Mark Pack

Prime Minister removes all Christmas imagery from official Christmas cards

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 12:53 pm

In a move sure to get Christians and tabloid newspaper journalists up in arms, the Prime Minister has removed all Christian imagery from his Christmas cards.

The picture on the front of his cards does not contain any sign of angels, crosses or any other Christian imagery.

But it’s not only Christianity that has been removed, so too has all trace of winter. In a move some will suspect is making the cards a tool in the political battle over global warming, the “Christmas” cards paint a picture of a spring or summer day.

“This is an appalling case of political correctness gone …

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Mark Pack

Should copies of the electoral register be put on sale?

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 11:50 am

The Ministry of Justice is running a consultation on whether bodies such as marketing firms and charities should be able to buy copies of the electoral register to use for their direct mail and other operations. There is a high chance this review could lead to a change in the law.

There are currently three electoral registers:

  1. The full electoral register, which is used for running elections and which is available to political parties and election candidates for them to contact voters and other electoral purposes. It is also available to various law enforcement and other public sector organisations for use in

…

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tories hoist by their own Christmas card

By Stephen Tall | Thu 26th November 2009 - 10:25 am

David Cameron two years ago:

The idea that anyone ever could be offended by a Christmas card that says “Merry Christmas and happy new year” and we’ve got to send one saying “Season’s greetings”; I think it’s just insulting tosh. ‘In fact, people – Muslims and Jews – are offended because it’s treating them in a silly and politically correct way.

Spool forward a couple of seasons Christmases, and there are more than a few red faces at Tory HQ, as The Times’s Ruth Gledhill notes :

Two years ago, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said banning Nativity

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink … Nick Clegg: Crying wolf in 2003 destroyed all trust in Britain’s leaders

By NewsHound | Thu 26th November 2009 - 9:55 am

In today’s Telegraph, Nick Clegg writes about the opening of the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, and launches a broadside against Labour’s botched foreign policy, and calls on the Prime Minister – who as Chancellor signed the cheques for the Iraq war – to apologise for his part in the devastation that has unfolded. Here’s an excerpt:

The opening of the inquiry into the Iraq war reminded me that one of the greatest tragedies of Labour’s foreign policy is that they focused on Iraq, not Afghanistan. They focused on winning the argument for an unjustified war, instead of winning

…

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NewsHound

LibLink … James Graham: Lib-Con pact, or just a Marr moment?

By NewsHound | Thu 26th November 2009 - 9:27 am

Rather belatedly* The Voice is delighted to highlight an article by Lib Dem blogger James Graham over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, the subtitle of which is a neat, Tweet paraphrase of his argument: ‘The idea that the Lib Dems want to jump into bed with Cameron is a fantasy. But multiparty politics is likely to be the new norm’. But as ever with James the article is well worth reading in full. Here’s an excerpt:

There is no enthusiasm within the party for co-operation with the Conservative party, but working with Labour is almost as unenticing a prospect.

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 1 Comment
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Mark Pack

Since when is something debated in public, in front of journalists called “hidden”?

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 9:20 am

Since yesterday, in fact. Because in an otherwise thoughtful piece on hung Parliaments in The Independent, Steve Richards made this comment:

If there is a hung parliament there will almost certainly be no formal coalition government, even if Nick Clegg and Vince Cable would like to join one. Clegg is trapped by what is known as his party’s “triple lock”, a hidden rule that might become of vital relevance. Before entering a coalition he is bound to secure the agreement of his MPs, other national representatives and the membership.

Credit to Steve Richards for knowing about this rule. But “hidden”? It …

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Mark Pack

More provisions of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 kick in

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th November 2009 - 7:50 am

In a written answer in Parliament this week, Jack Straw confirmed that several more parts of the Polities Parties and Elections Act 2009 are now kicking in or will do so soon. There don’t look to be any surprises in the list and dates he’s given. Most importantly, the new election expense provisions with a long and short campaign period are taking force as expected.

