Sick of work this Monday lunchtime? Or perhaps hungover from one too many on the first night of Labour Conference? If so, distract yourself with ✨ 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗠𝗥𝗣 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ✨ Full interactive at: jack-bailey.co.uk/ward2024

This is a great article and I think accurately gets at the place the Lib Dems are in electorally. Highly recommended lunch time reading 👇

Matthew Price@matthewbprice.bsky.social · 6d ago

I was really stuck at Lib Dem Conference by how frustrated members are with the party’s lack of a clear identity. So I’ve written about why that’s actually a good thing.

I was really stuck at Lib Dem Conference by how frustrated members are with the party’s lack of a clear identity. So I’ve written about why that’s actually a good thing.

The Lib Dems’ Strategy is Working, Actually

But its members aren’t happy about it

pollingstation.substack.com

New opinion piece with @profjanegreen.bsky.social in @financialtimes.com ⬇️📊 We argue that five parties in the polls doesn't mean five-way races. What's really going on is a scramble within each bloc over who can win, fought out seat by seat.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 6d ago

Is the UK electorate fragmenting? Not so fast ft.trib.al/zY08hha | opinion

Me on why: - Ed Davey was a lot better campaigner than Keir Starmer - "You can't vote Conservative because they're posh" has never worked and will never work - Robert Kenyon's incredibly well-optimised backstory didn't save him - Margaret Thatcher and Andy Burnham are like Thelma and Louise

Election Campaign Storytelling: Motivation & Backstory

How political campaigners can make people understand what you want, why you want it and why it matters.

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

Me on why: - Ed Davey was a lot better campaigner than Keir Starmer - "You can't vote Conservative because they're posh" has never worked and will never work - Robert Kenyon's incredibly well-optimised backstory didn't save him - Margaret Thatcher and Andy Burnham are like Thelma and Louise

Election Campaign Storytelling: Motivation & Backstory

How political campaigners can make people understand what you want, why you want it and why it matters.

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

Everyone in politics seems to agree that politicians need to “tell a story”. But what actually makes a story compelling? And what can political campaigns learn from people who write them for a living? First lesson: you need a clear motivation (but a compelling backstory matters far less).

Motivation & Backstory: What political campaigns can learn from film and TV

Keir Starmer and Ted Kennedy should have listened to Rocky, Tony Soprano and Thelma & Louise

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

Everyone in politics seems to agree that politicians need to “tell a story”. But what actually makes a story compelling? And what can political campaigns learn from people who write them for a living? First lesson: you need a clear motivation (but a compelling backstory matters far less).

Motivation & Backstory: What political campaigns can learn from film and TV

Keir Starmer and Ted Kennedy should have listened to Rocky, Tony Soprano and Thelma & Louise

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

When I did a survey in the UK on attitudes towards technology and economic growth, I found that Green Party and Reform UK supporters often had very similar beliefs against. Seem like something similar is the case in US public opinion. jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com/p/what-do-th...

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2w ago

Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders unite in AI safety call ft.trib.al/Qd8OU0U

Why did “my father was a toolmaker” become a punchline? Why do voters happily support politicians born into enormous wealth? My new piece looks at what Rocky, Tony Soprano, Thelma & Louise and others can teach political campaigners about making a politician compelling. Read here 👇

Motivation & Backstory: What political campaigns can learn from film and TV

Keir Starmer and Ted Kennedy should have listened to Rocky, Tony Soprano and Thelma & Louise

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

When I did a survey in the UK on attitudes towards technology and economic growth, I found that Green Party and Reform UK supporters often had very similar beliefs against. Seem like something similar is the case in US public opinion. jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com/p/what-do-th...

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2w ago

Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders unite in AI safety call ft.trib.al/Qd8OU0U

Why did “my father was a toolmaker” become a punchline? Why do voters happily support politicians born into enormous wealth? My new piece looks at what Rocky, Tony Soprano, Thelma & Louise and others can teach political campaigners about making a politician compelling. Read here 👇

Motivation & Backstory: What political campaigns can learn from film and TV

Keir Starmer and Ted Kennedy should have listened to Rocky, Tony Soprano and Thelma & Louise

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

I am a man of simple but nerdy pleasures. One of these is that I find the names used for voter segmentations absolutely hilarious. The history of phrases like “Essex Man,” “Mondeo Man,” “The Red Wall”, “Waitrose Woman” and many more is a lot more interesting (and weird) than you’d think 👇

The Weird and Wonderful History of British Election Voter Segmentations

This "Stockport Man" outlines his ironic (and unironic) love of the a proud British election tradition

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

The Rainbow Vote now has a cover & publication date. www.therainbowvote.com 🗳️🏳️‍🌈 Please consider pre-ordering, or asking your institution’s library to pre-order! Insufferable self-promotion to follow but I am dutifully celebrating every milestone along the way to publication day in February 😎

Not everything you dislike in politics is the artificial, top-down result of cynical or manipulative elites. Not everything you like in politics is the organic, bottom-up and genuine expression of what people want.

