Over at The Guardian, The Voice’s own Mark Pack has taken part in a discussion with Hugh Muir and Martin Wainwright of The Guardian and Conservative Home’s Harry Phibbs to mark the first anniversary of the formation of the coalition. The discussion touches on most of the high and low points of the last year, and the views of the contributors as to whether the government will last its full term through to 2015.
The discussion, as well as contributions from voters in both Nick Clegg’s and David Cameron’s constituencies, is available to listen to as a podcast at The Guardian …
1. What’s your formative political memory?
In 1984 Ken Clarke gave me an award at a thank you party for delivering leaflets for him. In front of the 200+ people there he also asked me if I wanted to join the party – and in front of them all I said no! I was pleased he’d won but said that the more I had got to know the party I realised why I couldn’t. He was somewhat embarrassed!
2. When did you start blogging?
Tuesday 15 May 2007.
3. Why did you start blogging?
I worked for Lynne Featherstone from just after the 2005 general election until the end of 2006, before becoming one of the two London Campaigns Officers. I was amazed Lynne found time to write her own blog posts so this was my initial inspiration. I also signed up to run the Great North Run in 2007 and so wanted to use it for a training diary.
4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
I cheated here, I asked some friends for their five words – here is a selection: friendly, personal, prolific, timely, political, caring, liberal, sharp, punchy, researched, readable, passionate and straight-talking.
5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
I’m a social liberal democrat.
6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
I enjoyed writing this, not because I was suspended from Twitter, because to be honest that was a nightmare, but thanks to the support shown by the online community, inside and outside the Liberal Democrats: Andrew Reeves is still suspended on Twitter – but the support is awesome
7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
I love reading Caron’s writing, because unlike my shoot from the hip and rant style, Caron is more methodical and this shows in her writing. In this post Caron highlights the hypocricy of the Labour party while still maintaining decorum – perfect: Labour didn’t love NHS Direct
8. What’s your favourite YouTube clip?
I don’t particularly bother with YouTube, but this was my favourite ever:
Over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack is using 1993 as the yardstick to judge this year’s elections results by:
The year 1993 is turning out to be the benchmark for the Liberal Democrat performance in Thursday’s elections. Though no-one (including myself) was talking of 1993 before Thursday, two numbers both point to that year.
First, it looks as if the proportion of local councillors who are Liberal Democrat will be back to 1993 levels once the final results are in today. Second, the April ICM poll put the party on 15% – the same figure as in April 1993,
Over on Discussion Point, our very own Mark Pack has penned an interesting piece discussing how public services can be reformed to meet changing circumstances. And yes, the piece really does successfully use a Beethoven string quartet as its starting point – but you’ll have to go and read the whole article to see how.
In the meantime, here’s an extract:
There was a period in the early 1990s when politicians, including many on the centre-left, were enthused with the idea of rethinking the purpose of public services in such radical ways as David Osborne and Ted Gaebler’s book Reinventing Government
Over on his work’s blog, The Voice’s co-editor Mark Pack has been giving seven reasons why he expects the Coalition Government will last the distance. His list includes,
5. The Labour Party is not acting like a party that is seriously trying to get back into power before the next general election. Ed Miliband’s call for a widespread policy review is a sensible move for a party voted out after such a long period in power, but it also is based on an assumption that Labour does not need to have a program for government for a good few years yet.
On Monday 4th April, in the run-up to the AV referendum, the Gladstone Club hosted a debate in the National Liberal Club on electoral reform which featured Lib Dem Voice’s co-editor Mark Pack and the Chairman of the Edmund Burke society, Ian Alston. Both took a look at the lessons which can be learnt from history by those deciding how to vote in the referendum.
The right-wing press was today in full self-righteous cry, accusing Nick Clegg of ‘hypocrisy’ for seeking to ensure fairness on internships when he’s stated in interviews before he benefited from family connections. Their argument is comprehensively refuted by the BBC’s home editor Mark Easton, who points out here quite how spurious such attacks are:
The charge is that he is a hypocrite – trying to deny to others what he enjoyed himself. But does the accusation really hold water? Are we saying that no politician can ever pursue reforms to a system because he or she is a consequence of
Soon after becoming Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg promised “the most significant programmes of reform by a British government since the 19th century…. the biggest shake-up of our democracy since 1832.” But how do the Coalition government’s constitutional changes actually compare to the changes brought in by the Great Reform Bill of 1832?
That question was addressed by a meeting organised by the Liberal Democrat History Group earlier this year, with speakers our own Dr Mark Pack (who studied nineteenth century elections and electoral reform for his PhD) and the History of Parliament Trust’s Dr Philip Salmon. Here now for those …
Mark Pack reviewed Francis Beckett’s new counterfactual collection, The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, on the Voice earlier this week — 14 ‘Big Beasts’ who, had the chips fallen differently, might have become premiers.
The list is mostly inevitable with a couple of intriguing outsiders: Austen Chamberlain, J R Clynes, Lord Halifax, Oswald Mosley, Herbert Morrison, Hugh Gaitskell, Rab Butler, George Brown, Norman Tebbit, Michael Foot, Denis Healey, Neil Kinnock, John Smith and David Miliband.
