Tag Archives: featured

Mark Pack

Bad systems, not tired people get election counts wrong

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th October 2009 - 12:00 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:Sleepy person

Both the recent controversies over whether or not general election counts should take place on the Thursday night and whether or not the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections should use e-counting touch, in part, on the question of the accuracy of manual counts.

This is an area where systematic evidence is very thin on the ground.

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Posted in Election law and Op-eds | Also tagged | 16 Comments
Baroness Ros Scott

Ros Scott writes… Party President’s report to members, September ‘09

By Baroness Ros Scott | Mon 5th October 2009 - 12:30 pm

September is the transition month from the quiet of the summer recess to the hustle and bustle of Regional and State Party Conferences, although the past month was still pretty busy.

The month started with a weekend series of visits in the West Midlands, first up being an early evening members’ meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon on the Friday, hosted by local PPC and Chair of the Parliamentary Candidates Association, Martin Turner. The next morning, stopping only for coffee with Martin to discuss some issues related to candidate recruitment, selection and retention, I was off to West Worcestershire to meet the victor of the District by-election that week, before heading to Malvern for a dinner with members.

Richard Burt is our PPC there, and is optimistic about his chances of pulling off a victory against the Conservatives. Sunday saw us head to Hereford to meet Sarah Carr, who is fighting hard to retain Paul Keetch’s seat, although boundary changes have been less than kind.

The next week saw me in Bedford, where the unexpected death of the independent mayor has given us an opportunity to gain only our second directly elected Mayor. David Hodgson, a long-time stalwart of the Party

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Mark Pack

Electoral Commission heavily criticise report into plans for 2012 London elections

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 8:55 am

The Electoral Commission has published a report laying out a series of detailed and powerful criticisms of the cost-benefit analysis carried out for the Greater London Returning Officer into the use of e-counting for the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections.

However, the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO) appears determined to go ahead with electronic counting, having told a meeting he had made this decision before even hearing the Electoral Commission’s views and despite even the flawed cost-benefit analysis showing that e-counting is more expensive than manual counting.

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Posted in Election law and London | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: September ’09

By Stephen Tall | Wed 30th September 2009 - 7:10 pm

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the 18 polls published in September – the number is extra high this month because of the recently instituted daily YouGov tracker poll. (Note to self: we need to find a way of averaging the trackers, otherwise they will dominate and distort LDV’s (very unscientific) monthly poll average).

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Posted in Polls | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

That Andrew Marr question: wrong, wrong, wrong

By Stephen Tall | Sun 27th September 2009 - 5:15 pm

It’s a few weeks since I was emailed an article by John Ward (also sent to a number of other blog-sites), subsequently published at notbornyesterday.org, alleging the Prime Minister suffers from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, and that these conditions are being treated with prescription pills.

I decided not to publish, or refer at all to the allegations on Lib Dem Voice. As I explained to John in an email at the time, “without named sources for the story it’s not something we could publish on LDV. I appreciate, given the nature of the story, that having sources on the record is difficult, but still.”

The BBC’s Andrew Marr today felt no such compunction, asking Gordon Brown bluntly: “A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?” To which the Prime Minister would have been quite entitled to reply – though of course he couldn’t, as Mr Marr would have known – “None of your damned business.”

There are two issues here. First, was the BBC right to pose the question (and I’m sure the line of questioning was cleared at a high level within the Corporation)? And, secondly, should it matter to us what the Prime Minister’s reply was?

Was the BBC right? Absolutely not.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 37 Comments
Lynne Featherstone

Opinion: Where is the British Obama?

By Lynne Featherstone | Sun 27th September 2009 - 10:20 am

Earlier this month Lynne Featherstone gave the Heather Larkin Annual Lecture in Yate:

I am really pleased to be here tonight – yes it is a long trek here and back but worth it to pay tribute to Steve Webb. Steve is a great MP, a great campaigner, a great innovator on the internet – and a great intellectual force. The fact that we often agree on policy may have something to do with that!

