Tag Archives: party organisation

The Voice

Last chance: Opportunities in our disciplinary and appeals system

By The Voice | Wed 23rd April 2025 - 10:10 am

A reminder of some vacancies for have been advertised for two important volunteer roles in the Party. The deadline for the Disciplinary Sub Group post is this Friday, 25th April at noon so get your applications in now.

Disciplinary Sub Group

The Disciplinary Sub Group ” is responsible for ensuring the independence, efficiency and effectiveness of the Complaints Procedure. As part of this it will monitor, review and amend the procedure and relevant guidance on an ongoing basis and support Party staff in their roles within the Complaints Procedure. The DSG is not involved in the handling of individual complaints.”

Applications are sought from party members who can:

demonstrate their affinity with the values of the party, as well as an understanding of its structures and the context within which the party’s internal processes operate.

A commitment to the Liberal Democrats is required but evidence of substantial prior involvement is not and induction and training will be available. The Party is keen to encourage new talent.

In making its appointments, the Board will take into account:

  • Specialist skills, knowledge and experience including in one of more of creating and delivering training; data recording and/or case management systems;, law, disciplinary matters or HR; drafting policies and procedures, including ensuring they embed best practice on diversity and inclusion; and specialist knowledge and/or training in addressing certain types of complaint (e.g. sexual impropriety cases, protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, religious representation or social media management);

  • All aspects of diversity, and the need to reflect the representation from all three State Parties;

  • Previous experience with the Complaints’ Procedure, or with similar procedures inside or outside of the party; and

  • The need for DSG members to, and to be seen to, exercise objective and impartial judgement in assessing the efficacy of the procedure.

The closing date for applications is 25 April 2025. Full details of how to apply are here.

Federal Appeals Panel

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The Voice

Could you help make Lib Dem policy on economy, international security, democracy or primary healthcare?

By The Voice | Thu 10th April 2025 - 10:25 am

The Federal Policy Committee is looking for party members to sit on four new policy working groups.  You need to apply by Monday 21 April.

These groups will consult, consider evidence and bring policy papers to future conferences.

The subjects are:

A thriving economy:

Boosting productivity and getting the economy growing strongly and sustainably is critical for improving people’s living standards and wellbeing, expanding opportunity, and raising money to spend on public services and defence.

A new policy working group will build on our 2024 general election manifesto to further develop our distinctive Liberal Democrat narrative on why the economy has been performing so poorly, how to turn it around, and how to make sure everyone feels the benefits of growth equitably.

Apply here.

International security:

Last year, the party endorsed a wide-ranging policy paper on international security covering defence and security, diplomacy, international development and soft power. We knew then that a Trump return to the White House would pose new challenges.

Now that the grave challenges to the future of NATO, European security and more are starting to become clear, and will continue to evolve, a new policy working group will review our previous approach in the light of the world of ongoing developments, to outline our distinctive Liberal Democrat response to Trump, Putin and the other global challenges we face.

Apply here.

Defending and strenghening British democracy

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Victoria Collins MP

Fewer committees, more diversity – why I’m backing F10

By Victoria Collins MP | Sun 16th March 2025 - 10:28 am

I want us – as Liberal Democrats – to select great candidates, improve diversity in the party and empower our local parties to elect the best candidates to represent them. That’s why I’m backing motion F10 at conference – the one that seeks to implement the recommendations of the General Election Review around Westminster candidates. 

I am doing so for two reasons:

  • By reducing three committees to one it makes it easier to address the problems in our current candidates system;
  • By creating a place on the committee for the Vice President responsible for increasing engagement with ethnic minority communities, candidate diversity finally becomes a keystone in our Westminster candidate system.

Now, I am sure many in the party can give you verbatim – in probably the most intricate of detail – the constitutional intricacies and implications of the motion. However, I wanted to share with you my personal story of my journey to becoming a candidate and how this has led me to strongly support real reform of our candidates system.

From the top, I wish to say that none of this is criticism of individuals involved in the process. This is criticism of the process itself that volunteers spend hours dedicating their time to administer and deliver. I am truly grateful to them for this, but I want the system -those volunteers have to work with -to be better for them and for candidates.

I am in the incredible position of writing this post as the first Liberal Democrat MP of East and South East Asian origin, and the first MP for the newly formed seat of Harpenden and Berkhamsted. When my mother arrived from Malaysia 50 years ago, I don’t think she could have imagined that such a thing was possible. And yet here I am.  

