Talk:Jeremy Browne

message: The edit-war on this page is unseemly enough but what is worse is that the page has grown totally to be dominated by the expenses issue. Jeremy Browne is not one of those most strongly associated in the public mind with the expenses issue and yet most of what we say about him is about his expenses claim - even including a taunting image of a plant of the same species as he bought. This is a severe case of infringing NPOV through undue weight; unfortunately it is far from unique among current MPs. Either the expenses section should be pruned or the rest of his political career needs to be expanded. Sam Blacketer (talk) 22:22, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I stumbled onto this page as a result of the edit war. I haven't had the chance to do enough research to know the issues. However, from a Wikipedia policy standpoint, discussion needs to take place on the talk page and not through edit summaries, and I will protect the page if need be to enforce that. —C.Fred (talk) 22:30, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  At least some sanity can be introduced into this article by an independent Wikipedia editor. The most disreputable activity seems to me to be several claims made in talk pages associated with this article that user X is person Y. A quick read of various edits and other public postings (eg comments on Somerset County Gazette articles) suggest that these claims don't even seem to be from the claimed party let alone be the person suggested. Perhaps politics in Taunton is just a series of desperate attacks on individuals.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.182.9.29 (talk) 18:24, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

text: This seems to be a perfectly reasonable course of action. OldTauntonian (talk) 22:32, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Undue weight

message: I have restored the link to Mark Formosa removed by Milk76, who claims that it is irrelevant because "no election has been called". Irrespective of this, an election will have to be called before May 2010 and Mark Formosa is the prospective Conservative candidate; Formosa is therefore Browne's principal opponent and it does merit inclusion.
However, I take his point, made on the history of Mark Formosa page, that until a filing is accepted by the returning office, Formosa's candidacy cannot be definite, and have reworded the section accordingly. QuantockWarrior (talk) 16:12, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: How does his intent to campaign directly effect Browne now? It makes sense to mention Browne on Formosa's page because his current notability is as a candidate preparing to stand against Browne. It makes sense to mention it on the riding's page if he's campaigning already. It's stretching a bit thin to mention him here, until a) an election is formally called or b) Browne's actions, speeches, or other messages are addressing Formosa. Until that happens, Formosa only relates peripherally to Browne, so he does not warrant a section in this article. —C.Fred (talk) 16:23, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Mark Formosa

message: If the next Election deserves a topic on an MP's page then i have proposed simply to list the new boundary changes and name.  Included is a link to this constituency page and i have edited this page to include all four parties who have indicated their intention to contest the seat next time.  
It does not seem reasonable to mention any one prospective candidate by name and not the others who wish to run.  I cannot find any other MP page that does this.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Milk76 (talk • contribs) 18:03, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, in the interests of compromise I agree to include Martin Jevon and Bill Lukins as well, though as I'm sure you recognise, this is a contest between the Lib Dems and the Tories, and it is perfectly reasonable to mention Browne's principal opponent by name. QuantockWarrior (talk) 18:17, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: The necessary coverage here is to mention the new boundary. If the candidates are to be mentioned anywhere, it's there and not here. —C.Fred (talk) 21:27, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Next Election 

message: Piece removed by the internet site concerned when found to be untrue.  After a facebook investigation found that the story had been made up and the source confirmed that it had been when confronted with the evidence.  
links to gossip demonstrated to be untrue should not be included on wikipedia.  It is a factual encyclopedia service.
--Milk76 (talk) 08:19, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: It was readded; I removed the second addition under WP:BLP because it did not indicate a source. If the Facebook allegation is to be added, it needs to be verified: either a link to an online version needs to be provided, or an experienced, independent editor needs to comment that they've verified it. (If I had access to the West Somerset archive, I'd check it myself.) —C.Fred (talk) 16:52, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

text: Milk76, do you have a citation for the newspaper's retraction of the story? That would put the issue to rest. —C.Fred (talk) 20:47, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Information has now been sourced via official West Somerset Post. —OldTauntonian (talk) 22:29, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  West Somerset post added by Oldtauntonian 