But one of the highlights of Parliament is listening to thoughtful and powerful speeches from which you learn and which help shape your own views. Steve’s speeches …

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Posted in LDVUSA and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The most important campaigning message

By Mark Pack | Thu 24th September 2009 - 8:42 pm

Last week’s Politics Home poll provided another example of what both public and private party research has consistently shown for at least 15 years. The biggest obstacle to persuading people to vote Liberal Democrat isn’t getting them to agree with a particular policy or to like a particular candidate or leader. It’s persuading people that we can win in that constituency or ward.

In last week’s PoliticsHome poll 44% said they would “definitely” or “probably” Liberal Democrat if we had “a serious chance of winning in your constituency”. That finding is nothing new as you can see, for example, from Russell …

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Posted in News | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s conference speech, the live-blog #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 2:25 pm

Update: the full text of Nick’s speech is available on the party’s website here.

There’s a lot of expectation heaped on Nick Clegg’s shoulders ahead of his speech to the Lib Dem autumn conference in Bournemouth this afternoon. The media coverage has been less-than-glowing, fuelled by murmurs of discontent among party activists following Nick’s talk of the need for “savage” cuts, the row over the de-prioritising of the abolition of tuition fees, and Vince’s surprise announcment of a ‘mansion tax’.

So Nick will be looking to unite the conference hall this afternoon with a passionate statement explaining why the Lib Dems deserve the votes of the British public at the next election. Nick is, of course, an accomplished – seemingly nerve-less – public speaker, always at ease on the conference podium, and I don’t expect this afternoon to be any different. I’ll be live-blogging the speech as it proceeds, as well as keeping an eye on any Twitter reactions at libdemvoice.org/tweets. Join me at 3pm …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Leadership v. Activists – a personal reflection on Bournemouth ’09 #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 10:55 am

I’m not, by any means, a party conference veteran – Bournemouth ’09 was in fact only my fourth. But it has been distinctive for one thing in particular: it’s been the first year when the media coverage of conference has genuinely reflected what folk (at least those I’ve met) have been talking about at conference.

In previous years, we have been continually told that Lib Dem delegates were chattering about the fate of our leaders – when actually we were quite contentedly chewing the fat of meaty policy issues. This year, there has, as ever at a Lib Dem conference, been plenty of meaty policy debate, but there’s also been more than a little discussion, and not a little grumbling, about the style of the party leadership, both Nick and Vince. And it seems to me – as I blogged here yesterday – that these grumblings are fair.

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Is Nick Clegg right to talk about the need for “savage” cuts?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 10:25 am

For once, the media reporting of what party activists at conference are discussing is accurate – Nick Clegg’s decision to question the affordability of the Lib Dems’ long-held policy of abolishiong university tuition fees, and his talk of the need for the party to be “quite bold, or even savage, on current spending” is the talk of the town.

The Financial Times today quotes some high-level criticism of Nick’s approach:

One MP said Mr Clegg sounded “nastier than the Tories” and that he was “salivating” over the chance to cut the state. Others complained that Mr Clegg and Vince

…

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Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged | 21 Comments
Helen Duffett

Blog of the Year Awards 2009: The Winners

By Helen Duffett | Sun 20th September 2009 - 10:41 pm

What’s loosely termed the awards “ceremony” for the 2009 Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards has just drawn to a glittering close. As the last firework fades in Bournemouth’s night sky, I’m delighted to announce the winners:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

The state of the Liberal Democrat blogosphere

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th September 2009 - 2:45 pm

There is of course no such thing as ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’. For sure there are hundreds of Lib Dems who write blogs, but any suggestion we can be neatly bundled together into one coherent entity is wide of the mark – we’d scarcely be liberals otherwise. Which is why if you visit the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator – a site which collates the feeds of more than 220 active bloggers – you will find posts about potholes and proportional representation, pop-culture and Palestine, all nestling alongside each other. If anything defines ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’ it is this eclecticism.

We can separate political blogs – whether Lib Dem, Labour or Tory – into two broad categories. First, there those bloggers who write primarily for (and are read primarily by) those already interested in politics. And then there are those bloggers – usually political campaigners – who are primarily writing for readers in their electoral patch.