Becoming a candidate is not easy. I should quickly add that nor should it be. It is right that we are put through our paces. But becoming a candidate shouldn’t be made harder by the inadequacies of our own systems and processes, inadequacies which frankly stand in the way of us improving our candidate diversity. 

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It’s time to practice what we preach

By Charles Dundas and Julian Tandy | Wed 12th February 2025 - 12:30 pm

Headshot of Julian TandyIt’s not often a motion comes along to Federal conference that is actually about true Federalism. Federalism is a concept synonymous with the Lib Dems. We campaign for it at a national level and we practice what we preach when it comes to the internal organisation of the party. Or do we? There’s a motion coming to Harrogate conference in March which addresses this for candidates – and we are delighted that it points towards a much more progressive and federal approach to how the party operates..

As those responsible for overseeing the approval and selection of Westminster candidates in our respective States – Scotland and Wales – we added our names to support the motion (F10) to implement the lessons of the General Election Review.

You can read the candidates motion here.

For us, this motion is about three key things:

Getting Federalism right for the three States

It gives the three States an equal seat at the table when it comes to setting Westminster candidate selection rules and procedures. Rather than Scotland and Wales being treated as the poor relations expected to follow wherever England goes, all three States will have parity in decision-making, reflecting the views of our respective State committees in Joint State meetings to collectively decide the way forward. This is exactly how Federalism should work – State parity and democratic accountability to members through conference of our processes and procedures.

Diversity and equality

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Caron Lindsay

Oh look, another leopard…

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 18th December 2024 - 7:37 am

Last week, we brought you news of a consultation on the party’s internal election regulations which opened in mid December and closes on 3 January.

It’s clearly Consultation Season in the Party because members have had an email inviting them to contribute to the Federal Policy Committee’s Policy review by 6 January.

In the email, Ed Davey says:

In July, millions of people put their trust in the Liberal Democrats, many of them for the first time. They have handed us an exciting opportunity and a humbling responsibility.

So now we must continue to lead the way, with big, bold policies to tackle the challenges facing our country in the years ahead. Not just clearing up the enormous mess left by the Conservatives, but building the fair, free and open society we all believe in.

That’s why our Federal Policy Committee (FPC) has set up a new working group to develop a strategic programme for renewing our policy in the years ahead.

We want to hear from you, to help chart our course towards a policy platform that serves us well as we tackle the priorities of the British people; be a responsible opposition to the Government; finish the job against the Conservatives; and paint a clear vision of the more liberal Britain we want to build.

As a first step, we want to hear from you what are the most important areas for us to focus on, to help guide our work over the coming months.

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Caron Lindsay

A heads up for all Lib Dem General Election candidates – deadline this Friday

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 26th August 2024 - 10:21 am

I did something I had never done before this General Election – I stood as a Westminster candidate for the first time. I’d stood for Holyrood and the Council before, but this was was my UK election debut.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I loved doing local and national hustings. I loved interacting with voters who contacted me and while out and about.

I thought that the daily Candidates’ Briefings we received were absolutely fantastic. They were written with humour and contained information that was really helpful. They were very clear about what we should (and shouldn’t) be doing. The people in HQ who put them together deserve a lot of praise and should never have to buy their own drink at Conference ever again.

I was selected on 20th May and we thought we had a few months to execute our campaign plan. Two days later, Rishi Sunak popped out in the rain without an umbrella.

So we had to do a lot very quickly, as well as ensure that we helped in held and target seats. I and others from the local party spent a LOT of time in North East Fife, Edinburgh West and Mid Dunbartonshire as well as running two constituency campaigns.

But there’s one final job that all candidates need to do.

This weekend, I completed the survey that all candidates should have been sent about our experience of the General Election campaign as candidates. It’s part of the review process for candidates, and shouldn’t be confused with the party’s review of the General Election campaign. The deadline for completing it is this Friday, 30th August.

This survey came out by email from the Candidates’ Office on 12 August. Mine, because I’m in Scotland,  was written by our Campaigns and Candidates Convener Charles Dundas. English candidates should have had one from Margaret Joachim and Welsh candidates from Julian Tandy.

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Michael Taylor

How to find candidates

By Michael Taylor | Wed 21st June 2023 - 7:30 am

I note that Mark Pack is trying to persuade the party to run many more candidates in local elections. He’s quite right. No-one, as far as I know, has suggested how you do this. In this article I offer my take on how to get candidates from scratch.

