Never Mind The Bar Charts

Welcome to a special re-run of a previous, but once again very relevant, edition of Never Mind The Bar Charts. It is from June 2019, which feels a long time ago now but the calendar says that was only 12 months ago. It was the time of the party’s last leadership election, and I did an interview with Tim Farron about his experience as leader of the Liberal Democrats. We focused on his advice for the next party leader as well as tips on what members should ask in hustings meetings.
Both Tim’s advice and tips are still very relevant, so here is that episode again. And do also take a listen to the episode I did recently with Tim Bale, where we also cooked up great hustings questions.
Hope you enjoy the repeat.
Show notes
Jonathan Calder's David Steel versus John Pardoe categorisation for Liberal Democrat leadership contests.
Paperclip design.
Vince Cable's Stalin to Mr Bean moment at Prime Minister's Questions.
The Lib Dems did indeed, as Tim Farron mentioned, once hit 4% in the polls after the 2015 election.
Tim Farron's response to the European referendum result.
You can watch the first Davey-Swinson hustings from the 2019 contest here. Here is Stephen Bush in the New Statesman on those hustings.
Information about the 2020 leadership contest, including hustings where you can ask the questions mentioned in the show, is on the party website.
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Apologies if you got a truncated version of this episode first time around. The podcast host has been playing up a bit but you should now be able to hear the interview all the way through to the end.
How must the Liberal Democrats change in order to win more often? Listen to me discuss this with Lisa Smart, chair of the party's Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC).
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Lisa Smart's election to chair the party's main elections committee.
The show with Tim Bale talking about what opposition parties must do.
The independent review into the 2019 general election.
Support electoral reform? Join the Electoral Reform Society.
The Star Trek reference.
The pros and cons of Steve Webb's approach to being a minister.
How to make targeting work.
Lisa Smart on Twitter.
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Subscribe, rate or review via your favourite podcasting platform - links here.

Welcome to another special edition of Never Mind The Bar Charts, this time my appearance on Democratically: 2020 with Karin Robinson. We talk about my book, Bad News, the US Presidential race and how election coverage is so often wrong.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Democratically: 2020 on Apple Podcasts. (It's also on all the other standard podcast platforms.
Karin Robinson on Twitter.
Sign up for a free chapter from Bad News.
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What makes for a successful opposition party? How much of that success is down to the leader? How much does policymaking matter in opposition? Wnat question should be asked the Lib Dem leadership election hustings? These are just some of the topics I chewed over with opposition expert Professor Tim Bale in this episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Tim Bale's previous appearance, talking about how you can persuade someone to join a political party.
Tim Bale's excellent, re-arrangeable book on Ed Miliband.
Recovering Power: The Conservatives in Opposition Since 1867: the book from which the list five things opposition parties must do came: Amazon / Waterstones.
The Liberal Democrat election review.
Tim Harford on how to avoid making mistakes.
Turning Japanese: the excellent book that didn't foretell the future.
That Norman Lamont photo (with a young David Cameron in the background).
The Politics of Competence by Will Jennings and Jane Green: Amazon / Waterstones.
Will Jennings on Twitter.
Jane Green on Twitter.
Tim Bale on Twitter.
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I teamed up with the Lib Dem Pod crew for another special joint episode, with John and Richard grilling me about what's going on in the party.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
The Liberal Democrat election review.
Follow Lib Dem Pod on Twitter.
Get Lib Dem Pod on YouTube.
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I often talk about opinion poll data with guests on Never Mind The Bar Charts, so this time to talk about what we can read into the polls – and what we shouldn’t – I was joined by a pollster, YouGov’s Chris Curtis. We started off with discussing what a pollster actually does all day...
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
One of those quirky YouGov polling questions.
British Polling Council.
The great Yes, Prime Minister sketch on leading poll questions.
Research that shows the accuracy of political opinion polls.
New UK pollster Redfield & Wilton Strategies.
YouGov's issues tracker showing the sustained interest in the environment.
Chris Curtis on Twitter.
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Donald Trump may not be the most obvious of role models for the Liberal Democrats. But there's a lot about effective communication the party can learn from him. After all, he won a national election, defying political establishments and seeing off unfriendly media along the way.
So in this episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talk about him with Rob Blackie. I used to work with Rob at Lib Dem HQ many years ago when he was the maestro of costing manifesto policies. He has since carved out a very successful career in marketing and communications.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
The wonder of brevity.
The Hemingway App.
Yoast Search Engine Optimisation tools and advice.
The Lincoln Project's targeted advert which trolled Donald Trump.
Ducks and potholes.
Rob Blackie as a womble.
Donald Trump in Home Alone 2.
Yes!: 60 secrets from the science of persuasion.
Rob Blackie's Twitter thread on Donald Trump.
Photo by History in HD on Unsplash.
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Rather than a normal episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, this time I’m running an episode of the excellent Not Enough Champagne podcast, including an improbable comparison between me and Terry Pratchett.
You might recall me mentioning Not Enough Champagne as one of my favourite podcasts. I like it so much despite – or rather because – it’s done by two Labour Party activists, Cory and Steve, and therefore gives a rather different take on the world from mine.
Different enough to be thought-provoking and a guard against insular thinking without being so different as to cause me to hit stop in disgust.
And the reason for picking this particular episode that they’ve kindly let me re-run here?
Well, in it they talk about my book, Bad News. See what some non-Lib Dems make of it and enjoy listening, including hearing – if you listen right to the end, their cracking theme tune by Dave Depper.
Hope you enjoy their show and do subscribe to their podcast too.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Terry Pratchett's footnotes were glorious.
The Not Enough Champagne podcast.
The Not Enough Champagne team on Twitter: @paperbackrioter and @acousticradical.
Bad News: what the headlines don't tell us.
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It's crucial that apps designed to help us battle coronavirus also protect our privacy as otherwise their take-up and so public health will suffer.
That's the key point made by the Open Rights Group's Jim Killock in the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts as we discussed the potential risks to our civil liberties from the different attempts to track who people have been in contact with. Such contact tracing is essential to tackling coronavirus, but how can it be done best? Listen to find out...
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
How Australia is legislating for a contact tracing app in ways that protect people's rights.
The German approach to protecting civil liberties while tracking people to tackle coronavirus.
Problems with the British approach.
Join the Open Rights Group.
Jim Killock on Twitter.
Photo credit: Rieo from Pixabay.
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In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talked with Ben Johnson, a former Liberal Democrat councillor in Southwark with a PhD on the influenza virus from Public Health England and the University of Reading, and now working for Nature, one of the world’s most famous and respected scientific journals.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Sunder Katwala interview on coronavirus.
Bicester Village train station signs.
Phil Cowley on why Hong Kong reacted so quickly to coronavirus.
IFS data on key worker salaries.
My book Bad News, including a section on how different types of death get very different levels of media coverage.
How cats took over the world.
Find Ben on Twitter at @DrBenJohnson.
Photo credit for episode image: Brian McGowan on Unsplash.
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