Category Archives: Site news

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people, just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways:

1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

1 Comment

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (July ‘09)

… We’d say a big thank you to the 22,117 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in July.

This is our lowest readership figure of the year to date, down about one-third on last month’s 38,000 – which either means we’ve been rubbish this month, or else that the political excitements of MPs’ expenses and the local/Euro elections, which spiked our figures in May and June, have subsided. Or a bit of both. For the record, July’s 22k is still more than 50% up compared with the same month last year (14k).

This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Aug 2008 – 31 July 2009) to 293,070, more than double the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 141,626.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

Tagged | 3 Comments

How to get your daily Lib Dem Voice email alert

How would you like to receive a daily digest of the previous day’s Lib Dem Voice postings direct to your email inbox? If your answer is, “I’d absolutely love to receive a daily digest of the previous day’s Lib Dem Voice postings direct to my email inbox as long as it’s quick and simple – please tell me more”, then read on.

You may have noticed some rather natty icons in the top right-hand corner of the screen, one of which is an envelope. This is the icon to click on if you want to sign-up to Lib Dem Voice’s email lists. Alternatively you can just click here. All you need to do then is type in your email address, tick one or both of the following two options:

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48 hours left to vote in the Total Politics top blogs poll

Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2009

Yes, that’s right folks, you have until midnight this Friday to cast your votes in the Total Politics poll of Top 10 favourite blogs. This year, the poll is being co-promoted by Lib Dem Voice, LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary.

For full details and rules, please see our previous LDV posting. Then email your Top Ten Favourite Blogs to [email protected]

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Our new look

So, what do you think of it so far?

Thanks to the herculean efforts of the The Voice’s Ryan, we’ve got a new look and new features. The biggest change on the home page is the introduction of three featured stories at the top, so that the best content can stay prominent for longer without being pushed aside by the latest blog posts.

There are also many changes which reflect the declining proportion of our audience who sit at a computer and come to the home page. Whether you view the site on the move (new mobile version), like using a …

22 Comments

Site Down Time

LibDemVoice will be down between 19:00 and 20:00 (BST) for a server migration.
Hopefully we have found a way to avoid DNS issues, however you might have problems accessing the site for the next few days.
Apologies in advance.

5 Comments

How to get your picture to appear next to your comments

It’s a few months since we last reminded readers about this, so now seems a good time to publish the information again. You may have noticed that next to some people’s comments is a small picture of themselves, such as:

If you want a picture to appear next to your comments you need to do two things.

  1. Visit

7 Comments

Are you on your way to the Forum?

Don’t forget, if you’re a party member you can register for the Lib Dem Voice private members’ forum. You’ll be in good company: there are 1,004 registered members, all of whom have the opportunity to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog, as well as having the chance to vote in LDV’s monthly (ish, ahem) tracking surveys. Here’s a selection of the currently active threads to whet your appetites:

# Norwich North result
# Fingerprinting children in schools
# Tuition Fees
# Saving Pubs – should we bother?
# Why more equal

4 Comments

Who’ll be the 1,000th member of the LDV Forum?

Are you on your way to the Lib Dem Voice Forum? Our private Lib Dem party members-only area currently numbers 988 individuals. Which is wonderful, but does mean there’s another 98% of Lib Dem members not currently signed-up. So how’s this for an incentive: the 1,000th member of the Forum will win a copy of LDV’s annual, The Tangerine Book.

And as if that’s not enough, the 1,000th member – along with their 999 colleagues – will have the opportunity to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog, …

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Wikio’s top blogs in the UK: June ’09

Those lovely people at Wikio have emailed The Voice with their list^ of the top blogs in the UK in June 2009.

(Lib Dem blogger Jennie Rigg has already published the list of top 30 politics blogs: below is the full list for all blogs, though there’s considerable overlap between the two owing to the dominance of politics blogs in Wikio’s weightings.)

1 Iain Dale’s Diary
2 Guy Fawkes’ blog
3 Liberal Conspiracy
4 Labourlist
5 Blah! Blah! Technology
6 politicalbetting.com
7 Liberal Democrat Voice
8 Dizzy Thinks
9 Harry’s Place
10 Old Holborn
11 Tom Harris MP
12 imran.ali
13 Telegraph Blogs – Daniel Hannan
14 ConservativeHome’s ToryDiary
15 Labourhome
16 Tory Bear
17 The Devil’s Kitchen
18 Bloggerheads
19 Bad Science
20 Mr Eugenides
21 Chicken Yoghurt
22 Stumbling and Mumbling
23 Archbishop Cranmer
24 TalkCarswell.com
25 normblog
26 UKPolling Report
27 Charlotte Gore Blog
28 John Redwood’s Diary
29 Nick Robinson’s Newslog
30 Craig Murray

Ranking by Wikio.