Voice readers will notice one evident fact: there’s not a single Liberal (or SDP) name among them. In some ways it’s not that surprising. After …
Here is a full podcast of our fringe last night, “Who controls the internet?”
Libel law reform campaigner and former MP Evan Harris, website pioneer Mary Reid, James Blessing of the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) and Jim Killock of the digital rights champions Open Rights Group debate recent issues about free speech and the internet with chair Mark Pack.
Over on his Mandate, Hogarth and Penrose blog, Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack provides the time-pressed among us with a whistlestop guide of the agenda for the upcoming Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Sheffield.
Here are the bits of conference that Mark suspects are liable to be the most controversial:
Saturday 10:15am: conference debates the Disability Living Allowance – mobility component, which is one of the areas of proposed welfare reform that has generated much controversy between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in the coalition.
Saturday, 10:45am: a long motion supporting the NHS reforms, including the words, “Conference welcomes the vision for the NHS
On Friday, Mark Pack wrote on Lib Dem Voice about Public Bodies Bill – Abolition of Parliament: it was wrong then and it’s wrong now – highlighting how some parts of the Public Bodies Bill echo the proposals previously made by Labour and against which David Howarth led the opposition. Now David Howarth gives his take on the Bill:
The Public Bodies Bill gives ministers powers to abolish, merge, reform or change the functions or financial arrangements of public bodies (i.e. quangos). Ministers will be able to use these powers by issuing unamendable statutory instruments that require a single vote …
By Helen Duffett
| Mon 27th September 2010 - 12:08 pm
The BOTYs were quite simply the glitteringest event of the whole Liberal Democrat conference last week, and Lib Dem councillor and blogger Jonathan Wallace was there to film them.
If you look carefully, you might just spot the tail feathers of the last flamingo, as it was startled away by popping flashbulbs. Alas, the heat of said flashbulbs also melted the ice sculptures before Jonathan could film those too, but the video’s well worth watching for the great speeches from winners and presenters alike:
Lib Dem Voice co-editor Mark Pack was interviewed for BBC One’s The Politics Show (East) on what the mood of conference was likely to be. Here’s the write-up on the Beeb’s site:
The Lib Dem Party is in a pensive mood, we are told, by Mark Pack from Lib Dem Voice, a website for grassroots supporters. Although Lib Dems are pleased to be in government, they are not as upbeat as you may imagine at their first Conference in power for several generations.
There is a balance to be struck between finally pushing through Lib Dem policies and having to support a
Once again, Lib Dem Voice have a varied and exciting programme at the Lib Dem federal conference planned for Liverpool next month.
Some of our events are still taking form; others are now so well established they are almost traditional.
And don’t worry if you are unable to join us in person at conference – we will be making recordings of the events and making them available right here on the blog, so that you can get the conference feel coming in your ears wherever you are in the nation.
For your delight and delectation, here are some details.
Nick Clegg today delivered his widely trailed speech on improving social mobility today, marking the 100th day of the Lib Dem / Conservative Coalition Government. You can read the full text below, also available at the party website.
Lib Dem Voice Co-Editor Mark Pack has put on his professional hat over at the Mandate blog to offer his commentary, concluding there might be some internal juggling going on between the Coalition partners:
Perhaps too there is a piece of internal coalition manoeuvring going on here: let the Conservatives be the hard-nosed people who balance the books and grudgingly win
New nuclear plants will be built in the UK as part of the move towards a green economy, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has said.
Mr Huhne told the BBC that breaking the dependence on traditional fossil fuels was vital. The minister said the market would decide which types of low-carbon energy would be used, but he believes nuclear investors are waiting to come forward.
He ruled out specific government subsidies for the new power stations.
Chris was speaking on the BBC1’s Andrew Marr programme, Sunday AM, and confirmed:
My position and my party’s position was always one
LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack – who has written here and here about the Channel 4 News reports of MPs allegedly stretching their election exenses – has been interviewed by the channel about the complex rules.
Over at the Liberal Conspiracy website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack takes a look at the proposed new electoral system, the alternative vote, and points out some of the welcome behavioural changes it might exert on British political culture. Here’s an excerpt:
What really interests me about AV is the change in political culture it can bring about. … Under preferential voting most candidates hoping to win most of the time have to have an eye on appealing to the second preferences of those who cast a first preference for another party. That imposes a significant burden on the style of politics
The 2010 general election will live long in the memory for a variety of reasons – the end of New Labour, a surprising Con-Lib coalition, the first TV debates – but one crucial aspect of the campaign that had politicians and commentators chattering with excitement was the entrance of a new political player – the internet.
Social networking and Web 2.0 opened the floor of the political debate to everyone, from satirical photoshoppers to cynical bloggers and, of course, let us not forget Twitter gossip worth its weight in retweets.
