat Voice team have received a press release from John Pugh MP, which may be of interest to those in the Party keen to engage in debate on policy and philosophy.

With an eye to the new parliamentary year and forthcoming legislation, the Beveridge Group has reformed and a new updated website is already up and running. The initiative follows widespread concern inside and outside parliament as to where Coalition policy on public services may be going.

We want to prompt a proper debate as to where the …

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Also posted in News | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Chris Fox did next

By Stephen Tall | Fri 6th January 2012 - 3:45 pm

It’s four months since we reported the departure of party chief executive Chris Fox, who did such a good job of filling the big shoes of his predecessor, Chris Rennard.

Apparently, though, there is life beyond the Lib Dems — as PR Week reports:

Chris Fox today started in his newly created post of director of group comms at London-listed GKN, which employs around 40,000 people in 30 countries. … In an internal email to Liberal Democrat colleagues, Fox said there had ‘been few dull moments’ during his three-year spell with the party, adding: ‘I am looking forward to

…

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Helen Duffett

Richard Thomas is Welsh Lib Dems’ new Chief Executive

By Helen Duffett | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 5:32 pm

Richard Thomas started today as the Chief Executive of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

The BBC reports:

The Welsh Liberal Democrats’ former head of communications has been appointed as the party’s chief executive.

Richard Thomas takes up the post as the Lib Dems get ready for local elections in all Welsh councils in May.

He takes over from Joanne Foster who now works for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

As well as his previous job with the party, he has worked for Lib Dem MPs and as a public affairs consultant.

Here’s how Richard shared the news on Twitter:

…

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Mark Pack

How you can help make the workings of party committees more accountable

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 1:50 pm

One issue which comes up regularly in different ways is party members feeling they do not know what the party’s federal committees are up to in their name. Without getting too lost into the rights and wrongs of each individual case, I think we have a problem from both ends – committee members do not communicate enough and also members do not get in touch with them enough.

The way to break that is to improve the basic flow of information, so more information comes out from committees, prompting members in turn to ask and lobby more, prompting committee members in …

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4 Comments
Mark Pack

The four things the new party Chief Executive must prioritise

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st January 2012 - 11:50 am

Dear Tim,

Congratulations on your appointment as Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats. You take up the post in tough but exciting times.

Even if you were not one person but a superhuman army of fifty you would not be able to do all the things party members and staff are saying they want from the new Chief Executive. As you are but one person (I hold out hope on the superhuman front) you will inevitably have to pass up on many of these demands.

Picking the right priorities will be central to being a successful Chief Executive and so here are the four priorities I think you should pick.

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Mark Pack

Get your skates on and submit a motion to Liberal Democrat conference about wealth taxes

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th December 2011 - 9:25 am

Nick Clegg’s recent ‘open society’ speech confirmed that increases taxes on wealth in some form is very much on the political agenda. However, the default party policy option – a mansion tax – was highly controversial in the party when it was introduced (which is rather a polite term for the rolling lesson in how to bungle a policy launch, annoy MPs, irritate party members and feed negative stories to the media all in one fell swoop).

In other words – now is a very good time for the party to be debating what form of wealth taxes it favours, especially after the opportunity was missed at the party’s autumn conference. As I wrote at the time in Tax: The missing ingredient from the Liberal Democrat conference agenda,

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Giorgia Gamba

Say hello to OSKAR – Lib Dems’ Online Skills and Resources website

By Giorgia Gamba | Thu 15th December 2011 - 11:21 am

It is recognised that the Liberal Democrats offer their members the best and broadest range of conference training of all three main political parties. Training is delivered at Federal and Regional Conferences, through Winning Teams as well as at specific events organised by local parties across the country.

However, we know it is not always easy for Lib Dem busy members to attend training, and limited resources mean that trainers cannot always reach as many people as they would like within the party.

To extend the reach of our training offer, I have been working on sourcing, implementing and developing online training …

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Caron Lindsay

Scotland’s new Executive, Policy and Conference Committees chosen

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th December 2011 - 2:25 pm

Scotland recently held its internal elections to determine the make up of its Party Committees and Office Bearers.