So, what do you do to get candidates? Ideally, you would have started this process at least 6 months before the election, but the methodology is the same. September is also a good time to start because we often have a useful boost in interest because of the party conference.

Forget the phone, email, text or any other sort of social media. In 40 years of candidate hunting I have recruited only one person using all these approaches. You have to go and call on people, unannounced and ask them. If you try any other approach, they will say no. Lots of people have not accepted the no contact in advance rule and wonder why they fail. “Oh, but it’s rude not to phone in advance, they might not be in, we may be wasting our time” or similar are all guaranteed to result in the person saying no. Believe me, as one of the most successful candidate recruiters in the country, I really do know what I’m talking about.

But how do you know who to ask? Mostly, you don’t. Connect and EARS both have functions that enable you to create lists of people who have been canvassed LIB DEM and voted at least twice recently. It may not be a big list, but it works for me. Secondly, look for activists in local causes or clubs and societies. Thirdly ask everyone you call on if they can think of some else to ask. Of the 13 people I recruited in 2019, only 3 were active party members at the time of asking. 3 were activists in local charities or organisations and the rest came from the lists of people who we thought had supported us.

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The Voice

Lib Dems seek Federal Committee members

By The Voice | Tue 6th June 2023 - 11:20 am

The Lib Dems have some vacancies on Federal Committees to fill.

Firstly, the Federal People Development Committee, which deals with diversity, membership and training, is seeking a new member. You can apply here by 21st June.

There are two vacancies on Federal Audit and Scrutiny Committee, which does require some professional expertise. Find out more here.

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Greg Foster

Liberal Democrat Technology Project: Update

By Greg Foster | Thu 17th March 2022 - 11:39 am

This is (hopefully) the first of many regular updates on the project. We’re aiming to update every two weeks.

We’ll also be posting more regular updates on our newly unveiled Technology Blog which is hugely exciting – because it’s been built on our brand new website platform, Fleet.

Fleet is intended to replace both Nationbuilder and Prater Raines FOCI for the party.

We’re building it in collaboration with the team at Prater Raines and it’s based on the open source Typo3 framework – which is widely used by organisations with a federated structure (like us!). We’ll also be heavily customising the default version of Typo3 to make it easier for Liberal Democrats to use.

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The Voice

Federal Board reformed in “peak Lib Dem” debate

By The Voice | Sat 12th March 2022 - 8:48 am

Chair Duncan Brack remarked late yesterday evening as he opened the debate on reforming the party’s Federal Board, we had reached “peak Lib Dem” as before us we had 4 options, constitutional amendments, standing order amendments, 3 requests for a reference back and 7 votes.

The Federal Board put forward those 4 options – 3 for reform, 1 to keep roughly the same arrangements in response to the Thornhill Review’s criticism of party governance in the 2019 General Election.

The option passed was to have a slimmed down board of 16 people who are:

The President, who shall act as its Chair;

B. The Leader;

C. The Chair of the English Party, the Convenor of the Scottish Party and the President of the Welsh Party;

D. The Vice President responsible for working with ethnic minority communities;

E. Three people who shall be party members elected by all members of the Party except that persons who, at the date of the close of nominations for election under this paragraph, are members of Parliamentary Parties set out in Article 17 shall not be eligible to be candidates for election under this paragraph. Casual vacancies amongst this group shall be filled in accordance with the election regulations;

F. A Vice-Chair of the Federal Policy Committee;

G. The Chairs of the Federal Conference Committee, the Federal Communications and Elections Committee, the Federal Finance and Resources Committee and the Federal People Development Committee;

H. The Chair of the Young Liberals; and

I. A principal local authority councillor, elected Mayor or Police and Crime Commissioner, elected by the principal local authority councillors, elected Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners of the Party.

This is controversial as it reduces the number of directly elected members of the Board from 15 to just 3.

A request for a reference back made by Board Member Simon McGrath, who criticised the plans here was defeated by a handful of votes.

Conference chose the option to create a Federal Council to scrutinise the work o the Board. Amendments were passed to give it some teeth – eg the ability to call in and overturn some Board decisions. The Federal Council will be made up of:

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Mark Pack

President’s Update, February 2022, Europe, Party reform, supporting candidates, new Vice President

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th February 2022 - 2:47 pm

The next steps in our European policy

There’s a lesson we should learn from Brexiters. It’s that for most of the road to the tragedy of the 2016 referendum they weren’t Brexiters but Euro-sceptics. For most of that time, they weren’t campaigning for Brexit to happen tomorrow, but against a particular aspect of the EU. That is how they built up a broad coalition of support to get Brexit through.

