I am Head of Digital at Mandate Communications (part of the Engine Group), having previously been Head of Innovations at the Liberal Democrats. I am co-editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.
I am a Fellow of the RSA and have a history PhD from the University of York, looking at nineteenth century elections. I've appeared on many media outlets, including BBC2, BBC News 24, Newsnight, The Westminster Hour, Radio 5 Live and LBC, and spoken at many events and conferences on politics, electoral law and internet matters. I was a member of the Electoral Commission's Political Parties Panel 2000-2009.
After working in the university and then IT sectors, I started working for the Liberal Democrats in 2000. I've twice run the national Liberal Democrat general election internet campaign (2001 and 2005) and was the Campaign Manager in Hornsey & Wood Green 1998-2005, during which time we went from zero councillors to 16 and also gained the Parliamentary seat with the election of Lynne Featherstone in 2005 with a 15% swing from Labour.
Working with the team at party HQ, the party achieved a number of internet firsts during my time, including:
- the first use of Google Video by a major UK political party;
- the first UK party leader on Facebook;
- the first UK party leader on YouTube;
- the first national party website to provide RSS feeds;
- the first UK candidate website to take credit card donations;
- the first party to have an MP regularly using Twitter;
- the first UK election campaign to use Ustream.
I am a regular writer on historical, political and internet matters, including Total Politics magazine, Liberal Democrat Voice and The Wardman Wire. Many of my articles in the Journal of Liberal History are reproduced on this site, but you can find a comprehensive list on the Journal's website. I have also co-authored the two standard Liberal Democrat guides to election law.
I have contributed to the following books: Guide to the 2010 General Election, Iain Dale’s Guide to Political Blogging 2007, The Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging 2008, The Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging in the UK 2009-2010, The Internet in the UK election, Community Politics Today, Dictionary of Liberal Biography, Great Liberal Speeches, Dictionary of Liberal Thought and President Gore and other things that never happened.
I eat a lot of chocolate.
If you're not bored by this point, you can find out more about me courtesy of a Q+A I did with Total Politics magazine in 2008.
Note: a small number of the posts on this site refer to current at the time of writing work clients. Where this is the case, I've indicated it in the text of piece if it is not a cross-post from the Mandate Communications blog. I am also a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à.r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk/Javari.co.uk. Any other affiliate links are indicated where they are made.