Only one office bearer post was contested, that of Vice Convener (Campaigns and Candidates). That election was won by Katy Gordon, former candidate for Glasgow North and the Glasgow Regional list and Convener of Scottish Women Liberal Democrats.

Office bearers continuing in post are:

Convener: Craig Harrow

President: Malcolm Bruce MP

Deputy Leader: Jo Swinson MP

Vice Convener (Policy): John Edward

Vice Convener (Conference): Shabnum Mustapha

All committee elections except Conference Committee are conducted by all member ballot. Scotland allows all members a vote at Conference, but only those who …

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Also posted in Scotland | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Two cheers for the English Party: more campaigning allowed in Parliamentary selections

By Mark Pack | Thu 8th December 2011 - 7:51 am

What would you think of a party selection process for candidates which involved putting all the shortlisted names in a hat and picking one out at random to be the winner? Not a lot, but the reasons why that is a bad process have often been neglected in the writing of the party’s selection rules.

Proper contests make for a healthier party

That is because a selection process is not about giving everyone an equal chance – go for a raffle if that is what you want – but about letting those who are most suited for the job demonstrate their …

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2 Comments
Harry Matthews

Can’t host the Olympics? Host Liberal Youth Conference instead!

By Harry Matthews | Fri 2nd December 2011 - 10:25 am

It’s an exciting time for political activists. The Eurozone is melting down, the economy is stagnating and people are getting angry about pensions. Well, that last one perhaps doesn’t affect Liberal Youth members as much, but Liberal Youth Conference is a chance for young people to meet up, discuss policy and (perhaps most importantly) have fun along the way!

Hosting Liberal Youth Conference is a great opportunity for your local party: 30, or even more, willing young activists to get out there and help you on a delivery round (at the last Liberal Youth Conference in Colchester, delegates delivered 2000 …

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James Kempton

Liberal Democrats Police Policy Review – have your say

By James Kempton | Thu 1st December 2011 - 4:18 pm

What is the role of the police in society? Does it go beyond simply cutting crime and acting as law-keepers to include working with local communities in ways that are sometimes characterised as acting more as “social workers” or “youth workers”?

How should forces work together following the introduction of the new Police and Crime Commissioners? How do we break down barriers between forces to encourage the sharing of best practice and increased cooperation? What needs to happen to ensure that the new Police and Crime Panels (PCPs) act as a check on the power of the Commissioner and are effective …

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The Voice

Tim Gordon appointed new Liberal Democrat Chief Executive

By The Voice | Mon 28th November 2011 - 1:01 pm

Here’s the news from the party:

Tim Gordon brings to the role a lifetime of commitment to the Party, as a volunteer, campaigner and candidate, but also a strong commercial background and clearly demonstrated leadership qualities.

Tim Gordon has been a Party activist since his teens, when he first volunteered for the SDP “Yes to Unity” campaign, and has since campaigned in every major election. He stood as parliamentary candidate in Rotherham in 2005. He worked as a researcher for David Steel when he was Foreign Affairs spokesperson, and has been a member of several policy working groups over the years. He …

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Opinion: Why Liberal Youth is worth funding

By Tom Wood | Fri 25th November 2011 - 4:53 pm

On Saturday morning the English Council will debate their budget for the year ahead which, for the first time in at least ten years, will not include a rebate for Liberal Youth membership.
 
The English party is the Youth party’s single largest source of funding. Immediately cutting off this funding with such short notice will leave our organisations unable to meet its most basic operating costs and permanently cripple our youth party.
 
I know, like everyone else, these are tough times financially for our party; however Liberal Youth performs a vital role for young people and for the party

…

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Jake Holland writes: Connect is here to help you win

By Jake Holland | Wed 16th November 2011 - 3:25 pm

All Liberal Democrat campaigners will agree that there’s no worse feeling at the end of a hard-fought election campaign than losing by a handful of votes.