In turn, we need to do the same in reverse – to recognise that even many Remainers are put off by ‘let’s rejoin the EU now!’, but that even those who voted Leave can be won over by campaigning issue by issue on the merits of cooperation with our neighbours.

It’s an approach that party members overwhelmingly supported in our recent (with a record-breaking response!) consultation.

At our spring federal conference, we’ll be fleshing out the details of what this means when we debate a motion which sets out our comprehensive plan to reconnect our political and trading relationship with Europe.

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Greg Foster

Getting our technology and tools right: get in the know.

By Greg Foster | Sat 12th February 2022 - 2:45 pm

Campaign Technology is one of the most important things for the Liberal Democrats to get right.

Whether it’s canvassing apps, websites or even data entry, we can’t campaign effectively without the right tools and the right data.

Over the last 18 months, the LDHQ technology team has been reviewing our data, technology and tools. We’ve also been gathering feedback from the people who use them to help us understand where the problems are at the moment.

That process has identified a number of problems with our current setup, including:

  • We aren’t getting value for money from our campaigning technology
  • Our data quality is low and it is scattered across multiple systems
  • Our websites are expensive, hard to maintain and out of date
  • We can’t give volunteers easy and high-quality information on how their teams are doing and their campaigns are going
  • Our tools aren’t easy for activists to use

I think there’d be few Liberal Democrat activists out there who disagreed with that list of big picture issues – so hopefully we’ve got the measure of the problems we need to solve.

Of course, solving those problems will take time and patience: there are no overnight magic wand fixes that will solve everything (sorry!).

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Dorothy Thornhill

Dorothy Thornhill writes: What we must do next to learn the lessons of 2019

By Dorothy Thornhill | Tue 18th January 2022 - 7:41 pm

The headline “two new MPs so far in this Parliament” is a welcome one. Winning, especially winning with record swings, is what we all want. 

Underneath the headline is a lot of hard work, plenty of tough decisions, and a drive to improve. We should all be thankful to our activists, staff and supporters. 

It is clear to me that the diagnosis and recommendations my team and I set out after the 2019 disaster were right, and that they are being taken seriously. Not least among them was that a Federal Board of 41 members cannot, and should not, be the clear leadership team we need to steer our party and help us all win elections. Something of that size is a talking shop, and talking shops are neither democratic nor effective. 

I therefore welcome the Federal Board’s motion to Spring Conference setting out options for reforming the structure of the Board.

My thanks to those who took part in the supporting consultation, collectively you have been clear that it is time for change. The feedback was crucial in helping the Board refine our options to a sensible number for consideration. With limited time, not all ideas could be brought to the floor. 

Conference is being asked to choose between three options for change, and then finally between reform and the status quo. 

As you can see (below) from the proposed set-up of a new Board, the options deliberately ensure key voices from across the party – geographically, demographically and in other respects – are built in. 

I am pleased that the reform options presented address the concerns highlighted in my review. The options provide for a smaller, more nimble leadership team.

They also retain the democratic selection we cherish while clarifying responsibilities, individual and collective. 

I see in these options a chance to better encourage cooperation. To build a real leadership team. Only when we have that team can our leaders be held collectively accountable by members: currently a missing ingredient. 

That accountability makes for a better democracy for members. Too much power, now, is wielded outside of our official structures, and so outside of accountability. 

I look forward to a rigorous, healthy debate at Conference. This is a complex question and I will be listening hard to colleagues and friends to help make my own decision. My principles will be democracy, accountability, electability, and not letting the best be the enemy of the good.

Organisational change is not easy. For us, though, it is necessary. 

Do see below for a quick summary of the options coming, in more detail, to Spring Conference.

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Mark Pack

Only 1 day to go to have your voice heard!

By Mark Pack | Tue 7th December 2021 - 5:24 pm

The Party is currently consulting on how to reform the Federal Board.

The voices of members such as yourself are critical if we are to deliver on the recommendations of the 2019 General Election “Thornhill” review. We have already shown progress in Chesham and Amersham, and have an amazing opportunity to deliver another blow to the Tory Government in North Shropshire (volunteer here or donate!) but to be successful in the long term we need to get our own structures right.