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 26 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 26th November 2009 - 7:42 am

Good morning, and Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers. 26th November is also the anniversary of the opening of the terrifying Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Today also sees a significant birthday for Tina Turner and a rather less significant one for Hilary Benn.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator. I’ve taken two environmental picks today:

  • Why are Reading’s Christmas lights on during the day?

    • Do these lights have to be blazing all day? This simply does not make finanical or environmental sense. Christmas lights in the Town Centre are very visible. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas lights. But what message does leaving them on all day send out about environmental responsibility?

    (Cllr Daisy Benson)

  • ‘Consultation’ Who are you kidding National Grid?

    • The beauty of an underground superconductor cable system would be that it would not only remain hidden, but the transmission of power from future expansion of energy in the South West (from renewable resources such as the Severn and new as yet to be built wind farms and tidal stream generators)
    could with ease be accommodated in a super conducting cable. Super
    conducting cables are also massively more efficient with losses of just 3%
    compared to around 30% in the current national grid, something that is of
    massive importance when we think of global warming and the need to conserve
    and use energy wisely.

    (Brian Matthew)

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The Voice

Vince: it’s time for a National Infrastructure Bank

By The Voice | Wed 25th November 2009 - 10:50 pm

The Lib Dems’ shadow chancellor Vince Cable today set out proposals today for the creation of what he’s calling a National Infrastructure Bank.

In his speech to The Civilisation Congress, Vince notes that the UK has one of the worst records for infrastructure investment in the OECD, and argues that there is an urgent need for a step change in infrastructure investment to create jobs, increase competitiveness, promote environmental sustainability and boost the economic recovery. Creating a National Infrastructure Bank – leveraging public funds with private capital – is, he argues, the best vehicle, especially with private investors beginning again to look for good long-term opportunities.

Here are the highlights from Vince’s speech:

There is a big hole in the prospects of the long-term recovery and growth of the UK economy.

Our infrastructure is currently rated 34 th in the world, which is poor by anyone’s standards. The Policy Exchange estimates that £500bn needs to be spent over the next decade on transport, energy storage, broadband and transmissions systems.

But in this recession, infrastructure investment is one of the first things to be squeezed and there is currently no prospect of investment on anything like the scale that is needed.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

PMQs: Nick tackles Gordon on Labour’s “suffocating and shameful culture of secrecy”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th November 2009 - 9:05 pm

Ah, the joy of PMQs – Nick asks Gordon a question, Gordon fails to answer a totally different question to the one Nick asks. It’s a regular pattern, but today it was clear to everyone that the Lib Dem leader had floored the Prime Minister over the issue of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Nick laid the trap neatly, asking the simple and straightforward question:

It is vital that the Iraq inquiry, which started its work this week, is able to reveal the full truth about the decisions leading up to the

…

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Iain Roberts

Cameron’s totally, completely new idea

By Iain Roberts | Wed 25th November 2009 - 5:52 pm

David Cameron has had a new idea – a real original. As the Guardian reports:

A new Conservative government may keep parliament sitting through next August in an attempt to show its determination to implement its manifesto commitments, a source has disclosed. The move would send a message of a symbolic break with the current parliament’s self-serving practices, the source said.

Clearly, this is in no way related to Nick Clegg’s 100 days campaign earlier this year in which Clegg said:

Together, over the next 100 days, we could achieve nothing less than the total reinvention of British politics, underpinned

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Alex Foster

Tories rolling in dough shocker

By Alex Foster | Wed 25th November 2009 - 5:28 pm

Isn’t it strange how sometimes two pieces of information arrive simultaneously that just go together to confirm a prejudice?

This afternoon, Guido’s post on Tory fundraising came to the top of my feedreader. The pithy title contains all you really need to know – Tories Raise More Cash than All Other Parties Combined – but if you’re a fan of pie charts, you might want to give Guido the clickthrough.

Guido’s story is that of all the reportable donations given to all the parties in the Electoral Commission’s third quarter, 55% of the moolah went to the Blues.