message: The Telegraph article is actually mistaken. Mr Browne appears to have claimed the full £1300 for his Venetian blinds rather than just £650. This can be seen in the PDF on the Parliamentary website: http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/jeremy-browne/Jeremy_Browne_0708_ACA.pdf. Please note pages 1 and 11 of the document. One claim for the blinds was made in February for £650. Another was made for the final £650 in March. I have edited the page to reflect the actual full claim as applied by another user of £1300. —OldTauntonian (talk) 00:08, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Blinds

message: I think that all of these politicians are in it for themselves.
That said, the 'West Somerset Post' is a blog and free pamphlet written and edited by John Bryan Thorne http://johnthorne.blogspot.com/2009/02/conservatives-freeze-taunton-deane.html and http://www.m2smedia.co.uk/portfolio.  A conservative councillor in somerset.  Calling it a newspaper to quote in an encyclopedia is quite laughable.  It makes this format look very suspect.
The Tories don't use this story locally as the local lib dems claim to have the facebook logs showing it to be nonsense.  Couldn't be hard to prove.  
Jeremy Browne is a pretty unremarkable politician as they go.  I can't see why his entry is not just about three lines long.  Allowing blog entries by political opponents to be the basis of a biography is just mad.  Wikipedia should cut everything not sourced from major publications.--OutragedOfOake (talk) 00:41, 21 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, based on the link you've given, the West Somerset Post is a weekly paper. However, I'll concede that a single story, on blogspot, is not sufficient. I don't think it should be re-added without stronger sourcing. —C.Fred (talk) 01:18, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

text: Based on the ruling by C.Fred.  No further sourcing has been produced, yet the contested allegation has been re added.  On this basis and given it's questionable provenance i am deleting it.--90.199.61.101 (talk) 21:15, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

text: It is sourced content, but according to the verifiability policy it is probably poorly sourced, so it shouldn't be included in the article unless more sources can be found. snigbrook (talk) 16:40, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

text: I would also like to remind all editors, particularly Verthandi to WP:AGF. I would however apologise for my initial revert of Verthandi. I didn't look properly at the edit summary so didn't realise he/she hadn't added back the poorly sourced content. Nil Einne (talk) 18:20, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  West Somerset Post 

message: Following the conclusion of the 2009/10 expenses inquiry Browne has not been asked to repay anything.  Thus it seems very unbalanced to have paragraphs of highly selected details of his legitimate claims on this page.  
This is not in line with any other Uk MP pages that it can be compared with.  Therefore i have greatly reduced this section to try to restore balance.  I would contend however that it would be reasonable to simply remove this section.
--Milk76 (talk) 02:00, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The [ edit] you make removes any criticism on this subject whatsoever: in fact, I think it actively distorts the picture by removing any mention of the successful appeal against the Legg Report and wrongly claiming  Browne was not named by the Telegraph. However, I agree that the emphasis should be on the Legg Report, and trivial claims (like the toilet brush holder) should be remove. I've had a go at writing it how I think it should be ([ diff]) giving a brief mention to the Telegraph allegations and giving explaining the successful appeal against the Legg recommendations. --h2g2bob (talk) 21:51, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Expenses section 

message: I would argue that this section should include his Parliamentary positions and perhaps the bill that he has introduced.  Yet some of his voting record that is not anything special seems uninformative.--86.141.97.102 (talk) 13:59, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Parliamentary Career Section 