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Michael Meadowcroft

The Party’s Crisis – a response to comments

By Michael Meadowcroft | Fri 15th October 2021 - 8:21 am

The paper on the crisis facing the party, linked to by my LDV article on 30 September, sparked a great many pages of debate, for which I am grateful. However, much of that debate was centred around policies and their varying relevance to the current Liberal Democrat identity and programme. Normally I would have been delighted to have catalysed such a debate but the paper was intended to confront the party, and particularly in this context, LDV readers, with the nature of the acute crisis that challenges the future of the party itself. The argument in the paper is that if there is no viable party to promote them, then all policy ideas are castles in the air – shimmering perhaps, but no less ethereal for that.

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Caron Lindsay

Put your questions to the Federal Board – next Monday evening

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 13th October 2021 - 8:51 pm

Next Monday evening, from 6-7 pm, the Federal Board are having an online q and a session for all party members.

Party President Mark Pack will be taking questions and I’ll be there alongside former Welsh President and AM Bill Powell.

I’d really like to see loads of you there, not least because doing this was my idea and I’ll look like an idiot if nobody turns up. We had some really useful discussions in the Federal Board booth at Federal Conference. In fact, believe it or not, I was even able to give some information about the English Party constitution.

Also, much as I love Mark, I don’t want to spend an hour arguing with him about which is the best type of chocolate.

And finally, my dogs can usually be relied upon to turn up to meetings, so if you have heard about Hazel and Bernie on Twitter, now is your chance to meet them.

Seriously, though, our party democracy is really important to us. We are a member led organisation and all the power structures should be accountable and this, for me, is part of that. It’s also important that our decisions are informed by what members are thinking and we will be having a Board meeting the very next night so what you tell us will be fresh in our minds.

Details of how to register are here:

Mark said:

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Michael Meadowcroft

The Party’s crisis

By Michael Meadowcroft | Thu 30th September 2021 - 1:59 pm

The global political situation, with the rise of populism and nationalism, and the domestic political scene, with a Conservative government trampling on democratic values with impunity, is crying out for the powerful advocacy of Liberalism. The huge problem is that in Britain there is currently no relevant political organisation that encompasses and promotes Liberalism. The Liberal Democrats have sunk to such a level that the party is incapable of recovering to become the political force that the vacuum in our politics demands without first developing a topical and substantial statement of Liberal philosophy to unite around and to promote, and then adopting a dedicated and well-funded strategy to revive the hordes of derelict constituency associations.

The recent document “What Liberal Democrats believe” is a start but it fails to link the philosophy with relevant recent history and lacks the vital context of the current political situation. Its narrative is inconsistent and needs developing to provide a real Liberal vision that will inspire. Alas it merited a mere fifty minute debate at the recent conference (the previous equivalent debate aeons ago was allocated a complete half day!) and significantly the three working parties for which the Federal Policy Committee recently invited participation did not include one for the development of the philosophy statement.

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Caron Lindsay

Conference votes for improvements to disciplinary process and votes down Steering Group

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 19th September 2021 - 7:26 pm

The Federal Board report usually goes through fairly uncontroversially. However, there has been a bit of drama at the past two conferences. In Spring important board business relating to the disciplinary process was withdrawn at the last minute after a serious error was discovered.

This delayed desperately needed improvements to the disciplinary process until now. You can find out more about the detail here in the Board report.

Thankfully, those changes, which make the process quicker, less stressful on those using it and on those administering it and clearer, passed easily this afternoon.

Last Summer, the Federal Board started operating in a different way. One of the Thornhill Review’s 78 recommendations was to improve the governance of the party and make the Federal Board smaller. The Board decided to delegate most of its powers to a small, mostly not directly elected people. As a directly elected Federal Board member, I opposed it from the outset. If such a centralising power grab was being done in a council, we would be up in arms about it. I always think it is very important to live our values and I don’t feel that the Steering Group project does that. We are a member led organisation but we concentrated power into too few hands.

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Caron Lindsay

Put your questions to Lib Dem CEO and Party President

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th March 2020 - 11:55 am

Mike Dixon took over as Lib Dem CEO just before the General Election. He’s had to deal with an unexpected election, a change of leader and president and the impact of a global pandemic on our operations.

Mark Pack took over as Party President in January.

It’s been an emotional, tumultuous, frenetic few months for the party. From the crushing disappointment of the General Election to the recent cancellation of our York conference and the postponement of the leadership election.

Mike and Mark will be taking questions from party members in an online Q & A on Tuesday night. If you are a member, you should have received an invitation to register in your email March newsletter.