In the 2010 General Election, we were less than 1000 votes away from winning in 10 constituencies. Analysing these results, it was clear that our campaign technology had fallen behind the other two main parties. Tasks that our opponents took for granted, such as linking a campaign system directly to a website, or organising a nationwide volunteer phone bank, were beyond our capabilities.

Connect is the cutting edge in campaign technology that will put us …

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Also posted in Online politics | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

Moving to CONNECT

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 4:25 pm

The all-member edition of Liberal Democrat News recently posted out included this piece from myself about the party’s new electoral database software, CONNECT:

One of the big talking points amongst party activists at the Birmingham conference was CONNECT, the party’s new electoral database software which was put through many demonstrations to different groups of future users – data officers, treasurers, campaign organisers and so on.

Like others, I am impressed by its ability to make what we have tried to do in the past easier, more effective and quicker – especially given my experience using existing systems since the 1990s and also …

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Mark Pack

Should the way members of federal committees vote be public?

By Mark Pack | Mon 31st October 2011 - 12:57 pm

At the end of my post on the Federal Executive’s decision that the Liberal Democrats should (mostly) not fight police commissioner elections, a decision at odds with the views of party members we surveyed, I made reference to the fact that the details of such votes are not published and usually remain confidential. Sometimes news of who voted which way seeps out but, for example, you’re not officially meant to know that three members of the FE voted against that decision or who the three were.

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Mark Pack

The Leadership Programme: the first 11

By Mark Pack | Sat 29th October 2011 - 4:53 pm

The all-member Liberal Democrat News currently in the post to party members includes this update on the party’s Leadership Programme, designed to support candidates from under-represented groups:

Of the first 11 candidates, five are women, three from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, three have disabilities. There is one LGBT candidate and five of the 11 come from low socio-economic backgrounds … we have four candidates on the Programme so far who are under 30.

The scheme is due to expand to support at least 30 people.

You can get a subscription to receive each weekly edition of Liberal Democrat News here.

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Mark Pack

Liberal Democrats decide to pass up on fighting Police Commissioner elections (mostly)

By Mark Pack | Thu 27th October 2011 - 7:43 pm

The Liberal Democrat Federal Executive (FE) decided this week that the federal party will not be providing any financial backing to Liberal Democrats wishing to stand for election as Police Commissioners. The expectation is that instead the party will end up backing independent candidates, although it has been made clear that local areas can decide to field candidates if they wish to – albeit without any financial backing from the central party.

The strong preference given, however, is for Liberal Democrats to back independent candidates. As FE chair and Party President Tim Farron wrote to regional parties:

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Also posted in News and Selection news | Tagged , , and | 35 Comments

The Independent View: Evidence that candidates make a difference

By Jo Silvester | Fri 14th October 2011 - 10:23 am

The Liberal Democrats in England took an important step in 2007 when they decided to review the approval process for parliamentary candidates. The aim was to develop a modern system capable of identifying, supporting and developing the best possible political talent in order to ensure the Party could field candidates with the qualities, skills and values needed to build public support and win seats.

Although change can take a long time in politics, four years on it is hard not to be impressed at what the Party has achieved.

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Mark Pack

Ten tips for running a better local party AGM

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th October 2011 - 11:50 am

Despite the weather’s recent best efforts to pretend we are currently in June and in the south of France, the encroaching nights mean that local party AGM season is nearly upon us.

To help local parties get the most out of them, I’ve written in conjunction with London Liberal Democrats a simple factsheet giving 10 tips to lift an AGM from being a boring, business meeting that no-one comes to into an interesting and successful event. Though written for London, the tips are applicable elsewhere.

Hope you find it useful – and of course please do share this post (or this pdf) with whoever is involved in organising the AGM in your own local party.

