About Martin
Martin lives and works in the heart of Winchester with his wife Michaela.
He joined the Liberal party in 1983 at Cambridge University, where he was Deputy President of the Cambridge University Students Union and President of the Union debating society.
Our biggest victory in the students union at the time was the campaign to stop tuition fees. I didn’t think I’d still be campaigning against them 25 years later.
As a student, he successfully argued alongside Jim Wallace MP and Richard Wainwright MP ‘That Britain needs a new electoral system’, overcoming the combined efforts of Michael Howard MP, Teddy Taylor MP and Leon Brittan MP. He also represented Cambridge in the World Debating Championships.
Martin worked for 14 years for Procter & Gamble in marketing, living in the UK, Austria – where he met his wife Michaela, Germany, and the Czech Republic before returning to the UK as a Marketing Director in 1998, specialising in Central & Eastern Europe.
All my years living in Europe have made me a convinced supporter of the European ideal. Although just as I believe in reforming local and national government in the UK, I’d like the EU to do much more to open up and be accountable to local citizens.
In 2002, he joined Vodafone as UK Head of Brand & Advertising. His work there won awards in Cannes and London for creativity and in Barcelona for ‘the best mobile marketing campaign in the world’ for 2005. He left in 2005 and is currently an independent marketing and strategy consultant.
In 2003, he served on the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive – speaking and voting in favour of committing the party to joining the Iraq war demonstration in Feb. 2003.
It was probably the best possible time to be on the Federal Executive. Being on a demonstration with one million other people and so many thousands of other Lib Dem party members for such an important cause was a great experience.
Martin’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Garnier, was Dean of Winchester and features in Winchester Museum as an ‘anti-muckabite’ campaigner to bring a sewerage system to Winchester in the 1860s. He was a friend of Palmerston, and is the ‘Dean Garnier’ of both the eponymous garden in the Cathedral close, and Garnier Road, leading past the old pumping station.
Outside the Liberal Democrats, Martin is actively involved in Winchester Friends of the Earth and Winchester Action on Climate Change. He is also a member of the Electoral Reform Society, the Howard League for Penal Reform, the European Movement, Amnesty International, the Open Rights Group, and No2ID.
If you want to know more about Martin Tod, why not ask him a question? All questions asked online will be answered online unless you would like the answer to be confidential. You can also go direct to answers to questions asked earlier.
December 13th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
well, well done you!
October 16th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Hi Martin!
I’ve read the web site with interest. Please, where you say “and voting in favour of committing the party to joining the Iraq war demonstration in Feb. 2003″ does that mean you were pro- or anti- the UK’s involvement in the Iraq operation, and have you since changed your mind?
Thank you.
Oliver Woodman
October 17th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Oliver,
I was opposed to the UK’s involvement in the Iraq operation – and haven’t changed my mind.
I posted at some length on the issue on my old blog here.
Martin
April 24th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Hello Martin, came across your page after doing research on the Micheldever Station Market Town. You have strong views oposing the development of an eco town, and i just wondered if you feel the same about the Borden development? Thanks
April 24th, 2008 at 9:15 am
As far as I can tell the Bordon development is quite different.
In these respects at least, the Bordon proposal looks better than Micheldever Station Eco-Town.
One area I would be interested to understand better is the transport impact of Bordon. I had a very big problem with the traffic growth from the Micheldever Station eco-town proposal. Several commentators have pointed out that traffic is the biggest conceptual problem with eco-towns in general. I don’t know what the traffic situation is with Bordon. Before reaching a final conclusion, I’d like to understand this area better.
December 7th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Hi Martin,
I love how you are running 4 parliament i told my teacher and now we even have a sign hanging up in the class room. Vote Martin Tod 4 president!!!!
November 6th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Do you support MPs not being allowed to employ their spouse and other close relatives under Kelly's proposals ?
November 9th, 2009 at 11:59 am
No. I haven't supported this since well before the Kelly report was published and even wrote a blog post about this in February 2008.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Did you enjoy the concert in Winchester College Chapel by Ashton Singers? £850 was raised for Winchester Churches Nightshelter.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Great news that so much money was raised as well.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Do you support the idea of a European Public Prosecutor's Office? How would it work with our Common Law tradition? Is it not yet another example of Eurocreep?
February 14th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Keep up the great work Martin and you will make it.
Best wishes
Stephen Pallister
February 16th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
The Liberal Democrats are not signed up to the introduction of a European Public Prosecution until quite a few issues are sorted out – as witness this set of comments by Andrew Duff MEP, Leader of our group in the European Parliament.
This article by Hugo Brady for the Centre of European Reform makes a good case that we should proceed very cautiously before introducing the role.
I share this view. I will take a lot of persuading that we need a European Public Prosecutor, with the dramatic legal and constitutional implications that follow, even if the role is restricted only to tackling EU budget fraud – as has currently been suggested.
February 21st, 2010 at 5:13 pm
At the last General Election the LibDems proposed getting rid of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA),believing there were better ways of spending the then £650 million pa cost.Do you still hold to this view,especially given the UK's dire overspending and consequential debt.?
March 5th, 2010 at 7:28 am
There was no reference to scrapping EMA in our last manifesto.
We have however expressed repeated opposition to the £100 million spent on EMA bonuses and would redirect that money to close the funding gap between 6th forms and colleges.
Our latest policy statement says: