Published in the October edition:

In talking about introducing internet voting in the UK, Melanie Batley called the trials in the UK “a great success” (Total Politics, August 2011). I beg to differ: they were costly and produced no significant increase in turnout.

There are many criticisms that can be made of the last Labour government and its rhetoric about evidence-based policy-making, but on this point it can’t be faulted. It tried it, saw that it didn’t work to raise turnout and dropped it.

Far from being a reason for the public to demand that the government resurrections the idea, the experience of the UK’s trials are a reason, for once, for the public to praise politicians for making the right decision and declining to go on spending money on a faulty policy.

Yours,

In the top 50 of the blogs list, Lib Dem Voice is in at number 12 (up from 27 last year), Caron Lindsay at 25, Jonathan Calder at 38 and Andrew Reeves at 44.

In the top 50 of the bloggers list, I’m in at number 20, Caron Lindsay at 29, Andrew Reeves at 43 and Jonathan Calder at 49.

Thank you to everyone for your votes – and to everyone who has contributed to Lib Dem Voice over the last year.

Now, I better get planning some blog posts else Caron will be overtaking me soon…

1 Lib Dem Voice

2 Caron’s Musings

3 Liberal England

4 Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog

5 Stephen’s Liberal Journal

6 Mark Pack

=7 Liberal Vision

=7 A Scottish Liberal

9 Cllr Fraser Macpherson

10 Mark Reckons

And the top Liberal Democrat bloggers:

1 Mark Pack

2 Caron Lindsay

3 Andrew Reeves

4 Jonathan Calder

5 Stephen Glenn

6 Olly Grender

7 Mark Thompson

8 Julian Astle

9 Stephen Tall

10 Fraser Macpherson

Lovely and fitting to see Andrew appear so highly in both lists; he was a great blogger in his own right and a wonderful encouragement and support for others.

Congratulations to everyone else in the top ten lists. Thank you too for the votes for me – and an extra thanks to everyone who has helped contribute to Liberal Democrat Voice in one way or another.

But of course the rankings that really matter are the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards, happening tonight. See you there.

1 Lib Dem Voice
2 Caron’s Musings
3 Liberal England
4 Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog
5 Stephen’s Liberal Journal

This blog then slips in at #6.

It’s fitting to see Andrew’s contribution to Liberal Democrat blogging, both as a blogger and an encourager of others, recognised with his #4 slot. Congratulations Caron, Jonathan and Stephen – and thanks to everyone who helps Lib Dem Voice in one way or another.

Yup, it’s the Total Politics Blog of the Year awards again, this time with the sensible innovation of letting people vote for both their favourite political blogs and also their favourite political bloggers, thereby reflecting how some people now blog in many different places.

Further details are here and you can cast your vote here.

Voting closes on 19 August so vote early and, er…, encourage others to vote.

Conservative MP Robin Walker is mistaken to think that voting systems other than first-past-the-post all give a leg-up to extremist parties.

In fact, it is the lower threshold for winning under first past the post compared with many other systems that often lets extremists parties slip through and win at local election level in the UK. That is because an extremist can win under first past the post with a third or less of the vote. Under AV (or a clutch of other systems) that isn’t enough to win as you need to win enough transfers to get to over half the vote.

Myself, I am very dubious about picking a voting system on the basis of which parties you do or don’t like to see winning. But if that is your criteria, Robin Walker’s argument is not one in favour of keeping first-past-the-post; it is one for getting rid of it.

The full list and some thoughts on the results from my Lib Dem Voice co-editor Stephen Tall are here.

Then, however, I got to this part:

Read your guests a page about David Miliband. But remember, as it’s in the first person, pretend that these are actually your thoughts!

Oops.

Update: Um, got that story a bit wrong as the text quoted isn’t from the Miliband campaign guide itself but rather TP’s commentary on the suggested comments written out for people in the first person. Providing verbatim comments written as ‘I think…’ is also fair game for some poking fun, but not quite in the same league as what I’d originally said. Also changed the headline to reflect this.

Before we get to any final scores, we need the voting. So here is the explanation from Iain Dale:

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList and LibDemVoice as well as this blog, and that of our publisher, Iain Dale.

The rules are simple.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

Votes for both this blog and for Liberal Democrat Voice would be much appreciated.

The impact on campaigns of debates in other countries shows how your debate could be not only be historic but also campaign changing.

Lower expectations
The lower the expectations voters and journalists have of your debate performance before it takes place, the more likely you are to come out as triumphant. So follow the well worn tradition and get your PR people to invert their usual insistence to all and sundry that you are wonderful and instead talk up your likely difficulties in the debate.

Be ready for the worms
A staple part of televised debates in many other countries, particularly Australia and New Zealand, is the ‘worm’ – a line that wriggles up and down on screen showing the instant positive/negative reactions of an audience to what they are seeing in the debate. Although of questionable value, it makes the viewing more fun and frequently shapes the post-debate media coverage.

We may well see worms in the UK, especially as they are a way for broadcasters who are not hosting a debate to muscle in. For example, Channel 4 hasn’t been given a debate but could take the live feed which will be available in two of the three debates, add some ‘worms’ and steal some of the audience. [Update: looks like the worm will be a Facebook one.]

If there is one, remember what ‘worms’ like: they like it when popular figures are on screen, even if they’ve not yet spoken, but also they usually take a strong dislike to the raising of unpopular issues, mentions of unpopular colleagues and the sort of dead-bat, change the subject debate techniques that can get you through a TV interview intact. This is not a time for the clever-clever style of Oxford Union debates.

Pick your attacks with care
Although Stephen Harper failed to lead the Canadian Conservatives to victory in 2004, he did deprive the Liberals of an overall majority, helped by a strong TV debate performance. The mistake his opponents made was that, having been successfully attacking his party’s attempt to present a moderate reputation during the campaign, the same accusations were made direct to him during the debate. That allowed Harper to turn on the personal charm and conviction, responding directly to the charges and winning points for sincerity.
Behave

“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 beginning to end!” Debating on TV with other leaders is not the same as penning anonymous comments to a political blog.

Give a web address
Increasingly people watch TV on a computer or with a computer or smart phone to hand. As a result, the mention of a web address can drive huge volumes of traffic. The Lib Dem council tax campaign site keeled over under the surge of traffic after Charles Kennedy gave its address during a 2005 general election press conference. The debate will be a fantastic opportunity to get people to your website and signing up for emails or as friends/followers on social networks; don’t miss it.

And finally…
For a final bit of fun, look at this:

Perhaps best not to ape the Penguin’s arguments yourself… But the humour has a serious side: Batman’s po-faced response to the Penguin’s outrageous debate speech is a classic mistake of politicians, using cold, boring logic when emotion and anger are needed. Don’t make the same mistake!

Best of luck,

Mark

As for what I think will happen – see my ten TV leader debate predictions.