Not everything you dislike in politics was caused by top-down factors

Motivated Causal Attribution is a political bias to avoid

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

Not everything you dislike in politics is the artificial, top-down result of cynical or manipulative elites. Not everything you like in politics is the organic, bottom-up and genuine expression of what people want.

Not everything you dislike in politics was caused by top-down factors

Motivated Causal Attribution is a political bias to avoid

jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

Hi, this is the British Voter Bot. We're really proud of this latest update, which will give insight into the biggest political social survey in Britain - revealing the breadth of perspective and opinion across our country. Let us know what you think!

📢 New Data 📢 We are pleased to announce the release of Wave 31 of the British Election Study Internet Panel. You can find out more information, including where to download the data, here: www.britishelectionstudy.com/uncategorize...

James Graham writing a play on the life of Keynes is dream-like news. theatreweekly.com/full-cast-re...

Full cast revealed for James Graham’s The Standard of Living in the West End - Theatre Weekly

The full cast has been announced for the world premiere of The Standard of Living, a major new play by James Graham

theatreweekly.com

🚨POST BY ME & CALLUM HUNTER-DAWSON🚨 Richard Nixon’s career offers remarkably complete education in modern elections, political science, sociology, media theory, international relations, economics and so much more. This article looks at this life up to 1968 when he became president

How Richard Nixon's life explains modern politics (Part 1)

Social class, material insecurity, status resentment, generations, media image, electoral coalitions, demography and the median voter

substack.com

No acknowledgement of the damage he's done to 1. Trust, upon which academic life is based 2. Attempts to correct the imbalance of who gets top University jobs 3. Cambridge 4. Liverpool John Moores 5. The discipline he works in. Where he chooses to make the announcement is very appropriate.

Good Law Project@goodlawproject.org · 2mo ago

An update from Professor Arday https://goodlawproject.org/an-update-from-jason-arday/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=glp_post_27503&utm_medium=social_media&utm_content=05-08-2026

New working paper from Stuart Perrett, @drjennings.bsky.social , @jonmellon.bsky.social , @cbwlezien.bsky.social and me: Do polls underestimate support for right-wing parties? Assessing variation in polling error by party family osf.io/preprints/so...

“The “coalitions” that politicians talk about are, after all, composed of people, not idiots... That this coalition could be described demographically—i.e., blacks, union labor, Jews, etc.—was because demography influences attitude, not because some political boss could deliver a bloc vote."

"Most voters, most often, are not primarily political beings. Thus, neither New Politics, nor Old Politics, nor malaise, nor hatred is the most important thing in the lives of most American voters."

"Humphrey’s plight on the crime issue was exacerbated by some incredible ideological verbiage on the part of liberals... Politically, liberal Democrats should actively have been trying to separate the crime issue from the race issue; instead, they were busy as beavers linking them."

"[The] Middle Voter is a forty-seven-year-old housewife from the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio, whose husband is a machinist. She very likely has a somewhat different view of life and politics from that of a twenty-four-year-old instructor of political science at Yale." FAO: the entirety of Bluesky!!!

On this, if you ever get your hands on Richard M. Scammon & Ben J. Wattenberg's book "The Real Majority", you should read it. Their insights from 1970 are just as relevant today as they were back then. 🧵👇

James Breckwoldt@jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨POST BY ME & CALLUM HUNTER-DAWSON🚨 Richard Nixon’s career offers remarkably complete education in modern elections, political science, sociology, media theory, international relations, economics and so much more. This article looks at this life up to 1968 when he became president

Two(!) permanent lectureships coming up at Cardiff: One in political behaviour/opinion cardiffuniweb.eploy.net/vacancies/52... One in British politics (very loosely defined) cardiffuniweb.eploy.net/vacancies/53... Feel free to get in touch and I'll be happy to answer any questions I can

Another fantastic entry in one of the best stacks you could subscribe to. Well worth a read over your coffee today, whether you like it black or unblack ☕️👇👇

James Breckwoldt@jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨POST BY ME & CALLUM HUNTER-DAWSON🚨 Richard Nixon’s career offers remarkably complete education in modern elections, political science, sociology, media theory, international relations, economics and so much more. This article looks at this life up to 1968 when he became president

On this, if you ever get your hands on Richard M. Scammon & Ben J. Wattenberg's book "The Real Majority", you should read it. Their insights from 1970 are just as relevant today as they were back then. 🧵👇

James Breckwoldt@jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨POST BY ME & CALLUM HUNTER-DAWSON🚨 Richard Nixon’s career offers remarkably complete education in modern elections, political science, sociology, media theory, international relations, economics and so much more. This article looks at this life up to 1968 when he became president