^ Here’s the Wikio explanation of their ratings:

Also posted in News | Tagged and | 13 Comments

How can you help Liberal Democrat Voice?

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people, just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways:

1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

3 Comments

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (June ‘09)

… We’d say a big thank you to the 37,801 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in June, our third highest total ever. That’s a slight dip compared with last month’s 41k+ figure, but is a whopping 125% increase on a year ago.

This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 July 2008 – 30 June 2009) to 286,739, an increase of 110% on the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 136,301.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

1. By-election results: Tories fail against Lib Dems (17th November 2006)
2. Tory claims for astrology CD …

Tagged | 5 Comments

Are you on your way to the Forum?

Don’t forget, if you’re a party member you can register for the Lib Dem Voice private members’ forum. You’ll be in good company: there are 975 registered members, all of whom have the opportunity to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog, as well as having the chance to vote in LDV’s monthly tracking surveys. Here’s a selection of the currently active threads to whet your appetites:

# Why we CAN win Norwich North
# AV Plus
# To ‘engage with’.. or not to ‘engage with’… the BNP
# Why not …

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And the winners are…

Back on 2nd June, LDV launched our election prediction competition, inviting readers to put their reputations on the line and tell us what they thought would happen in the 4th June English local and European elections. Here are the questions with the actual results in bold:

1. Predict the Liberal Democrat share of the vote in the European elections. 14%
2. Predict the turnout in the European elections. 34.5%
3. Predict the Liberal Democrat lead over Labour in the local elections (if you think the results will be LD 25%, Lab 22%, your answer is +3%. If you think it will be the other way around, your answer is -3%). +5%
4. Predict how many local authorities the Liberal Democrats will have majority control of on 5th June. 1 (Bristol)
5. Predict the net loss/gain of Lib Dem councillors. -2 (BBC figures)

I’ve now had chance to mark the competition, summing the differences between readers’ answers and the results, resulting in the following league table:

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Are you on your way to the Forum?

Don’t forget, if you’re a party member you can register for the Lib Dem Voice private members’ forum. You’ll be in good company: there are 957 registered members, all of whom have the opportunity to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog, as well as having the chance to vote in LDV’s monthly tracking surveys. Here’s a selection of the currently active threads to whet your appetites:

  • General Elections mutterings and party preparedness
  • Now the dust is settling (part 1)
  • Euro vote share predictions
  • AV Plus
  • EU
  • Leave a comment

    How can you help Liberal Democrat Voice?

    The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people, just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

    You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways:

    1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

    10 Comments

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (May ’09)

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 41,636 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in May, our second highest total ever. That’s up by almost 35% on last month’s figure, and is an 80% increase on a year ago.

    This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 June 2008 – 31 May 2009) to 267,369, an increase of 108% on the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 128,191.

    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. By-election results: Tories fail against Lib Dems (17th November 2006)
    2. Gurkhas win court case

    Tagged and | Leave a comment

    LDV accounts published

    In a follow on from Stephen’s post yesterday giving details of donations to the Liberal Democrats, I can now put on my LDV Bursar hat and announce that the summary of LDV accounts are available online to members of our forum.

    I give details of our income from donations and advertising, and how we spent it last year.  I also give a few ideas of how we might spend our money next year.

    But I’m afraid as ever, it ends with an appeal for cash:

    We continue to warmly welcome donations! The donations figure above represents only 11 individual donors with

    Tagged , , and | 7 Comments

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (April ’09)

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 31,063 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in April, our second highest total ever. That’s up by almost one-fifth on last month’s figure, and a whopping 88% increase on a year ago.

    This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 May 2008 – 30 April 2009) to 250,339, an increase of 120% on the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 113,846.

    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. Damian McBride, Derek Draper and the smears against Tories
    2. Gurkhas win court case as

    Tagged | 1 Comment

    Why not write for Lib Dem Voice?

    You there. Yes, you! Don’t think I’m not talking directly to you. Liberal Democrat Voice is your site – run by Lib Dem supporters for Lib Dem supporters (though all-comers are welcome, natch). It is read by approaching some 30,000 ‘absolute unique’ readers each month, including senior figures within the Lib Dems.

    So, if you’ve got something to say – or a story you think our readers might be interested in – please get in touch. We publish some writers’ guidance here, and you can contact us at [email protected].

    11 Comments

    Are you on your way to the Forum?