Whilst the political parties did their best to tackle new media during …
Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack notes that the behaviour of the new Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury, Danny Alexander, wasn’t a patch on the sort of tax avoidance measures the Telegraph repeatedly recommends. Here’s an excerpt:
… a piece by Ian Cowie, from May 2010, lays out in detail how Telegraph readers can avoid paying capital gains tax. It even says: “Do as MPs do and ‘flip’ your home … large potential CGT liabilities can be avoided quite legally in this way.” The story goes on to urge a full exploitation of expenses
Over at The Independent, Lib Dem Voice Co-Editor Mark Pack takes a look at the Telegraph’s pursuit of David Laws and Danny Alexander.
On David, Mark notes:
… for me, the dividing line between reprimand and resignation in matters of personal financial affairs should be whether or not you have personally gained from a breach of the rules. … in this ironic situation where a politician gets into trouble for claiming less money than he could have done, I regret that he has decided to resign.
And on Danny, he writes:
It’s an odd form of morality to criticise someone for paying no
Good morning and welcome to today’s Daily View on International Museum Day.
On this day in 1991, Britain’s first astronaut, 27-year-old Helen Sharman, blasted into orbit on the Soviet Soyuz TM-12 space capsule. I wonder if I should mention that Ms Sharman is from Sheffield?
Sixty years ago, twelve nations agreed the aims and objectives for the permanent organisation of NATO. The founder members at the launch at Lancaster House in London were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. Later that year, Dwight D Eisenhower was appointed Nato’s first supreme commander.
Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack notes how united the Lib Dem membership has been, at least so far, in nervously watching and waiting to see how the balanced parliament negotiations develop.
There’s general recognition that Nick Clegg and the party face the toughest of choices – but also a determination to see electoral reform brought in. Here’s an extract:
Many have an instinctive preference or aversion to one of the other main parties, but what they all have in common is a commitment to the Liberal Democrats. Those in principle who would never touch
Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack, until last year working at the heart of Lib Dem HQ, picks out his ten must-watch seats to find out how the party is faring.
They range from northern seats where the main challenger is Labour (eg, Leeds North West and Durham) to southern seats where the tussle is with the Tories (eg, Eastleigh and Guildford). Scotland is represented by
Dunfermline and Fife West (2am)
Held after his byelection victory by Willie Rennie, this Scottish seat will throw light on not only how the Lib Dem-Labour battle in Scotland
Over at the Total Politics website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack has penned an open letter to the party leaders ahead of tonight’s televised debate. Mark offers six pieces of advice, ranging from the obvious (or you’d think they’d be obvious), such as “Behave” to the more oblique, “Be ready for the worms”. Here’s an excerpt:
“Drunkard”, “useful idiot” and “dickheads” – all terms from one of the 2006 Italian debates between Prodi and Berlusconi – are best avoided, as is this quote from a 2004 Czech debate: “You’re lying as you always have. That’s you all over – a liar from
When the Scotsman decided to write an article on election law – more specifically, the definitions and the constraints on what a political party and each candidate may do as set out in two much-amended pieces of legislation, the Representation of the Peoples Act 1983 and the Political Parties and Elections Act 2000 – they knew who to ask: LDV’s Co-Editor Mark Pack, the inspiration for LDV’s sister site the Election Law Channel. Here’s an excerpt, focusing on spending limits:
Mark Pack of Mandate Communications, and formerly of the Liberal Democrats, says the major difference is that TV
Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack explains why ‘uniform national swing’ probably won’t help to predict the election result. Here’s an excerpt:
… UNS predictions based on the correct vote shares are far from perfect. In the last three general elections, UNS predicted the Conservatives would get 42 seats more than they did (1997), 15 more (2001) and 13 less (2005). For Labour UNS predicted 23 too few (1997), 10 too few (2001) and 14 too many (2005). For the Liberal Democrats it was 18 too few (1997), 5 too few (2001) and spot on
Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Lib Dem Voice Co-Editor Mark Pack has some wise words of advice for those who are going to spend the next four weeks poll-watching obsessively: track trends over time, and beware random fluctuations that ‘plunge’, ‘soar’ or ‘collapse’ in a headline. Here’s rule number one:
Rule one: carrying out an opinion poll is like flipping a coin. Flip a coin 10 times. Then do it another 10 times. And again. Chances are the number of heads each time will vary. But that doesn’t mean someone’s swapped the coin for a loaded one in
David Allen A clear, credible, principled strategy from the Yorkists! Makes a welcome change.
Sadly, followed by twenty below-the-line posts, providing nearly twenty ve...
Simon McGrath so we get a permanant increase in costs for these subsidies based on ( alleged ) windfall profits. Its another big increase in spending -how is it to be paid ...
Peter Davies @Kira CollinsThat assumes we want to help people more with their energy bills than with all the other bills they may be struggling with. There is no reason why ...
Rob Heale Agree that we need to focus on strategy and have clearer messaging:-
1. We MUST prioritise membership recruitment in all we do, including PPB's, most leaflets...
Kira Collins Disappointed. The most obvious means of reducing energy bills is to remove VAT. Relatively straightforward to do and does not adversely impact on the attractive...
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
The pine martens of Shropshire
The shame of Liverpool Labour councillors taking their allowances but not turning up to do the work
Should Labour reconsider the Brexit red lines?
David Allen 
Simon McGrath 
Peter Davies 
Rob Heale 
Kira Collins 