Tag Archives: party president

Mark Pack

November Report from the President

By Mark Pack | Wed 11th November 2020 - 11:30 am

I should start with a word of thanks – in fact, many words of thanks – to Kirsty Williams. She has announced that she will be standing down at the Welsh Senedd elections next May. As such a successful education minister in Wales, she is a daily demonstration of the difference that Liberal Democrats in power make. A consistently powerful voice for liberalism through all her many years of service, she has made such a big difference to so many lives. Thank you, Kirsty.

We need to get many more people like Kirsty elected in future. As the Thornhill Review …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

The party President writes…Key party decisions coming up at the Federal Board meetings next week

By Mark Pack | Fri 15th May 2020 - 9:36 am

How do we improve as a party and achieve greater success in future elections? That’s the theme running through the bumper set of key decisions the Federal Board is looking at next week at our meeting. (Or rather meetings, as to avoid Zoom fatigue, we’re splitting one long meeting into halves on consecutive nights.)

Included in that will be the Board’s first considerations of the independent election review, headed up by Dorothy Thornhill and coming out later today. Thank you for all their hard work to her, her colleagues and everyone who contributed evidence to the review.

Even without that review, there are some things we already know we need to change, in particular our use of technology. That’s why the Board will also be looking at major plans to overhaul our approach, learning from the best of those outside politics and from politics overseas. A big part of the plan is much better use of volunteer expertise.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

Our President and co-leader writes: How you can get involved in helping to run the party

By Mark Pack | Mon 20th January 2020 - 2:30 pm

The Liberal Democrats are about to fill nearly 50 important posts, responsible for everything from oversight of our campaigns through to improving our record on diversity and making sure our finances are in good shape.

Please do both think about going for one of these posts yourself, and also who else you might want to encourage to put their name forward.

We need the best team possible – which means people with brilliant skills, time to do the job properly and a much greater diversity than we often manage with such exercises.

If anyone would like to know more about what a particular post involves, I’m very happy for you to put them in touch with me and I can either directly help or put them in touch with someone with experience of the post.

More details of the posts are over on the party website.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 34 Comments
The Voice

LibLink: Our new President/Co-leader on the surprising number of elections coming up in May

By The Voice | Thu 16th January 2020 - 9:40 am

Embed from Getty Images

Over on his blog, Mark Pack, our new party President and co-leader, gives us a timely warning about the magnitude of voting opportunities this May:

This year’s round of local council elections are only in England and are the smallest round of that cycle of elections. Which may make you think that it’s a small set of elections and one in which many or even most parts of the country will not be voting.

But…

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Posted in Local government and Party Presidency | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
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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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Richard Kemp

Why there will be no Kemp4Prez stickers at Conference

By Richard Kemp | Fri 15th March 2019 - 6:58 am

A reasonable number of people will know that before Christmas I was asking them about whether or not I should stand for the Party Presidency when it comes up for election later. A smaller number know that as a result of those discussions I have decided after Christmas that I will indeed be a candidate.

However, whilst I am not keeping it a secret, I am not yet starting a proper campaign. I am not acting this way because of indolence. In my 52 years in the Party I have never left an election to chance or thought that I would breeze in. The reason I am not doing anything yet is because I believe that there are three things even more important than filling this important post.

The first and most obvious one is that we either have to resolve not to leave Europe or work out how to deal with the consequences of having left. Of course, this all might have changed in the interval between you reading this and me writing it! Brexit will cast a long shadow over both our Country and politicians because of he way that it has been handled. Well done our First 11 for the splendid way they have thought and acted and our second 100 in the Lords have acted superlatively well but we will all have much to do in the coming few weeks and months whatever happens.

Secondly, we have the English local elections coming up on 2nd May and nothing but nothing should distract us from maximising our vote and maximising our number of councillors. This should be a national election and I would appeal to Scottish, Welsh and London colleagues to support campaigning near to you as you have no elections yourselves. Nothing will put us in a better position in the media than more councillors. Nothing will enhance our position with the “Independent Group” than us having even more bottoms on seats in Council Chambers.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 5 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Lorenzo Cherin
    As for the link, it is a very considered piece. But it is designed to support the writer's viewpoint, as I mention, he almost seems to push the view , he was wr...
  • Lorenzo Cherin
    Laurence Cox Very unsure as why you presume i did my best to avoid your link, when I did no such thing! You presume you know a lot about my approach but seem...
  • David Raw
    On topic : How Sir Edward's comments were reported in the Glasgow Herald : "THE Liberal Democrat leader has said his party is no longer interested in t...
  • Katharine Pindar
    Peter Hirst, that is an admirable idea. But it seems that the Federal Conference Committee will decide on what is going to be debated regardless of any strength...
  • Laurence Cox
    @Lorenzo Cherin Since you haven't bothered to read the reference I cited, here is what Tom Chivers says: "Similarly, there’s been a bit of a hoo-hah abo...