This report from Guido came hot on the heels of a couple of bits of information about Conservative fundraising efforts in Ealing, which has caused a bit of a stir in the local papers. An email arrived with a copy of a Tory letter, and a letter in the Ealing Gazette, which I reproduce below:

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Stephen Tall

Is downloading porn a reason to disqualify a councillor?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th November 2009 - 2:25 pm

The BBC has this local story:

A former Somerset councillor has been disqualified from holding office after “illegal and pornographic material” was found on his council-owned laptop. Andrew Woolley was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Lyngford Ward of Taunton Deane Borough Council in May 2007. Due to the nature of the material found on Mr Woolley’s laptop it was referred to the Adjudication Panel for England. The panel ruled that he be disqualified from holding office for two years. …

During the time he was in office he was given two council-owned laptops to help him in his

…

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Posted in Local government | 35 Comments

ACT: the Lib Dems’ new action network launched today

By David Loxton | Wed 25th November 2009 - 11:49 am

Screenshot of ACT - the Lib Dems' action networkToday sees the public launch of ACT, the Liberal Democrats’ new social action network. This is the second launch in our three-part strategy,following on from the new-look libdems.org.uk.

ACT is a place where supporters can connect with one another, organise events and campaigns, share photos and videos and talk about politics.

Our aim is to reach a community of Liberal Democrats that extends beyond the formal boundary of party membership. So although ACT will be maintained as a Liberal Democrat supporting community, it is open to non-members as well as members.

The site has been running for a few days after a soft-launch to get the content started, but there is now a link to it on the Home Page of libdems.org.uk and other Lib Dem sites. It will also be promoted through various Lib Dem email lists.

ACT is built on the Californian-based social network platform Ning that has great usability and, with its use of Ning Apps and the OpenSocial framework, will allow further innovation and customisation.

We plan to develop a number of bespoke campaigning and fundraising apps over the coming months to extend the capability of ACT.

The third part of the web strategy, launching in December, is a completely new Members’ Website that will deliver party news, information and campaigning resources.

Watch the video below for demos and further info:

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Posted in News and Online politics | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Follow the yellow brick road? The Liberal Democrats’ general election campaign

By Mark Pack | Wed 25th November 2009 - 10:20 am

Guide to 2010 election book coverHere is my chapter from the Total Politics Guide to the 2010 General Election, looking at the prospects for the Liberal Democrats:

The 1997 general election turned out to be a once in a generation opportunity for many local Liberal Democrat campaign teams to gain a Parliamentary seat from the Conservatives. At the tail end of a by then deeply unpopular Conservative Government, the election saw unprecedented numbers of seats falling to the party. A few seats that were not quite gained from the Conservatives in 1997 did subsequently fall in 2001 and 2005, but it was the 1997 election with the Conservatives in government that was the main opportunity. Nearly every campaign that missed then did not subsequently win.

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Posted in Books and General Election | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Liberal Democrats back campaign to free our postcodes

By Mark Pack | Wed 25th November 2009 - 8:51 am

Welcome news from the blog of Lynne Featherstone (who, apart from being a LibDem MP, is also chair of the party’s Technology Advisory Board):

We need postcodes to be owned by the public – not sold to the public. Postcodes are the basic pre-requisite for allowing services to be developed that support democratic accountability.

It’s an important issue because the Royal Mail’s decision to take a hard line in enforcing its legal rights means a range of useful public services – including ones to help unemployed people find jobs and to help residents hear about planning applications near them – have …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , , and | 10 Comments
Iain Roberts

Daily View 2×2: 25 November 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 25th November 2009 - 7:09 am

Only a month to Christmas, but before you dash out pressie-buying, take a few moments to look at these.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

  • Talk of a hung parliament is good for the Lib Dems, says Anders Hanson.
  • Which Conservative front-bencher isn’t fit-for-purpose? So many to choose from, but the Honourable Lady Mark thinks he knows.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

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Posted in Daily View | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Is keeping the way MPs vote secret really the way to reform Parliament?

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 11:18 pm

There’s an intriguing detail in today’s widely welcomed proposals for reforming how the House of Commons works. In a bid to weaken the power of the whips and to strengthen that of backbenchers of all parties, the House of Commons Reform Committee has recommended that MPs vote in secret for a new body that will control some of the business in the House.

