Mark Pack

Monday will be the day of high drama (or anti-climax) at party conference

By Mark Pack | Mon 16th August 2010 - 10:20 am

Monday, 20th September: nuclear power, free schools and Nick Clegg’s conference speech. Drama, protest and dissension or quiet compromise, careful management and enthusiastic standing ovation?

It’s no coincidence that both potential controversies are scheduled for the same day as Clegg’s speech: in the worst case situation, all the bad news would be be concentrated on the one day and Clegg will still get the final word (or rather, many words) on the day with his speech coming after the possible flashpoints*.

However, it’s unlikely to come to that as the two motions are carefully worded. Nuclear power gets a mention in the …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
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Stephen Tall

Social mobility and the Lib Dems: will Alan Milburn’s appointment help?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th August 2010 - 9:50 am

The weekend media was full of the news of Alan Milburn’s putative return to front-line politics with his appointment to a role advising the Coalition Government on policies to promote social mobility.

Reaction to the news has been mixed. John Prescott, never one to mince his words when he can mangle them instead, spat out that Mr Milburn was a “collaborator”. Conservative blogger Iain Dale was disappointed to see the Coalition’s big tent expanding to include a former New Labour cabinet minister: “One day they might actually appoint a Conservative.”

For the Lib Dems, Simon Hughes was more amenable to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Iain Roberts

Nick’s minding the shop – what are the papers saying?

By Iain Roberts | Mon 16th August 2010 - 8:20 am

David Cameron is on holiday so Nick Clegg, as Deputy Prime Minister, is minding the shop.

Most of the papers want to find an angle that rains on the Lib Dem parade and does Nick down. The problem is, none of them can agree on which invented line to take.

The Guardian wants to portray Nick Clegg as about to actually become Prime Minister and snubbed that he isn’t.

It is the most power a liberal politician has had since the 1920s, although Nick Clegg’s hopes of becoming only the second liberal politician in almost a century to run the country

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 38 Comments
Mark Pack

Is the problem that people don’t want to pay for news or don’t want to pay for newspapers?

By Mark Pack | Sun 15th August 2010 - 5:50 pm

Each round of newspaper circulation figures makes grim reading for anyone trying to balance the books at a newspaper. Month after month circulation is dropping away across the board. The usual explanation is that newspapers are suffering because so much free news is now available online, and there is certainly a large degree of truth in that.

However, there are two important caveats to that. First, the massive lack of trust in journalists, who are regularly rated one of the least trusted professions in the UK. As I wrote last year on this topic,

Isn’t a major reason that people increasingly turn

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
David Allen

Opinion: unnatural constituency boundaries – the hidden menace

By David Allen | Sun 15th August 2010 - 4:20 pm

The big electoral reform next year – or so everyone thinks – will be the referendum on AV. Alongside it, there will be a boring technical change to equalise constituency sizes and get rid of the present bias towards Labour. Most people assume that we won’t need to worry much about the constituency size changes.

Massive mistake! The change from natural to unnatural constituency boundaries, and rigidly fixed constituency sizes, will have profound and far-reaching ill effects. It will largely destroy the effective link between a local constituency and its individual MP. It could also threaten …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 50 Comments
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The Voice

Tory MP in Commons sex party “scandal”

By The Voice | Sun 15th August 2010 - 11:20 am

The Mail is getting worked up that people attending a black tie dinner at the House of Commons may later, having left those hallowed halls, enjoy some form of sexual activity.

The newspaper is upset that Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell has sponsored the black tie event in the Commons, after which attendees will go onto what the Mail says is

an ‘After Party’ on a nearby boat where entertainment includes ‘pole dancing, burlesque and erotic performances’.

Needless to say, this is an outrage – the Mail even tracked down an unnamed MP to comment ‘This smutty event is below the dignity of …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

By slimmest of margins Supreme Court overturns UKIP donations ruling

By Mark Pack | Sun 15th August 2010 - 9:20 am

A quick update on our previous coverage of the court case over more than £350,000 of impermissible donations accepted by UKIP. Last month the Supreme Court ruled in UKIP’s favour, reducing the amount UKIP has to repay to just under £15,000.

Although on a strict narrow literal reading of the legislation wording all impermissible donations have to be forfeit, by a 4-3 ruling the Supreme Court decided that the word “forfeit” is  used in an unusual way in the wording of the legislation and that the wider context shows that the total of impermissible donations is the maximum that …

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The Voice

By-election news: Conservative gain in Medway

By The Voice | Sat 14th August 2010 - 5:56 pm

Only the one by-election this week, a gain for the Conservatives:

Conservative 617 (44.6; +5.6)
Labour 544 (39.4; -0.7)
LibDem (Garry Harrison) 104 (7.5; -0.6)
Green 45 (3.3; +3.3)
BNP 39 (2.8; +2.8)
English Democrats 33 (2.4; n/a)
Majority 73
Turnout 25.3%
Con gain from Lab

(There were two parties standing last time who didn’t stand this time.)