message: It is hinted on this page, and also specifically stated elsewhere, that Jeremy Browne and Milk76 are one and the same person.
If this is not correct then the above-linked page would need correcting.
Wikipedia makes some recommendations for editors who may have a conflict of interest.
In addition, if these are indeed the circumstances, then to me it would appear unseemly for Milk76 to refer to Jeremy Browne in the third person on this talk page.  (Of course, the article itself, can only refer to Jeremy Browne in the third person, regardless of the authorship of any particular section.)
At the same time, it is also worth pointing out that it would be equally unseemly for any of Jeremy Browne's political opponents, their employees or party workers, or others closely connected with them, to be editing the Jeremy Browne page, or commenting on it on this talk page, without declaring their interest.
--Demiurge1000 (talk) 16:49, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Milk76 

message: user:90.192.34.5 has recently removed my edits in this sub-section on describing the events as being "of little interest". The events that I refered to in my edits were comments that he made about the French in his debut appearance on Question Time and his votes in the Tuition Fees proposals. I believe both shot be kept as they both adhere to the guidelines of wikipedia:Notability.
The Question Time gaff is noteable because of Browne's role as a Foriegn Minister. The statement attracted a lot of press attention (both criticising and defending him) and, as I mentioned previously, he is a Foriegn Minister so his comments on a foreign nation do matter.
The tuition fees vote is a very important issue for all Lib Dem MPs becuase it was seen in the press as the first dividing line both within the Lib Dem party itself and the coalition government. Indeed, in the student protests, the anti-Lib Dem sentiment was palpable. That fact, coupled with the fact that Browne was one of the Lib Dem MPs that voted for the proposals, despite signing the pledge make this a noteable occurence. 
I therefore have reverted this user's edit to my own entries. If anybody can please provide me with valid reasons as to why these events are of "little interest" and should not be included in the article, I would happily remove my entries. --Billydeeuk (talk) 20:38, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coalition Parliament 

message: Hey folks, this article somehow represents the best of Wikipedia. When no-one cared about MP bios, some brave soul pointed out that there was some COI going on here, with a very slight (perhaps unintentional) element of positive spin in favour of Browne. Now that the possible COI people have helpfully devoted their energies in better ways (partly thanks to the brave souls), a person now turns up that wants to emphasise the "parachuted in" (a negative comment in this sort of politics) nature of Browne's initial candidacy. What puzzles me (as an outsider to the region) is that a constituency is either "marginal" or somewhere to want to be "parachuted in" to - it cannot be both. Or can it?
Find an independent reliable source for one or the other, then we'll talk about that :) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 22:21, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  marginal or parachuted in - which? 

message: Quote removed "His centre-right ideas were criticised by some of his fellow Liberal Democrats including Sarah Teather" 
It is opinion that his ideas are centre right and also in this one hour segment sourced, one mp, sarah teather, says that she generally does not agree with Jeremy Browne but does not want to get into any specifics.  not balanced or duely weighted--OutragedOfOake (talk) 23:56, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Race Plan Book 

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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130420103411/http://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/345137/jeremy-browne-on-liberals-tories-and-and39capitalist-revolutionand39.thtml to http://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/345137/jeremy-browne-on-liberals-tories-and-and39capitalist-revolutionand39.thtml
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 5 external links on Jeremy Browne. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120506183026/http://www.yournextmp.com/candidates/jeremy_browne to http://www.yournextmp.com/candidates/jeremy_browne
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090709002550/http://www.libdems.org.uk/www.libdems.org.uk/people/jeremy-browne.html to http://www.libdems.org.uk/www.libdems.org.uk/people/jeremy-browne.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091202183104/http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/about_us/who_we_are/vice_presidents.aspx to http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/about_us/who_we_are/vice_presidents.aspx
*Added  tag to http://www.jeremybrowne.org.uk/
*Added  tag to http://www.jeremybrowne.org.uk/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080924184604/http://www.libdems.org.uk/people/jeremy-browne to http://www.libdems.org.uk/people/jeremy-browne
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120121121645/http://parliament.telegraph.co.uk/mpsexpenses/mp-details/Jeremy-Browne/mp-11869 to http://parliament.telegraph.co.uk/mpsexpenses/mp-details/Jeremy-Browne/mp-11869
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thread_title:  External links modified