Secret voting would reduce the influence of the whips certainly, but it would also reduce accountability to the public. It’s not hard to imagine a controversial decision by this new body – or a controversial election to …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

“Race advisor slams Lewisham Labour over ‘apartheid system'”

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:54 pm

So reports the Lewisham News Shopper:

A RACE and equality advisor to the Mayor has resigned from the Lewisham Labour Party claiming it runs an “apartheid system”.

David Michael, chairman of Lewisham Local Police Consultative Group and Sir Steve Bullock’s advisor on community cohesion, was due to contest the Whitefoot ward in 2010 but has resigned claiming he was not supported by branch members…

Mr Michael, a resident of Catford for 26 years, says he and a number of other ethnic minority candidates have been marginalised by the party in a “scandalous apartheid system”, being put forward for unwinnable seats and given

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

“You should have slept with mayor’s wife instead”

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:04 pm

So reads the headline in today’s edition of The Star from Sheffield. It reports on the latest fall out amongst local Conservatives over the sacking of their prospective Parliament candidate for Sheffield Hallam, Daniel Gage:

A TOP Sheffield Tory told a parliamentary candidate he had to quit for missing town council meetings – but may have been able to stay on had he “slept with the mayor’s wife” instead.

Alan Ryder, deputy chairman of Sheffield Hallam Conservatives, emailed barman Daniel Gage, aged 24, after he stood down as the party’s candidate against Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg at the general

…

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Chris White

Scope for a public spending revolution?

By Chris White | Tue 24th November 2009 - 2:54 pm

One seemingly obvious question – who spends most on local services – has in this country a rather disappointing answer.

It is not just that we always suspected central government in this overcentralised country spent more than local government – the astonishing thing is how much more.

We already knew that the Government Office for London actually spends more than the London Mayor, despite some real devolution of important responsibilities. But recent research shows that for an average of £7,000 of spend on public services in any one place, only £350 is discretionary spending by local authorities.

Clearly this doesn’t feel …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

So, farewell then, Richard

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th November 2009 - 1:25 pm

Lib Dem Voice sadly bids au revoir to one of our Contributing Editors – Richard Huzzey has understandably but reluctantly decided that his work on the other side of the Atlantic must come first.

On behalf of the whole LDV team, can I thank Richard for all he’s done, both ‘behind the scenes’ and for the public blog, writing approaching 150 articles for the site in the three years he’s been associated with it. His first post, Thoughts on the Amazing Mrs Pritchard, continues to pick up a steady stream of Google-inspired traffic to the site. You can read …

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The Voice

£800k pay-out to victim of Tory spin chief’s “consistent pattern of bullying behaviour”

By The Voice | Tue 24th November 2009 - 1:08 pm

Today’s Guardian reports the news:

A News of the World reporter who suffered from a culture of bullying led by former editor Andy Coulson, who is now David Cameron’s head of communications, has been awarded almost £800,000 for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.

Matt Driscoll, a sports reporter sacked in April 2007 while on long-term sick leave for stress-related depression, was awarded £792,736 by the east London employment tribunal. It is believed to be the highest payout of its kind in the media, and legal costs could take News International’s total bill well over the £1m mark.

The award will cause fresh

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Iain Roberts

Iain Roberts 4MP

By Iain Roberts | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:51 am

No, not my campaign to enter the hallowed halls of Westminster – much to the relief of my colleagues who undoubtably feel they get more than enough of me on the council.  Besides, I’m lucky enough to already have an excellent Lib Dem MP.

This is a new feature on the ALDC MyCouncillor blog service.

ALDC, the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors, offers a handy blogging service for all members.  It’s based on the popular WordPress platform and customised to help busy councillors and campaigners get blogging with the minimum of fuss.  Over 500 people already have an ALDC MyCouncillor …

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Posted in Local government and Online politics | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Adding some colour to council emails

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:20 am

The November edition of Total Politics has the second in a series from me on councils and communicating. The first part, Yes, council websites can, looked at lessons from the Obama campaign for local council use of the internet. This piece now looks at email in more detail.