    Don’t forget, if you’re a party member you can register for the Lib Dem Voice members’ forum. You’ll be in good company: there are 905 registered members, all of whom have the opportunity to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog, as well as having the chance to vote in LDV’s monthly tracking surveys. Here’s a selection of the currently active threads to whet your appetites:

    >> How bad will the smear emails be for Labour?
    >> Local income tax

    1 Comment

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (March ‘09)

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 26,160 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in March, our second highest total ever, and a whopping 67% increase on a year ago.

    This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 April 2008 – 31 March 2009) to 236,786, an increase of 124% on the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 105,520.

    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. Join the campaign to Shred John Prescott’s £1.5m Pension
    2. Why Mark Pack’s awaiting a visit from Special Branch
    3.

    Tagged | 2 Comments

    Mark Pack to leave Lib Dems for new appointment

    I’m sure LDV readers would like to join with me in congratulating Mark Pack on his new job – he will be leaving the Lib Dems, where he is the party’s head of innovations, this June to take up an appointment as associate director of Mandate Communications, where he will be developing their online PR. The announcement was made today by the Lib Dems’ director of campaigns, Hilary Stephenson:

    Mark joined the Lib Dem staff in 2000 – in his own words he has been with us ‘for the entire century!’ He started off working on London elections, then moving on

    Tagged | 15 Comments

    Video: LDV, ConHome and LabourList debate online campaigning

    Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack, ConservativeHome’s Jonathan Isaby and LabourList’s Derek Draper discussed online campaigning in a Hansard Society event held in Parliament yesterday.

    The event was chaired by Dr Laura Miller from the Hansard Society eDemocracy programme.

    From the Society’s website:

    This event discussed the use of online strategies and their increasing importance, encouragement of grass-roots activism and ability to enable mass mobilisation. But there is no guarantee that the cooption of online strategies will guarantee electoral success or promote healthy dialogue between politicians and citizens.

    You can watch the video here.

    Also posted in Online politics | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (Feb ’09)

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 24,015 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in February, our second highest total ever, and a whopping 88% increase on a year ago.

    That’s especially impressive given February’s the shortest month and the site was up-and-down like a yo-yo for technical reasons (hopefully now resolved).

    This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Mar 2008 – 28 Feb 2009) to 227,676, an increase of 137% on the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 96,232.

    Whether you’re a regular here, or an occasional …

    Tagged | Leave a comment

    New Server Up and Running

    If you are reading this, then you will be now visiting LibDemVoice on our new fancy server.
    Comments and the forum are now open again.
    If you have any formatting issues try Ctrl+F5 to force your browser to download the files again.
    Any issues please let me know.

    5 Comments

    Site Down Time

    We mentioned early in the week that we are changing our hosting package. For the upgrade to take place we need to move all the files from one machine to another and then tell the rest of the internet that we have moved.
    Therefore between 5pm tomorrow (27th Feb) and 11pm Saturday* the site won’t be updated. No new posts and no new comments. The forum will be completely closed during this period too.
    This will allow me to get an up to date mySQL dump which can then be uploaded and ensure that the name server changes go through successfully.

    *I’m …

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    Account suspended – for the final time?

    Our alert readers will have noticed we had another outage this morning when our site was unavailable for a number of hours.

    The reason for this was a traffic spike – and despite the jokes, it could well have been because the van-maker LDV was in the news, and we’re a top-ten search result for the term LDV.

    Our current hosting arrangements mean we share a computer with several other websites. When we get a big traffic spike, our performance affects the other users of the computer, and our host sometimes turns us off to make sure the other websites …

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    LDV Team meeting

    Just a quick note to say that on Sunday, the LDV team will be having one of our periodic “in person” meetings to have a discussion about where we’ve been and where we’re going.

    We met up last year and generated lots of interesting ideas.  Our second meeting may indeed actually be focussed on why more of those ideas – apart from publishing a book –  haven’t yet happened. 

    dossier-ldv

    We’ll be talking about our coverage of Spring conference in Harrogate – where we have planned a fringe meeting – and several interesting ideas …

    8 Comments

    LDV, ConHome and DraperList go head-to-head (ish)

    LDV’s Mark Pack will be speaking alongside ConservativeHome‘s Jonathan Isaby and LabourList‘s Derek Draper on 24th March at an event organised by the Hansard Society entitled, The Online Campaign – solution or smokescreen? Details below and at the Society’s website.

    Tuesday 24 March, 10am, House of Commons, Westminster.

    The use of online strategies is becoming increasingly important, encouraging grass-roots activism and enabling mass mobilisation. But there is no guarantee that the cooption of online strategies will guarantee electoral success or promote healthy dialogue between politicians and citizens.This eDemocracy event will gather the leading thinkers on this subject to discuss

    Also posted in Online politics | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment
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