Posted in Council by-elections | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink… Shirley Williams on the coalition: Not one bed – two beds

By Helen Duffett | Sat 14th August 2010 - 4:50 pm

The Guardian today has an interview with Shirley Williams, who at 80, continues to work full-time and is active in questioning the coalition government’s stance on academies, health and Trident:

If you give up what you most care about you start dying. It doesn’t matter what age.

Debate within the coalition on the key issues is a positive thing, insists Williams:

What we have to do is get as much as one possibly can of what Lib Dems believe into the coalition programme. It’s no good simply saying our role is to say no to everything.

Williams admits her surprise that the Liberal Democrats, of whom she was a founder, formed a coalition with the Conservative Party.

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , , , , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

How does the party’s policy-making work during coalition?

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th August 2010 - 3:20 pm

Here’s what the report to conference from the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) says on the matter:

The FPC has had a number of discussions on the implications for its role and the Party’s policy-making of our new status as a party of government. The FPC is very clear that the Party’s complete independence in policy-making shall continue. The Committee will be developing new ways of working both to ensure the maximum Liberal Democrat policy input into the Coalition Government, and also to continue to ensure a separate Liberal Democrat policy identity. In particular the FPC will developing a close working

…

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 15 Comments
Caroline Pidgeon

Peddling myths over London’s bike hire scheme

By Caroline Pidgeon | Sat 14th August 2010 - 11:50 am

In London one of the most exciting developments this year has been the long awaited launch of the bike hire scheme.

Despite its launch being associated with quite a number of problems – including a highly complex registration process, and a number of cyclists being overcharged – no one can deny that the scheme is proving incredibly popular.  And let’s be realistic, no major scheme ever starts without at least some minor teething problems. Of course I will be chasing hard until these glitches are resolved, and they certainly …

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Posted in Local government and London | Tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Kaye Stearman

The Independent View: Arms deals with India – why Lib Dems should say no

By Kaye Stearman | Sat 14th August 2010 - 10:50 am

PM Cameron’s heavyweight government plus business trip to India went swimmingly, so we are to believe, despite that diplomatic faux pas about Pakistani support for terrorism and Indian discontent about proposed immigration quotas. One fortunate outcome for Mr Cameron was that both issues diverted attention from a highly contentious arms deal involving arms giant BAE.

Under the deal, 57 Hawk jets will be manufactured under licence in India with BAE’s Indian partner, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), with technical support from BAE. Roll-Royce also gets a slice of the deal as its jet engines will be used in production. The deal is …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Rejoice! 11 months (and 1 new government) on and the Home Office responds

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th August 2010 - 9:20 am

Long term readers may recall my concerns over how the approach the Independent Safeguarding Authority was taking to the Vetting and Baring scheme, and in particular the way its guidance suggested that it didn’t really treat being found innocent in a court as counting as being innocent.

The ISA passed the issue on to the Home Office, and – as I previously reported – then there was silence, despite prompts from me. Silence too reigned when I contacted my Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn, three times about the matter. Between them they didn’t even reply the once.

The ISA had the …

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

Review of Bristol elections calls for widespread changes

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th August 2010 - 2:20 pm

Confidence in the administration of elections by Bristol Council was badly shaken this May after a series of problems, including ballot papers found in the wrong place, election results taking 6 hours longer than expected to be declared and numerous phone calls going unanswered. A detailed review of electoral administration was subsequently ordered and it has called for major changes.

The Bristol Evening Post reported,

Apart from more than half of the election phone queries going unanswered, the office for the council’s electoral services department in the Corn Exchange has been described as “woefully inadequate”. One of Ms Dixon’s many recommendations

…

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Mark Pack

The political impact of Parliamentary boundary changes

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th August 2010 - 1:55 pm

Yesterday Sara highlighted the Newsnight report into the political impact of reducing the number of Parliamentary constituencies. Democratic Audit have kindly provided me with a copy of their research which was used for the BBC headlines about how the Liberal Democrats were likely to lose out disproportionately.

