Never Mind The Bar Charts

In a special tie-up with the Lib Dem Podcast, I'm interviewed by Cllr John Potter about the decision to postpone the Liberal Democrat leadership election and whether or not the party's autumn federal conference should be cancelled.
Show notes
Leadership election postponed
The Lib Dem Podcast: Twitter / Instagram / iTunes

In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I speak with Professor Phil Cowley, one of Britain’s leading political scientists, co-author for several general elections of authoritative Nuffield study and someone who casts the net so widely in his research that I occasionally appear in his footnotes.
Phil’s been on my list of possible guests for a while, but I particularly wanted to talk to him now as he’s currently living in Hong Kong, somewhere that’s been much in the news here in the UK for comparisons over how coronavirus is being tackled in each place.
We also talk about what this all means for British politics, and Phil's picks for books to read at the moment.
Show notes
Martin Kettle's piece on the possible (non-)impact of coronavirus on politics.
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney - Amazon / