20 Comments

• bazzasc 10th Nov '12 - 10:37am

  Congratulations to the LDV contributors who have been elected. Although, often in disagreement it is good to see that people at the decision-making end of the party engage in these, often robust, discussions

• William Jones 10th Nov '12 - 10:43am

  A most pleasing set of election results.

• Hywel 10th Nov '12 - 11:18am

  What was turnout. Mark Pack is saying there was a big drop. 1200 votes cast for the FE compared to 1600 2 years ago (but I don’t know what the number of conference reps is and it isn’t a straightforward function of membership numbers)

• Geoffrey Payne 10th Nov '12 - 11:21am

  I have to be impressed with those who got elected when you look at the list of those who did not. Despite being active in the party for a long time I look at some of the names and I still do not know who some of them are.

• Liberal Neil 10th Nov '12 - 11:26am

  Looks like there are going to be some interesting discussions coming up at Federal Policy Committee 😉

  Generally it’s a good mix of people elected to each of them.

  @Geoffrey – Would you expect to know all the people being elected to Federal Committees, we’re a big party!

• Jon Hunt 10th Nov '12 - 12:43pm

  Actually very little change on policy committee – I think Kelly Marie Blundell replaces Linda Jack – but quite big changes on conference committee.

  As a disappointed FPC candidate, eliminated at 37th stage, can I thank those who supported me ? Although the names haven’t changed significantly my impression is that voting was much more evenly spread – and that was even though the conduct of the election made it very hard for new candidates to get their message across. Social media had an impact on the voting pattern – but not so much on the results! I hope those elected will take note and work harder to engage the party at large.

• Andy Hinton 10th Nov '12 - 1:15pm

  Congratulations to all those who’ve been elected.

  I think a dedicated website (or section of the party website) for internal elections would be a really useful innovation, now that the campaigning rules have been liberalised, and now that the party has stopped sending out the manifesto booklets on dead trees. (Having them available as pdfs once you log in to the ERS website is not entirely helpful, since it wasn’t clear whether you had to vote once you logged in, or whether you could download the booklets, go away and read them, and them come back to vote some time later.)

  If there were a dedicated website, a really useful feature would be for it to ennable an online hustings system, where anyone can submit a question to all candidates, subscribe to replies to a question they or someone else have asked, etc. A kind of clearing-house for questions. If it was a reasonably formal part of the way the election was run, then it would avoid the issue of some candidates not supplying their contact details, making it difficult for people like Jennie Rigg and myself to step up to ask questions and broadcast the replies. When you look at each candidate’s details on this website, it could then show not only their original election statement, but also their replies to any questions they’ve been asked.

• Richard Shaw 10th Nov '12 - 2:11pm

  Congratulations to the winners. As a rep, I was looking forward to taking part in the voting, however I never received a ballot, electronic or otherwise, and the returning officer never got back to me when I asked why I had not received one – apart from emailing me to say that he would get back to me.

• Jennie 10th Nov '12 - 2:11pm

  What Andy said.

  It was interesting that those who DID get voted back onto committees often had substantially reduced votes.

  Hywel: AFAIK there are more voting reps than before as a proportion of the party, but the party itself is smaller, therefore the electorate remained numerically similar. The person I heard that from could have been whistling Dixie though.

• Jennie 10th Nov '12 - 2:13pm

  Richard: it took quite a lot of effort for me to get my ballot too, and ended up with a sitting member of FCC interceding on my behalf. I think there is a lot to be said about how the teething problems of electronic voting and various other things have affected the running of these elections, but possibly not in such a public place. This may mean I have to register for the blasted forums…

• Nick 10th Nov '12 - 2:19pm

  I like Andy’s suggestion, and it occurs to me that if we were to introduce something like that, the internal elections would be a good test bed for a public system that enabled people to question/contact election candidates.

• Ben Jephcott 10th Nov '12 - 7:38pm

  I suspect turnout is down because a lot of people were waiting for paper ballots, not realising they were provided on request only. Would be interested to see some stats.

• Geoffrey Payne 10th Nov '12 - 8:21pm

  I didn’t have to request my ballot papers.
  What is true is that this time there were probably fewer people entitled to vote.

• Stephen Donnelly 11th Nov '12 - 1:19pm

  I have a letter from Tim Gordon saying ‘The Liberal Democrats are a democratic party to the core, and your voting representatives have returned a set of committees which will ensure that members’ voices are heard at all levels of the party’.

  I guess that about 3% of party members have a vote, and I am using formal membership as the comparison point, not supporters, or voters. I can’t help noticing the similarity with the Chinese Communist Party and their recent election. I suppose that the generation of Young Liberals, now well represented at the top of the party, did like to be called ‘the red guard’.

• Daisy Cooper 11th Nov '12 - 3:56pm

  Andy and others – I completely agree re having a dedicated website for internal committees / hustings etc. As a newbie to FE, I’ll suggest it at our first meeting (28 Jan). Daisy

• Simon Oliver 12th Nov '12 - 1:02pm

  Highly impressive, although not unsurprising that Chris Rennard got elected in the first round.

• Oranjepan 12th Nov '12 - 1:53pm

  Just wondering about the potential overstretch for those elected to more than one committee… obviously there is serious commitment for all individuals involved, while many also campaign for wider engagement and the need for fresh ideas and new blood at the heart of the party.

• Ziby C Philips 12th Nov '12 - 3:14pm

  The liberal attitude to elections cannot be condoned. I am still waiting for a Lib Dem card since I settled in SCOTLAND.
  I should be very happy if the young liberals take it on themselves to spearhead the party ideals.

  SCOTLAND is rather poorly represented by Lib Dems. No seats in Glasgow where some of the stalwarts in Lib Dem philosophy began their political journey.(Glasgow)

  I am interested in a youth wing for the party. I understand that there are no precedents in this direction. please correct me if I am wrong.

  All in all, results look impressive. There are BMW representatives too.

  Would a Glasgow based rep reading this posting contact me at the earliest.

  Many thanks,
  Ziby Cherry Philips
  Ex Croydon, Cambridgeshire Lib Dem member

• Julie Smith 13th Nov '12 - 12:45am

  Jon, there was a significant change on FPC – only 8 of the 15 served on the ctte from 2010-12!

  Best wishes,

  Julie

• Jennie 13th Nov '12 - 12:14pm

  Orangepan – that was one of the things I asked about in my Q&A. Many of those who were only standing for one committee gace that as a reason. Many of those who were standing for more than one dismissed it as a concern.