Had the York conference gone ahead, they would have done this at some ridiculously early hour and very few people would have turned up.

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Sal Brinton

Sal Brinton writes…A final thank you

By Sal Brinton | Tue 31st December 2019 - 4:00 pm

As my Presidency draws to an end on New Year’s Eve, I wanted to write to you with a final thank you for the extraordinary help that you have given the liberal cause over the last five years.

To have faced three General Elections and the EU Referendum during these five years – as well as the snap European elections this year – has been unprecedented, draining for everyone who has worked in them. Our candidates and teams, party staff and the many members and supporters who have continuously found that extra bit of energy and effort kept fighting the liberal cause.

Added to this, our local government teams, led by ALDC, have worked consistently hard in elections every year and their success has been rewarded with substantial growth in councillors and councils that we control or run jointly with others. And in Scotland our MSPs hold the SNP to account, and Kirsty Williams is a brilliant Education minister in the Welsh Assembly.

I have been really proud to campaign with colleagues across the UK over the last five years, seeing members building the party in their areas and I want to thank you for your warm welcome over my Presidency. In 2017 alone I covered over 4,000 miles, getting to every part of the country! I have also witnessed the party develop its use of online campaigning, not least honed on the Stop Brexit campaign over the last three years.

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Caron Lindsay

Could you be Jo’s party liaison person?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 5th October 2019 - 9:32 am

There’s an interesting job advert coming up today if you fancy being the person who is the link between Jo and the party.

You need to get in quick, though – closing date is a week on Tuesday.

I like the emphasis on two way communication in the job description:

To advise the Leader on all issues relating to the internal workings of the Liberal Democrat Party, and work to ensure the Leader has a strong relationship with the wider party.

Regular interaction with state and EU Liberal Democrat parliamentary groups and their staff to ensure a two-way flow information with the Leader. Maintain a close working relationship with members of Party HQ based staff, especially the campaigns, fundraising, communications and membership departments, and the policy team.

Regular interaction with Liberal Democrats in local government – LGA, ALDC, council group leaders – to ensure a two-way flow information with the Leader.

Regularly interact with SAOs, AOs and other relevant party organisations to ensure a two-way flow information with the Leader.

Representing the Leader of the Liberal Democrats at relevant party committees, including the Federal Board.

Have a close working relationship with target seat Parliamentary candidates.

And as you would expect, the person needs to have “fabulous” communication skills and emotional intelligence.

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Fred Mackintosh

The people who will make the new party complaints system work

By Fred Mackintosh | Sun 30th June 2019 - 8:55 am

As  Lead Adjudicator for the new party complaints system I am writing to introduce the people who will make it work. 

The great strength of successful political parties lies with their members.  In our party it is the members who campaign, make policy, choose our leaders and, to a great extent, run the party.  We have more than 100,000, but all our members are human beings and subject to human frailties.  As a result, it is a sad reality that members will from time to time do things and be accused of things that bring the party into disrepute.

After years of debate a new system for handling complaints has been created.  You can read about it in Alice Thomas’s excellent post, and I wanted to introduce you to the volunteers who will make the new system work.

The first thing to make clear is that there is no ‘complaints supremo’.  The new system breaks up the tasks involved so that each decision in the process of determining complaints is made by an independent person appointed in a way that ensures that there is no perception that panels are hand-picked or results pre-ordained.

The largest number of volunteers are the Adjudicators.  All are members of the party and they have a wide range of experiences.  At various points in the process of each complaint an Adjudicator will assess the severity of a Complaint and how it is will be handled and in most cases a different three Adjudicators will later sit on a Complaints Panel to decide whether to uphold or dismiss the complaint.  Adjudicators are permitted to stand as candidates for the Party or hold office at a Local Party level, but are barred from holding office elsewhere in the Party.

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Alice Thomas

The new complaints process goes live on 1st July

By Alice Thomas | Fri 28th June 2019 - 11:55 am

It’s a good year to be a Lib Dem: we’ve gained thousands of new members, hundreds of council seats and 15 new MEPs because we are united while the Tories and Labour tear themselves apart from within. No party is immune to mistakes though and that’s why I’m proud to say that – from 1 July* – if a new complaint is made against a Lib Dem member, it will be handled under our new complaints procedure, which is consistent, clear and fit for purpose.