In each case it’s true to say the Lib Dems punch well above our weight. You don’t have to take my word for it.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Helen Duffett

Blog of the Year Awards 2009: The Shortlists

By Helen Duffett | Tue 15th September 2009 - 11:25 am

Nominations for the Liberal Democrats’ Blog of the Year Awards 2009 closed on 4 September. Since then, the judges (Tom Brake MP, Ryan Cullen, me, Meral Ece OBE, Lynne Featherstone MP, Alix Mortimer, Stephen Tall, Cat Turner and Paul Waugh) have been poring over the entries for the six categories.

It’s been a big task, and a fun one, to distil so many excellent examples of Lib Dem blogging and e-campaigning into lists of the five best.

Congratulations if you’ve been shortlisted, but if you haven’t: remember that the shortlists are based on the judges’ subjective opinions. The awards are intended to be a fun way to celebrate the talent in the Lib Dem blogosphere, whilst introducing you to some blogs you might not have read before.

First, a reminder that the winner of the Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog category will be decided by a public vote here on Liberal Democrat Voice, so please have a read of the nominated blogs and then head on over to the sidebar to cast your vote.

Next, a plug for the awards ceremony itself. If you’re coming to party conference in Bournemouth, do head along to Old Harry’s Bar in the Marriott Highcliff Hotel from 9.45pm on Sunday 20th September.

Now, without further ado, here are the shortlists: (Drumroll, please)

Blank

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Posted in Best of the blogs and Conference | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

It’s not Britain that’s illiberal, Martin – it’s our political culture

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th September 2009 - 1:55 pm

Was The Guardian’s Martin Kettle right yesterday to argue, as per his article’s headline, The biggest problem for the Liberal Democrats is illiberal Britain. It was a long, thoughtful piece – and, hey, it’s much better to be talked about than not, especially if you’re a Lib Dem – but, still, it was at best a partial explanation.

Let’s start with the positive stuff. First of all, Mr Kettle acknowledges the various ways in which the party has “been right on so many issues”:

By so many yardsticks, the Lib Dems deserve to be higher in the polls than they are. Michael Meadowcroft, intermittent party loyalist and former MP for Leeds West, listed several of them in a typically forceful Guardian letter today: the economy, Europe, ID cards, Iraq and localism. On all of them, as he says, the Lib Dems have been consistently right. One can add others to the list that Meadowcroft omitted: climate change, police powers, tax, electoral reform. All big subjects on which the Lib Dems have been right most of the time in ways that put the other parties to shame.

Couldn’t have put it better myself. But then there’s the problem of the current opinion polls: the Lib Dems have been tracking in the high-teens, occasionally breaking the 20% barrier.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 14 Comments
Ed Fordham

Outstanding Liberal Democrat Campaigner of the Year

By Ed Fordham | Fri 11th September 2009 - 12:30 pm

Campaigning is an all year round slog and most intensive for the staff and full-time campaigners who do this every day, every week. In that context many of you will have fond memories of Cllr Neil Trafford, Federal Campaigns Officer for the north west of England. Neil tragically died in an accident last year, but a group of us have used that sad occasion to institute a new award within the party.

This award will be for the outstanding member of campaigns staff – be they employed by a Local Party, constituency, MP, MSP, AM, MEP or indeed the federal …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

29% of seats have not changed hands since 1945

By Mark Pack | Tue 8th September 2009 - 4:20 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

A major part of the point of a democratic electoral system is that those elected to public office can be held to account by the public for their actions. The anger we often see over the behaviour of MPs – whether on matters of policy (such as the Iraq war) or on matters of probity (such as MPs’ expenses) – is often aggravated by an underlying lack of belief that MPs will in the normal course of events get held accountable for their actions. Hence the paucity of comments along the lines of “I can’t …

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Posted in General Election, News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 20 Comments
Mark Pack

Save general election night!

By Mark Pack | Mon 7th September 2009 - 8:50 am

Yesterday’s Sunday Times reported how our traditional general election night is under threat from more and more councils wanting to move their count to a Friday.