You can read their report in full below, but it’s worth highlighting the significant caveats that Democratic Audit put on their results: “While it is possible to draw conclusions about how the proposals could impact on party representation, these findings must be regarded as purely indicative … It is very difficult to produce precise estimates of the likely partisan impact of these changes”. They describe their political projections as, “a rough estimate of the likely impact”.

Moreover, their calculations are based on making very little allowance for how parties will change their campaigning in response to changing boundaries. So ready a fair few pinches of salt and read on…

Projecting the Impact of Reduce and Equalise

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Lessons from Australia: poster design

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th August 2010 - 12:20 pm

A quick counterpart to my previous Lessons from Canada: poster design, this time looking at Australian election posters such as this one:

Australian Liberal Party election poster

As you can see from this example from North Sydney, the usual Australian style (as is the case in European countries such as Germany) is to feature candidate or party leader photo very large, with the name of the candidate or party more like a caption to the poster than its main content.

By contrast, in the UK, the name …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 16 Comments
Iain Roberts

Pricier booze for Greater Manchester – a good idea?

By Iain Roberts | Fri 13th August 2010 - 11:20 am

The ten local authorities that make up Greater Manchester are considering imposing a minimum alcohol price of 50 pence a unit across the area – and David Cameron is certainly interested.

The move, planned for October, would see a standard bottle of wine costing at least £4.50, a 700ml bottle of whisky £14 and a six pack of lager at least £6.

Health officials are in favour, believing it will cut alcohol-related illness, improve life expectancy and reduce inequality.

One of the ten authorities, Stockport, is cautious, though. Stockport’s concern is not so much about the principle of minimum pricing …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 20 Comments
Mark Pack

Worth a second outing: Great Liberal Speeches: sacrificing the constitution on the altar of public security

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th August 2010 - 10:20 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.

I was one of the contributors to Great Liberal Speeches. Here is my introduction to the selected speech from George Tierney, followed by the speech itself. The issues are arguments are still very pertinent …

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Mark Pack

Two Scottish Labour councillors charged by the police

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th August 2010 - 8:50 am

Andrew Reeves has got details of John Holden, charged over alleged benefit fraud, and Gilbert Davidson, accused of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague.

UPDATE: Charges against Gilbert Davidson were subsequently dropped.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Philip Lardner gets official warning but keeps job

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th August 2010 - 7:50 pm

A quick update on Philip Lardner, whose suspension as a Conservative candidate during the election following homophobic comments we covered back in April – and who had previously been suspended by the Conservatives in 2008 for praising Rhodesian leader Ian Smith.

After he made the homophobic remarks this year, he was also suspended from his teaching job. He has now been reinstated, but given a formal written warning over his behaviour.

Hat-tip: Stephen Glenn

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
Sara Bedford

Smaller Commons ‘would hit Lib Dems’

By Sara Bedford | Thu 12th August 2010 - 6:45 pm

The Lib Dems would have been proportionally the biggest losers if proposed changes to equalise constituency size had been implemented at the last election, according to research carried out by independent organisation Democratic Audit for BBC Newsnight.

The report estimates that the party would have lost 12% of its seats – or 7 out of 57. Labour would have lost 25 of 258 (10%), and the Conservatives just 13 of 307 (4%). The research did not make any assessment of the effect of a change in the voting system to AV, but instead assumed the use of FPTP.

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Posted in News | Tagged | 33 Comments
Mark Pack

Information Commissioner upholds complaint over Tony Blair’s activities

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th August 2010 - 2:50 pm

During the general election campaign I highlighted how TonyBlair4Labour, the official vehicle for Tony Blair’s campaigning on behalf of the Labour Party, looked to be illegally exporting data overseas.

The Information Commission has now (finally) ruled on my complaint, agreeing that the organisation had indeed failed to follow data protection rules properly and is now writing to instruct that this is fixed. As with my complaint about Unite breaking data protection rules during the election (also upheld), the Information Commissioner only took action after the election was over – hardly ideal as in both cases it was an issue …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Alex Marsh

Opinion: there’s no pleasure in saying ‘I told you so’ – but does it need saying?

By Alex Marsh | Thu 12th August 2010 - 1:22 pm

Clarity of purpose is a virtue. But stubbornness doesn’t necessarily win any plaudits when more flexibility is appropriate. The shock tactics of Osbornomics have now been fully embraced. The message is clear: this Coalition is not for turning.

In the run up to the Election the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats adopted distinctive positions on the best approach to cutting the fiscal deficit. Despite Nick Clegg’s apparent secret conversion to the Conservative position of early and deep cuts, the LibDem manifesto commitments were directed at cutting in 2011/12 and after, and the rhetoric around budget reductions was to proceed at a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 58 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: THE shock of election night

By NewsHound | Thu 12th August 2010 - 12:20 pm

The BBC have an interview with Ian Swales, the Redcar MP who turned a 12,000 Labour majority into a 5,000 one for the Lib Dems.