Federal Conference voted for this procedure at Brighton in Autumn 2018 and it has since been accepted by each of the state parties in England, Scotland and Wales. It is now time to implement it.

No complaints procedure can work without people to run it. That is why I am proud to say that more than 400 people responded to call for volunteers and we will be ready to hit the ground running. 

From 1 July 2019, complaints should be reported to the Standards Officer at LDHQ who will record the details in the case management system and send it on to the Senior Adjudication Team or “SAT”. The SAT comprises a Senior Adjudicator from each state party and our brilliant Lead Adjudicator, Fred Mackintosh.  The four members of the SAT have many years’ experience in the party and a background in making decisions and dealing with complex problems.

When a case is first raised Fred will randomly assign it to one of at least forty trained and impartial Adjudicators, who will assign any case which is more than frivolous to one of either the formal or informal routes.  At the same time the SAT will decide whether the member complained about should be suspended from membership whilst the complaint is resolved.

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1 Supporters’ Scheme 2. ?? 3. Profit!

By Andy Hinton | Thu 14th March 2019 - 3:58 pm

Conference this weekend is due to vote on Vince Cable’s proposed expansion of both the electorate and potential pool of candidates for Lib Dem leadership contests (in case anyone hadn’t noticed already from the parade of leadership-supportive articles on LDV so far this week). I call it that, rather than a supporter’s scheme, because I think that is the real heart of what is controversial about what is proposed.

Thus far, criticism of Vince’s proposal has centred around entryism, and I have to say I share those concerns, despite the assurances that these concerns have been addressed. We must assume that bad faith actors will target our weakest defences, not our strongest, so for HQ to say that our new electorate for leaders would be screened by bank card checks, and then mutter under its breath “unless they claim not to have a bank card, in which case they just need to prove that they have a postal address” seems naïve to me.

Of course, we are told, if people are found to be acting in bad faith, they can be chucked out. All we need is for our bad faith entryists to a) publicly announce that they are dodgy and b) be noticed by (*checks notes*) our army of HQ staff with free time to comb Twitter for Labour and Tory trolls.

But I’d like to look at this from a different angle. Nakedly self-interested it may be, but my question is: what is the benefit of this supporter’s scheme supposed to be for the party?

Proponents tell us that, even if these supporters aren’t obliged to give the party money to join, we may still benefit from them as new recruits to our army of deliverers, tellers, door-knockers etc. They might even donate to the party in the fullness of time. Sounds great, but any local party worth its salt is already running a mailing list and offering opportunities to get stuck in helping the party. They are, to all intents and purposes, running supporters schemes. Centralising these schemes so that HQ can run them instead achieves what, exactly?

“Ah yes”, proponents say, “but not everyone has a local party worth its salt”. Quite so, but people in black-hole areas who want to deliver or canvass will find themselves distinctly underwhelmed by the incapacity of their local party to take them up on the offer. If they don’t even want to call themselves a party member, the chance that they are going to want to jump straight into a leadership role in campaigning seems, to me, a stretch.

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The Voice

Opportunities for fundraisers and administrators

By The Voice | Thu 14th March 2019 - 2:25 pm

News of volunteering opportunities in fundraising, employment, IT and partnership building from our friends at the Federal Finance and Resources Committee

A NEW ROLE FOR SUPER-FUNDRAISERS: THE TREASURER’S AMBASSADOR 

The party must prioritise fundraising to ensure we can make a powerful electoral impact, creating a level playing field with other parties. The Federal Treasurer, Lord (Mike) German, is keen to bring in the professional fundraising expertise which we know some members have and are able to offer on a flexible volunteer basis.

We’re seeking a small number of skilled and practised fundraisers who are confident with major donor relationship-management and raising five-figure sums.  Mike will lead and advise, agreeing discussion with you where and how best you can help, but the thrust of the role will be working across your local area to suggest techniques and tactics, mentor candidates and develop prospects and new donors.  

The role is voluntary and part-time but travel costs can be recovered. Volunteers will benefit greatly from what they learn about fundraising culture and know-how in a role central to helping deliver the party’s strategy – as well as acquiring skills that can help support CVs. Volunteers will also be invited to the Treasurer’s Dinner at Conference and other federal events.

If you are interested in this important role please email [email protected].