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Stephen Tall

What do the Lib Dems need from the party’s next Chief Executive?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st October 2011 - 3:45 pm

As readers of Liberal Democrat News — and the party’s website — will know the Lib Dem are searching for a new chief executive to succeed Chris Fox. Here’s the job ad:

The Liberal Democrat Party is appointing a new Chief Executive.
Liberal Democrat Headquarters, London, SW1

The Chief Executive leads the Party administration and directs the human, financial and administrative resources of the Party – both its senior professional team and its membership and supporter base. He or she will bring energy and outstanding leadership to this crucial job. The post is based in the Party’s new headquarters in the

…

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Mark Pack

Mark Sullivan on how his firm’s software helps win elections

By Mark Pack | Sat 1st October 2011 - 9:25 am

Earlier in the week I blogged my interview with Mark Sullivan, who founded the firm that is supplying the party’s new CONNECT electoral database software. For some further background on him and his firm, here’s an interview Mark Sullivan gave in late 2008:

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Harry Matthews

Join the Liberal Youth invasion

By Harry Matthews | Fri 30th September 2011 - 12:26 pm

After a very successful Federal Conference earlier this month, Liberal Youth will hold its Autumn Conference on 22nd & 23rd October. It’s in the Roman town of Colchester* (home to the UK’s oldest market on record).

Conference, as all Liberal Democrats know, is a fantastic opportunity for party members to shape policies and hold elected officers to account – and Liberal Youth is no different.

Along with all the usual reports from officers (and the odd constitutional amendment), there will be policy debates on the Arab Spring, MMR jabs, Women’s Rights & Bank Shares. As we have seen from this year’s conference with the Employment and Support Allowance motion, Liberal Youth policy can become federal policy – and might now even become Government policy. This is a brilliant opportunity for young Liberal Democrats to get involved with policy making and gain experience in public speaking!

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Mark Pack

Interviewing Mark Sullivan, the founder of the party’s new electoral database supplier

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th September 2011 - 10:25 am

During the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, I had the chance to quiz Mark Sullivan (the founder of VAN, which is becoming the party’s new electoral database software under the name CONNECT).

I’m (like others) excited about the possibilities CONNECT will bring, partly because I’ve worked with EARS for just about two decades now. It has helped produce some stupendous election results and people involved with it have worked tremendously hard. But it also has some major limitations, particularly the number of bugs (including more than once data being lost on polling day), the haphazard record of delivering new …

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Mark Pack

Good news on candidate selection rules

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th September 2011 - 11:06 pm

A welcome update to my post from earlier this week: the decision banning candidates from calling on members during the Merton & Wandsworth GLA selection has been reversed. Candidates may now call on members.

In the thread on the earlier post Matthew Green, one of the selection committee members, explained his reasoning:

Well, I was part of the selection committee that made the rule. There was a wide range of views expressed at the committee, from more liberal to more restrictive. We were mainly guided by precedent – the RO’s previous seat (Greenwich & Lewisham, I think) having very similar restrictions.

There

…

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Mark Pack

Candidates banned from calling on party members in selection contest

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th September 2011 - 3:10 pm

Very odd news from the Merton and Wandsworth London Assembly constituency, where members will shortly be voting to select the Liberal Democrat candidate for next May’s elections.

The candidates have been told that they are banned from calling on party members at home during the selection contest. They have also been given extremely tight restrictions on what else they can do – just one leaflet, one email and one phone conversation.

As regular readers will know, I’m a strong advocate for more campaigning to be allowed in internal party contests – and the party has made some significant progress on that in …

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Mark Pack

Monday, 9am looks rather interesting: Liberal Democrat conference

By Mark Pack | Sun 18th September 2011 - 3:08 pm

On matters of policy and strategy, the Liberal Democrat conference is turning out to be rather more good-natured and unified than journalists were expecting/hoping (as Sky’s Sophy Ridge has had the grace to admit).

When it comes to matters of party business, however, there is rather more spark than usual. It’s not only the attempt to suspend standing orders – related to how the NHS is being discussed at conference – or the passing of a critical motion about the security checks for conference this morning.

There has also been a noticeable surge in questions to party committee and two pieces …

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