Although there are some understandable reasons for this (principally the extra logistical burden of new checks against postal vote fraud), overall losing the drama of Thursday night through to the early hours of Friday morning would be a backwards step because:

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Posted in General Election and News | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

Get Lib Dem Voice direct to your inbox

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th September 2009 - 12:20 pm

What better way to start the day than with Liberal Democrat Voice appearing in your inbox? (Well, discovering you have won a free lifetime’s supply of chocolate possibly, but that aside…)

You can sign up to our daily email news service, which contains the headlines from the latest stories on the site, along with links you can click on to read those which catch your fancy. You can also see which posts have attracted the most comments, and also get handy links to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

We also have a special once-a-week email you can …

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Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

The Government’s farcical slowness over updating election imprint rules

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd September 2009 - 2:20 pm

Six years on from receiving a recommendation from the Electoral Commission that existing legal powers should be used to clarify how the rules regarding election imprints apply to internet campaigning, the Government has still failed to act. This is despite the Government acknowledging in its official response to the recommendation the “importance” of getting this right. But it has decided that due to it being a “fast-evolving” area doing nothing for six years is the right response.

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Posted in News and Online politics | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: August ’09

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st September 2009 - 7:30 pm

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the six polls published in August:

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | 5 Comments

If used properly and proportionately, CCTV can be a vital deterrent to criminals

By Chris Ward | Tue 1st September 2009 - 6:28 pm

I did intend to write a less controversial article after my previous contribution attracted far more attention and comments than I expected it to. Knowing that what I’m writing about now falls onto a similar strand of sensitivity, I expect I’ll fail miserably.

When I arrived at Surrey in 2002 to study, we were told it was the safest county in the country. Indeed, this was one of the attractions of studying there, as well as the very beautiful and leafy campus in one of the most unspoilt but bustling southern towns in the country. However, …

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

NEW POLL: What should we pay our MPs?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 24th August 2009 - 8:57 pm

Tory MP Sir Patrick Cormack – the grandees’ grandee – isn’t alone in thinking MPs are under-paid. Today’s Times reports (under the oh-so-impartial headline, MPs hijack expenses inquiry with complaints and demands for pay rise – do you remember the days when newspapers reported facts, and let us form our own opinions?) that Sir Christopher Kelly’s Committee on Standards in Public Life inquiry into Parliamentary standards has been

bombarded by MPs’ complaints about their miserable lifestyles, media intrusion, the inadequacy of existing allowances — along with repeated demands for a hefty pay rise. … A detailed analysis by The Times of hundreds of submissions shows that such views are far from exceptional, particularly among Conservative MPs who believe that they would be earning far more if they had never entered politics.

The debate has been well-rehearsed. Gone are the days of amateur MPs, men with means who could afford to regard being elected to Parliament as their public duty and/or an amusing hobby. Paying members of Parliament is an essential pre-requisite of a democracy of all the talents. How much they should be paid inevitably plunges you into the murky realms of envy, greed and compromise.

On a rational supply and demand basis, it is perfectly obvious that MPs should be paid not a single penny more. Political parties in winnable seats have no problem in finding candidates: more people want to do the job than there are vacancies available. It’s an employer’s market, and in this case the employer is the taxpayer: why should we cough up more cash?

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Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged , and | 28 Comments
Alex Foster

Unpleasant Tory campaign vignettes

By Alex Foster | Fri 21st August 2009 - 10:16 am

This week in the Guardian’s diary column Esther Addley is standing in for Hugh Muir, and she’s chosen a book of the week, True Blue: Strange Tales from a Tory Nation, by Chris Horrie and David Matthews.

Very unpleasant trends are emerging in two vignettes that paint Tory activists as racist and anti-Semitic. Who knew?

The first scene takes us to Richmond:

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Posted in Books | Also tagged , , , and | 9 Comments
Jo Swinson MP

Perez Hilton has blogged about a Lib Dem policy paper

By Jo Swinson MP | Wed 12th August 2009 - 9:20 am

Last Wednesday I tweeted the unlikely words: “Never thought I’d say this, but Perez Hilton has blogged about a Lib Dem policy paper http://bit.ly/Dkfe5”.