VOLUNTEER FOR THE FEDERAL FINANCE AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE (FFRC)

The Federal Finance and Resources Committee (FFRC) is seeking volunteers to help provide specialist expertise as part of working groups looking at the following areas:

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Nick Harvey

Nick Harvey writes…Reorganisation at Lib Dem HQ

By Nick Harvey | Fri 2nd November 2018 - 8:03 pm

Party members may have read on political websites that Lib Dem HQ is in the process of carrying out a reorganisation, which sadly will see a reduction in the number of staff at our headquarters. 

In common with both other parties we have seen a dip in our income in the year after an election, made all the more acute after two elections (and a referendum) in two years. Donation fatigue and lower revenues are understandable at this point.

This is a phenomenon we have seen many times before.  Politics is a cyclical business, with parties consolidating after elections and …

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Caron Lindsay

Could you be a local party officer?

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 7th August 2018 - 10:25 am

The whirlwind of politics isn’t going to stop for very long this year, but you might want to take some time over the Summer to think about how you could become more involved in the Liberal Democrats.

One way you could do that is to stand for a role in your local party. This Autumn, every local party will hold its AGM and elect its committee for 2019. Now is the time to think about whether you could take on one of these roles.

You could choose to stand for one of the Officer roles – Chair, Secretary, Membership Secretary, Data Officer, Diversity Officer, Treasurer or take on a role on the Executive. If you are not sure about what these roles involve, why not have a look at the Members’ area of the website? 

They have some very handy guides to each of these roles and more in the Training section.

It would be really helpful if people who have done these roles would like to write about them for LDV, too, to encourage people to take them on.  Some people can be put off by the idea of being Treasurer, for example. I certainly was when I was asked to be Scottish Party Treasurer. I kind of had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing it, but I stuck around for six years and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would – and that was with the challenges of two General Elections, a Holyrood election, two referenda and two Council elections. It wasn’t just about numbers, it’s about leading the discussion on how we use our all too scarce resources and making sure we get some more.

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Paul Reynolds

Reform the Reformers – Part 1 Policy making

By Paul Reynolds | Fri 20th July 2018 - 11:25 am

The business world has its special expressions for what politicians call ‘reform’. ‘If you are standing still you are going backwards’ for example. In Japan there is the business concept of ‘kaizen’, translated as ‘continuous improvement’.

The UK Liberal Democrats are a reformist party. People join the party because they wish to improve things and solve problems.

By contrast some people join political parties to preserve the status quo, or a prior status quo. It’s not so common in business. I sometimes wonder if the CEO of the communist East German state company that made the famous plastic 2-stroke Trabant car, had a business philosophy of ‘continuously staying the same’.

The Liberal Democrats might find even greater success if they focused even more on their primary job of ‘reforming’. That means doing even more to solve problems and make improvements for the general public. Liberal Democrats are keen to tell the public about their liberal values and democratic principles. It is not always easy for the public to make the connection between Lib Dem values and principles, and improvements to their lives; how those principles and values solve real problems.

There is scope for improvement here.

The Lib Dems will surely do better if they are perceived more as a problem-solving service for the public. Indeed, at a recent Liberal International meeting in Berlin a spokesperson for the German FDP explained that this conclusion at a strategy meeting a few years ago led to their revival as a political force.

With the UK Lib Dems the deployment of our values and principles in solving problems, is undertaken by a relatively open policymaking system. This is where one might look for the scope for improvement.

The rules of an organisation reflect its culture.

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Callum Robertson

Introducing Liberal Democrats for Prison Reform

By Callum Robertson | Thu 4th January 2018 - 8:37 am

Prisoners get a bad rap. They get pushed around by politicians because it is politically popular to beat them with a rolled-up copy of the daily.

Just because this happens doesn’t mean it is okay. In fact, it is a fundamental abdication of our moral duty not to stand up for the human rights of our fellow human beings.

As such I been conducting some informal polling within the Young Liberals and by a landslide of 92% in favour, 8% opposing, they backed prisoner voting. Further questioning of the group indicated a 96% …

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The Voice

The first results in the party internal elections are in

By The Voice | Thu 2nd February 2017 - 10:25 am

As we have publicised a couple of times, a new round of party elections is taking place. The electorate is the Federal Board.

The following people have been elected unopposed:

Registered Treasurer & Chair of Federal Finance and Resources Committee:     Peter Dunphy

Party Treasurer:                                               Lord Mike German

Chair of Federal Campaigns and Elections Committee:                               James Gurling

Chair of Campaign for Gender Balance:                                             Candy Piercy

Vice Chair of Federal Board:                                               Neil Fawcett

Federal Board Rep on Federal International Relations …

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