Mark Pack

Worth a second outing: Blogging – what’s in it for political parties?

By Mark Pack | Fri 3rd September 2010 - 10:27 am

Welcome to a series where old posts are revived for a second outing for reasons such as their subject has become topical again, they have aged well but were first posted when the site’s readership was only a tenth or less of what it is currently or they got published and the site crashed, hiding the finest words of wisdom behind an incomprehensible error message. Today’s is a piece I wrote in 2007 for Iain Dale’s annual blogging guide. Three years and one general election on, my views on the matter are much the same – and in particular the …

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Mark Pack

Women’s magazine drops celebs and models in favour of “real women”

By Mark Pack | Fri 3rd September 2010 - 9:26 am

The Guardian reports:

IPC Media’s Essentials will no longer feature models or celebrities on its front cover after a survey of readers suggested they preferred to see “real women”.

The October edition of the monthly is entirely model- and celebrity-free and is the climax of a social media campaign to find 10 real women to put on its front cover. The magazine claimed it was a “UK media first for women’s glossies”.

Essentials’ editor, Jules Barton-Breck, said: “So many of these women look, and are, amazing that we wanted to celebrate them. In our recent reader survey 70% told us that they would

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 5 Comments
Helen Duffett

The LDV Friday Five: 3 September 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 3rd September 2010 - 7:43 am

It’s Friday, so here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the past week on Liberal Democrat Voice:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes) (30 comments) by Stephen Tall
2. Paul Staines, William Hague and questions for bloggers (33 comments) by Iain Roberts
3. History doesn’t repeat itself: why the Lib Dems won’t split (83 comments) by Stephen Tall
4. LDV survey: 84% reject idea of any electoral arrangement with the Conservatives (42 comments) by Stephen Tall
5. Opinion: Why Lib Dems should support free schools (76 comments) by Niklas Smith

5 active LDV Members’ Forum threads

1. My name is Mat Bowles. Note the number of ‘t’s 😉
2. Blair’s memoirs
3. New security arrangement at conference
4. Conference televised?
5. Party Structure

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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Helen Duffett

Lib Dem GAIN from Tories in Castle ward, Alnwick Town Council

By Helen Duffett | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 11:37 pm

Lib Dems GAIN Castle ward, Alnwick TC

Congratulations to Councillor Sara Walton, elected today for Castle ward on Alnwick Town Council, following the resignation of the Conservative councillor through ill health.

The result:

LD Sara Walton 329;
Con 238;
Lab 94

Turnout 24.4%.
LD GAIN from Con.

New councillor Sara Walton said,

It’s very humbling that so many people have put their trust in me. I’m determined to bring a fresh perspective to the Town Council and hope my experience as a solicitor and school governor will be put to

…

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Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Tongue-tied politicians – schadenfreude special edition

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 7:28 pm

We’ve all done it… whether at a party chatting someone up, or in a job interview, or at a major presentation. That moment when your mind goes blank, and you realise you have absolutely nothing coherent to say, but everyone’s still looking at you. Most of us at least have the comfort of knowing onyl a few have witnessed our mortification. Not so the politicians.

The latest victim is the Republicans’ Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, who — when given one minute to shine in front of an expectant nation — realised she had absolutely nothing to say. And seeing her squeeeeeze that nothing out for 60 seconds is pretty excruciating:


(Also available on YouTube here. Hat-top: Political Wire.)

For our second clip, let’s revert to the UK, and savour again that moment when then Tory Welsh secretary John Redwood realised he would be expected to sing the national anthem of the country he was governing:

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The Voice

Nick Clegg writes about his visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan

By The Voice | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 4:54 pm

In an email sent this afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has written about his trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Earlier this week this week I went to Afghanistan and Pakistan to see for myself the problems and challenges that those countries face. The coalition government is committed to playing our part to helping ensure that the region has a peaceful and prosperous future.

It was my second visit to our armed forces in Afghanistan, where I saw again the bravery and professionalism of our troops. Whilst the situation in the country is still difficult, I believe

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Marked register goes missing in Wolverhampton

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 4:28 pm

More problems with the general election administration have come to light in Wolverhampton South West, with the news that one of the marked registers has gone missing. An investigation is already taking place into a mismatch between the number of ballot papers counted and the number issued, with more having been recorded as counted than were officially issued.