It’s fair to say that the Real Women policy paper proposals on body image have stirred up quite a bit of debate: in the press, on TV & radio, in the blogosphere and, I also hope, in the pub, around the dinner table and over a cup of coffee.

Lots of women (and a few men) have got in touch to say they’re glad someone is finally trying to tackle the huge pressure on women to look slim, smooth and perfect.

Some have blogged their concerns about the policy, and I hope to answer some of the questions that have been raised.

Is there really a body image problem?

Yes, and it starts young.

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | 32 Comments
Mark Pack

The Political Parties and Elections Act 2009: changes to election expenditure rules

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th August 2009 - 2:50 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

Hands up everyone who thought the problem with current rules for controlling constituency expenditure was that they work if a Parliament last for four years but not if it lasts for five? Nobody? Oh well, that’s the basis on which Parliament has just changed the law anyway.

This provision of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 has its roots in a sensible concern, but along the way disagreements between parties and lack of understanding of how campaigns actually operate has landed us with this rather odd change in the law.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Weekend Meme: your favourite blog-posts

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th August 2009 - 10:30 am

The Lib Dem blog awards are with us again – and one of the categories is ‘Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2008)’. This is actually my favourite award for the simple reason that it recognises writing talent, pure and simple. By which I don’t mean that the prose has to be worthy of a Booker nomination; rather that the article has to attract, engage and provoke readers – elevate our thinking, if you like.

All of which musing prompted me to ask my LDV colleagues – and myself – to self-nominate the favourite articles we’ve posted here on the site. Here’s what we said:

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Posted in LDV meme | Also tagged , , , , and | 11 Comments
Helen Duffett

Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2009

By Helen Duffett | Thu 6th August 2009 - 5:06 pm

The Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, run in conjunction with Lib Dem Voice, are back for their fourth year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a budget lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth. (There’s further information on the event over at the Lib Dems’ Flock Together site). Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

This year’s awards are as follows:

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Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference and Online politics | Also tagged | 7 Comments

Opinion: Getting ready for the next General Election

By John Sharkey | Wed 5th August 2009 - 6:10 pm

At the next General Election we have a once in a generation opportunity. The Labour vote is in freefall and in so many of their traditional heartlands, in places like Newcastle, Liverpool, Hull, Burnley and Sheffield, it is our party that is poised to take electoral advantage. There is now no such thing as a safe Labour seat.

We undoubtedly face a tougher fight against the Tories, however it is clear that the public are far from convinced about Cameron and Osborne. Many voters are being turned off by their assumption that they will breeze into Downing Street after the …

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | 30 Comments
Stephen Tall

Open primaries: should the Lib Dems adopt the ‘Totnes model’?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th August 2009 - 6:30 pm

The announcement today from Totnes of the winner of the Tories’ first ‘open primary’ – in which the party’s Parliamentary candidate has been chosen not by party members, but by over 16,000 voters in the constituency – will prompt all political parties to ask the simple question: is this the future?

The arguments in its favour are obvious, both in terms of ‘democratic renewal’ and canny campaigning:

  • it has provoked national interest;
  • the 25% turnout suggests an appetite among the electorate;
  • the winning candidate has a genuine mandate;
  • her name recognition will have been boosted;
  • there has been communication with the whole constituency.

    • On which basis, you’d conclude it’s a no-brainer: surely every constituency which can remotely afford to run an open primary should adopt the principle. Well, perhaps. But of course it’s not quite that simple.

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 31 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    PM4PM? If so, it’ll be the Lib Dems’ fault

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 31st July 2009 - 7:15 pm

    Yes, the silly season has started right on cue, with ‘mounting speculation’ (newspaper code for: 2+ journalists writing the same thing) that the next Labour leader might be none other than Baron Mandelson, of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham. This is, of course, utter rubbish, as everyone who’s written up the notion has been forced to concede.

    But IF the impossible were to occur, and Peter Mandelson were to ascend to Number 10, he would do so thanks to one man, Liberal Democrat peer, Lord (Andrew) Phillips of Sudbury. Wikipedia takes up the story:

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 9 Comments
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