The interview may not be the toughest he’ll face, but it covers the throny issue of a Lib Dem MP in coalition with the Conservatives but representing a traditionally Labour area.

But what about the thousands of traditional Labour voters who defected to him last May?

I didn’t find it too tricky last May to find Swales supporters who felt they hadn’t voted for him to see the Tories in government.

Equally, I found others prepared

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 29 Comments
Mark Pack

Book review: Blog Theory by Jodi Dean

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th August 2010 - 11:20 am

Jodi Dean’s analysis of the economic, political and social impacts of blogging (and social networking more generally) covers broad themes that will be familiar to readers of technology authors such as Clay Shirky or media commentators such as Charlie Beckett. However, the particular aspects, the style of argument and even the vocabulary are heavily different – for this is a work of critical literary theory. The lack of overlap in cited sources, points of debate and choice of jargon highlights how even in the interconnected world of online punditry (all three frequently write online) there are many distinct niches and communities who rarely overlap even when the broad subjects of their interest are the same.

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Posted in Books and Online politics | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th August 2010 - 10:20 am

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

Just go to our email sign up page to start getting these emails. You can also sign up for a special once-a-week email, bringing you …

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Mark Pack

No, 1980s hairstyles haven’t made a comeback at Southampton Football Club

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th August 2010 - 8:50 am

Latest news in the ongoing saga of Southampton Football Club’s attempts to ban photographers from its matches, and instead insist the media buys official photographs from itself, is that the Bournemouth Daily Echo has joined the Plymouth Herald in refusing to play ball.

The Herald is using a cartoonist instead of using photographs, but the Echo has decided to take another route – and is using photographs from the 1980s instead. Footballers’ hair has never looked so good if you ask me.

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Iain Roberts

Edinburgh to London 30 minutes by train – is China leading the way on public transport?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 11th August 2010 - 7:35 pm

We’re used to some of our European neighbours, along with Japan, being ahead of the game on public transport, whilst car is undoubted king in the US and the UK struggles along as usual.

But there are signs China could leapfrog into the lead with some impressive plans.

Chinese scientists are working on a Maglev train the runs through airless tunnels (so no drag) at speeds of up to 1000 kph (over 600 mph) which could get you from Edinburgh to London in a little over half an hour, or Manchester to London in under twenty minutes.

For local transport the Chinese …

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Posted in News | 18 Comments
Patrick Murray

Opinion: 4.5 million people are waiting for homes – let’s not leave them behind

By Patrick Murray | Wed 11th August 2010 - 5:40 pm

David Cameron’s recent comments on council housing tenancies have sparked some controversy in the media and here on Lib Dem Voice.

First, I am delighted that at least there is a debate around housing policy. Many people are simply unable to afford to buy, leaving people in cramped overcrowded accommodation that is harmful to their and their family’s health. There are still many people sleeping on our streets and many more in homeless shelters and temporary accommodation.

I’ve seen both ends of the crisis. Ten years ago I was homeless myself and went through the shelters to temporary accommodation …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 17 Comments
Stuart Bonar

Is the Coalition failing the radical test?

By Stuart Bonar | Wed 11th August 2010 - 4:10 pm

One of the many great things about our party is its steadfast refusal to bow to media pressure. Take, as Exhibit A, the sweet joy of being a conference rep and voting down the leadership’s preferred policy option. We don’t care that it will be portrayed by the next day’s newspapers, as erroneous as it is inevitable, as a party split.

We are also a truly radical party. Most policies taken for granted today entered the pages of our policy documents long before Labour or the Conservatives sheepishly followed. Come next month I hope that gay marriage will be the latest …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 27 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • David Allen
    Here's a contrast (BBC news today): "Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said ... "Talk is cheap. Burnham must stop with all the 'maybes' ... " Just carping from t...
  • expats
    Keith Legg 30th Sep '26 - 12:55pm...........I think the “triple lock” was needed when it was introduced, but there was always that risk that it would become...
  • David Allen
    I agree with Caron. Burnham deserves enthusiastic if critical support. He is taking big risks for the sake of progressive national renewal. He is bound to hi...
  • Nick Perry
    Could not agree more Caron - fantastic post....
  • Katharine Pindar
    Absolutely right, Caron. That was a splendid speech, and we should surely be offering support in many fields to the Prime Minister's fine intentions. What is ap...