The latest news has been reported by the Wolverhampton Express & Star:

A register containing the names and addresses of hundreds of Wolverhampton voters has gone missing…

It contains names and addresses of up to 500 voters along with a mark to say

…

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Posted in Election law | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Simon Foster

The Independent View: the Alternative Vote – what about the House of Lords?

By Simon Foster | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 2:57 pm

The debate on whether to replace First Past the Post with AV for elections to the House of Commons certainly seems to be warming up. Both sides are seeking increasing media coverage, bloggers from both sides are debating on the internet, and public interest seems to be growing on the issue.

Yet there seems to me one thing missing – an appreciation of the role of the House of Lords, and how it might be reformed.

The reason for this is quite important – the House of Commons does not exist in a vacuum. The AS-level course I teach on …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daniel Radcliffe on Nick Clegg: he still has the magic touch

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 1:45 pm

Harry Potter star, actor Daniel Radcliffe, was one of the Lib Dems’ star supporters in the lead-up to the election — and it seems he’s sticking by Nick Clegg and the party in government, according to the Voice’s favourite online political read, ShowbizSpy.com:

“I’m a very big fan… I don’t agree with everything he says, but of all the party leaders, he was the one I voted for,” Daniel said. “I thought he was a great speaker and very charismatic and very statesmanlike.

“I’m glad that he is still in a prominent position in British politics because I think he

…

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The Voice

Andy Coulson accused of knowing about widespread phone hacking

By The Voice | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 1:22 pm

So says the New York Times in its detailed report on what the News of the World got up to with phone hacking during Andy Coulson’s time as editor:

A dozen former reporters said in interviews that hacking was pervasive at News of the World. “Everyone knew,” one longtime reporter said. “The office cat knew.”

One former editor said Coulson talked freely with colleagues about the dark arts, including hacking. “I’ve been to dozens if not hundreds of meetings with Andy” when the subject came up, said the former editor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The editor added that when Coulson

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Carl Miller

The Independent View: Confronting conspiracy theories is a classic case of civic society trumping central government

By Carl Miller | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 11:57 am

Conspiracy theories, an increasingly popular dinnertime conversation, are often otherwise dismissed and ignored. At most they are regarded as the amusing yet ultimately harmless hobby of a fringe, irrelevant few. They are neither of these things. They are a powerful social phenomenon. In many contexts they demolish trust between government and communities. In some, they are dangerous.

On Sunday, Demos released a report, The Power of Unreason. In it, we looked at the role that conspiracy theories play in radical and extremist groups. Analysing over 50 such groups, we found conspiracy theories to have a strong functional value that play …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | 29 Comments
Mark Pack

The verdict from history: bring back Gordon Brown

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 10:57 am

The lovely phrase “spray on evidence” was coined in the late 1990s in frustration at the attitude towards evidence shown by many in the Labour government. Though officially the government was determinedly set on a course of evidence-based policy, many of those involved in policy making felt that evidence was being applied as a bit of glitter to justify policies rather than really shaping them.

Spray on history now seems to be the order of the day in much political punditry with the futures of the coalition, Liberal Democrats and Labour often talked about with several nods towards the past. A …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: Coalition’s boozy consultation

By Chris White | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 9:50 am

Next week, on 8 September, there ends the consultation period for a remarkable set of proposals from the Coalition Government entitled ‘Rebalancing the Licensing Act’.

Drink and the British are a potent and not altogether attractive combination. Drink and politics have been even less attractive. In my own city of St Albans it was routine for the Whigs and the Tories to fight each other in the streets, fired up with generous amounts of election day alcohol (the city later lost its right to have an MP at all because of electoral corruption).

The Liberals famously lost the 1874 General Election because …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

EXCLUSIVE: How party members rate the performances of leading Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 7:45 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’ve been publishing the full results of our survey over the past few days.

Today, in the final part of our survey, we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats – those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems:

How would you rate the performances of the …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 8:50 pm

My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon’s big political news that William Hague’s special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair.

Iain writes: “We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well,” and I agree 100%. However, there are two further points I’d make.

