If the govt think noone cares about freebie stories they should employ someone to trawl Spotted on Fbook. Fuel Allowance and clothes are making many appearances. 'They are all the same' is dangerous for our politics and for their chances of reelection even if the specifics are forgotten in 4 years.
Nearly all the Lib Dems’ seats are LD vs Con contests. This generates a dilemma. Looking too close to Labour will make them vulnerable if Starmer govt becomes unpopular and Cons recover. But being too critical of labour could put Lab tactical votes at risk, and such votes are vital in many seats.
How do the Lib Dems tackle Labour? As @zoecrowther.bsky.social reports, it's a Q the party is seemingly still working out... "We're going to go after them," says their new North Cornwall MP But their Chippenham MP is "extremely happy" to see Starmer in No10 www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Thousands of activists gathered in Brighton to celebrate the Liberal Democrats’ record success in the General Election, but the question of what comes next was already on everyone’s lips.
The new race for political space. How the success of vote efficiency strategies might change the political landscape @robertshrimsley.bsky.socialon.ft.com/4dadfH1
The UK’s duopoly of Labour and Conservatives has never looked more vulnerable
Why Keir Starmer’s freebies have become a political problem for Labour: the appearance of hypocrisy + winter fuel cuts. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
The Prime Minister’s past attacks on the Tories and winter fuel payment cuts have exposed his government to greater scrutiny.
New post setting out my understanding and use of values measures for understanding British politics. Mostly for new followers who haven't seen/heard/read me describe this framework before. open.substack.com/pub/pollings...
Measuring values in the British electorate
Headline doesn't reflect the post, which is mainly an assessment of what happened to the Lab vote. Seems sensible to reflect on what happened, accepting that things will be different in 4 yrs. More reflection is required on success of targeted strategies of the LDs and Greens, which Reform may adopt
Piece beginning to think through values at the last election (pre-BES data release!) free to access currently journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The level of political distrust after the 2019-2024 parliament is scarily high. Only 8% trusted the last government to tell the truth. Likely that high levels of distrust will further undermine stable party preferences, lead to more transactional voting and make people more open to populist appeals.
“Thanks to the divisions on the right, Labour captured 56 Conservative seats despite winning fewer votes in those seats than it did in 2019.” Thoughtful analysis from @peterkellner.bsky.social
Labour should beware. Its majority is more fragile than it looks. Its landslide victory concealed a haemorrhage of its core voters. My analysis for Prospect explores what happened and what the party needs to do now. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/678...
The party has lost the core vote it could rely on. In 2029, that may be a problem