In October’s Total Politics I wrote about the broad lessons councils can learn from Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, for both councils and election campaigns need to communicate successfully online with large numbers of the public.

Despite this similarity of aim, many of the internet techniques which are now second nature to most political campaigns are still almost unknown in local councils. As I wrote of one example, “Whilst for political websites the email sign-up box is a near ever-present feature, on council websites it is almost never there.”

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Posted in Local government and Online politics | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Tavish Scott on devolution, Donald Trump, liberalism and more

By Mark Pack | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 8:08 pm

At the weekend, the Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Tavish Scott gave an interview to a group of Lib Dem bloggers meeting at the party HQ in Clifton Terrace for an ‘unconference’.

Devolution and independence referendum

I kicked off with one of the main issues in the news at the moment: should there be  a referendum on Scottish independence, and hence should the Liberal Democrats be supporting one?

Tavish was scathing about the idea of a referendum, calling it an SNP trick which the party shouldn’t go along with. His argument was that there is one pro-independence party and there is a vote coming …

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Posted in Blogger Interviews and Scotland | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

What should be done with the PCC?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 6:15 pm

That’s the question asked in today’s Media Guardian, following the controversies associated with the Press Complaints Commission in the last month.

First, there was the PCC’s ruling that the Daily Mail didn’t owe Iain Dale an apology for branding him ‘overtly gay’. Then there were the record-breaking 22,000 complaints submitted to the PCC following the Daily Mail’s publication of a snide piece by Jan Moir attacking Boyzone singer Stephen Gately’s lifestyle and implying it contributed to his death.

And then the PCC’s new Chair, Baroness Buscombe, delivered a lacklustre and confused address to the Society of Editors, before setting any number of hares running by suggesting the PCC might have a role in regulating blogging.

Finally, the Guardian’s editor Alan Rushbridger quit the PCC’s oddly named Code Committee after the regulator’s pusillanimous response into allegations of illegal phone hacking by a number of tabloid newspapers.

All in all, a busy month for the PCC.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s speech to the CBI conference

By The Voice | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 2:55 pm

Nick Clegg addressed the CBI conference in London this moring, “set out how to foster a rapid recovery and shape a new competitive, sustainable economy.” Here’s the full text of what he said:

We are in the teeth of one of the most difficult and unpredictable recessions we have ever faced.
The origins of the recession, at the heart of the financial services sector on which we have relied too heavily for far too long, begs profound questions about how we can rebuild the British economy on a different, more sustainable footing in the future.
As the CBI said this morning – this recession can be a catalyst for positive change.
In the short time we have today, I want to run through the five main areas where I believe urgent action is required not only to foster a rapid recovery in the short term, but to shape a new competitive, sustainable economy for the long term.

  • First: stabilise, decontaminate and re-balance our financial industry.
  • Second: a strong, credible plan to sort our Britain’s finances, to maintain confidence in our credit-worthiness.
  • Third: invest in infrastructure, to create jobs now and the right environment for sustainable growth later.
  • Fourth: decentralise decision-making and business support to drive growth in industries and regions that have been left behind
  • And fifth: change our tax system to put money into the pockets of people who both need it and spend it, helping rebuild consumer demand.
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Mark Valladares

From our Correspondent in Barcelona – the ELDR Congress reviewed

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 2:03 pm

Last week, LDV published a preview by Lib Dem blogger Mark Valladares of this year’s ELDR (European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party) Congress in Barcelona. Here he reports back on its outcomes …

And so the 30th ELDR Congress in Barcelona is over, and most of the delegates have returned to the four corners of Europe from whence they came. They will have done so in good spirits after what was a pretty successful gathering.

In policy terms, the theme resolution, Liberal Answers For A New Prosperity, reasserts a conviction that a competitive business environment, married to an efficient, …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Electoral fact of the day: turnout and age

By Mark Pack | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 11:50 am

“Nearly three-quarters (74%) of people aged 65 or over said that they had voted in the European Parliamentary elections, compared with only 13% of those aged 18 to 24.”

(From the Electoral Commission’s report in to the June 2009 elections, p.26.)

Posted in News | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
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