The questions were fair enough…

Paul Staines blogged about the issue on 24th August, using the Freedom of Information Act to ask three questions inquiring as to the suitability of Mr Myers acting …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 34 Comments
Iain Roberts

Paul Staines, William Hague and questions for bloggers

By Iain Roberts | Wed 1st September 2010 - 7:44 pm

Allegations have recently been posted on Paul Staines’ blog Order Order (where he blogs under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes) about a relationship between William Hague and one of his special advisors, Christopher Myers.

These allegations have led to Myers resigning from his post and to the Hague’s releasing a full and frank statement which include revalations they would, I’m sure, have rather remained private about the problems they’ve had in their attempts to start a family.  The allegations have been categorically denied by William Hague.

We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well.

Claims are often made for …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 36 Comments
The Voice

The Independent View: Towards interactive government

By The Voice | Wed 1st September 2010 - 5:52 pm

This is a guest cross-post by Tim Davies – originally posted on the Political Innovation site:

The communication revolution that we’ve undergone in recent years has two big impacts:

  • It changes what’s possible. It makes creating networks between people across organisations easier; it opens new ways for communication between citizens and state; it gives everyone who wants it a platform for global communication; and it makes it possible to discover local online dialogue.
  • It changes citizen expectations of government. When I can follow news from my neighbour’s blog on my phone, why can’t I get updates on local services on the mobile-web?

…

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Stephen Tall

Tony Blair’s A Journey: 3 reasons I’m impressed without having read a single page

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 4:25 pm

No, I haven’t read Tony Blair’s A Journey yet (though it should be waiting for me at home). I haven’t even had time to read more than a handful of the preview articles, such as The Guardian’s trailer. With that confesion of near-total ignorance of A Journey established, I think there are three points worth making…

1. It’s an Event.

The decision that Mr Blair’s book would not be serialised (apparently modelled on the strategy for Alastair Campbell’s diaries) has made publication day much more of an Event-with-a-capital-E, the political anoraks’ equivalent of a release of a new Harry …

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Posted in Books and Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
Iain Roberts

Can councils rise to the Open Source challenge? Should they?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 1st September 2010 - 3:33 pm

There was an interesting little piece in the Guardian few days ago suggesting that local authorities could save £51 million by moving some council employees to Open Office* and ODF**, and away from Microsoft Office and their document format, with the total savings rocketing to £200 million if every council employee in the country moved over.

This sensible proposal came from Cllr Liam Maxwell who’s reponsible for IT in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, and I’m sure Cllr Maxwell would be the first to acknowledge it’s not a new suggestion. The office suite – as a commodity …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Paul Evans

The Independent View: Political Innovation

By Paul Evans | Wed 1st September 2010 - 2:47 pm

When bloggers meet, I often find that old allegiances (be they left right, or Unionist/Republican often dissolve into a different political spilt. Those of us who imagine that we ‘get’ the read-write web against the political colleagues that we have who, we believe, fail to foresee the possibilities or the threats.

I’ve occasionally witnessed left-right-and-centrist bloggers in (non) violent agreement with each other – not about political direction, but about what is possible in harnessing the power of the web. About how a more effective participative political culture can bring about a range of subtle changes – to reverse the broken politico/media relationship out of some of the cul-de-sacs that it appears to have stuck in.

Today, a few of us have come together to launch a project called ‘Political Innovation’. It’s for anyone who has ever asked themselves ‘why is politics still done like this?’

We’ve put a call out through our personal networks for initial contributions and we’ve already had promises of more than ten essays suggesting serious political innovations that are based upon an understanding of what interactive social media and the web can achieve.

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Fred Carver

Opinion: the Australian election and AV

By Fred Carver | Wed 1st September 2010 - 1:40 pm

Fans of the alternative vote system would do well to look at the result of the Australian election. Australia and Fiji are the only two countries in the world to use AV. The two main parties got about 80% of the vote. A record* 2 million+ people voted for minor parties, that’s around 17% – a 50% increase of the number of people not voting for the big two.

And the result? Well the two main parties got 145 seats and the minor parties 5.

Now at this point defenders of AV will be saying “yes we know AV isn’t that good …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 50 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: What party members think of Lib Dem ambitions for government

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 11:50 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we’re looking at a trio of questions relating to how the Lib Dems and the Coalition will govern in the next few years. First up, we asked:

Do you agree – yes or no – with the following statement: The Coalition is implementing a significant part of the Lib Dem manifesto.

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Why commission a report if you’re determined to ignore its conclusions?

By Mark Pack | Wed 1st September 2010 - 8:58 am

Last August, the then Labour government commissioned a KPMG report into the future of NHS Direct (along with some other related NHS services). The report has been submitted to the current government, though not published.

So if Labour MPs and members were saying how the government must publish the KPMG report right away to see if it justifies the plans to migrate NHS Direct over to the planned 111 service, fair enough.

But for many in Labour to be demanding that the NHS Direct plans be abandoned without knowing the outcome of the KPMG report is tantamount to saying, “Who cares …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: What Lib Dem members think are the biggest dangers to the party in the next 12 months

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 7:45 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we’re looking at what the Voice’s sample of party members consider to be the biggest dangers to the Lib Dems in the 12 months to come. We asked:

Which, if any, of the following factors are in your view the biggest danger to the Lib Dems in the next year? …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Flip-flops, u-turns and how not to welcome converts

By Mark Pack | Tue 31st August 2010 - 10:05 pm

I was pleased to see the news this morning that Bjorn Lomborg’s views on climate change have shifted, particularly as his scepticism has often been rather thoughtful. In particularly, he opened up an important debating by pointing out that money spent on stopping global warming needs to be judged against not only global warming’s likelihood and likely impact but also against the benefits that could be got from spending the money in other ways, such as improving basic health services across the developing world.

Reading the coverage today closely, it does seem as if the extent to which he has changed …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: Stephen Tall on how to cure Lib Dem masochism

By Helen Duffett | Tue 31st August 2010 - 8:47 pm

Stephen Tall writes today at Comment is Free that not only is it healthy to be open about disagreement within the coalition, but that it could be good for future Lib Dem – and coalition – success.

He cites the results of this week’s Lib Dem Voice survey, in which 84% of respondents still support the coalition partnership between the Lib Dems and Conservatives – yet just 17% believe it will be good for the party’s prospects at the next general election.

Far from being taken for a ride by the Tories or being carried away by power-hunger, as …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: Education, not indoctrination – Evan Harris’ 10 commandments for RE teaching

By Helen Duffett | Tue 31st August 2010 - 4:41 pm

Evan Harris, writing in the Guardian today, shares his blueprint for better RE teaching. He says that the evolution-creationism debate in schools should take place in RE lessons as well as science lessons:

Secularists like me believe that RE is a valid subject for study in the curriculum but should be about what different religions (and other world views like humanism) believe; it should not be about what ought to be believed. So Catholic schools should be allowed to use RE lessons to teach that the Catholic church opposes contraception and believes that homosexuality is a sin, but not that

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 24 Comments
Iain Roberts

Labour aren’t being hypocritical on NHS Direct

By Iain Roberts | Tue 31st August 2010 - 3:12 pm

Within milliseconds of the Coalition announcement of the plan to replace NHS Direct with a new non-emergency NHS service, Labour politicians were up in arms.

Because this plan from the Coalition obviously bears absolutely no relation to Labour’s plan, as spelt out on page 35 of the party’s 2010 manifesto.

A new national 111 telephone number will make nonemergency services far easier for people to access and book.

This, we need to understand, is totally different to replacing NHS Direct. What Labour had in mind, as they planned their £44 billion savings, must have been to keep NHS Direct just as …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged and | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

EXCLUSIVE: 84% of Lib Dem members back Lib-Con Coalition – but 46% say it will be bad for party’s electoral fortunes

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st August 2010 - 1:50 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the Coalition Government’s budget, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

First, let’s take the temperature of the party membership regarding their view of the Lib-Con Coalition agreement, now some two months old:

Do you support or oppose the Lib Dems being in the Coalition Government with the Conservatives?

  • 84% – Support
  • 11% – Oppose
  • 5% – Don’t know / No

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: How Lib Dem members rate the performances of Nick Clegg and the party

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st August 2010 - 11:50 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the Coalition Government’s budget, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we take a look at the performance of the Lib Dems and our leader. First we asked:

Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track?

  • 69% – The right course
  • 17% – The wrong track

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 9 Comments
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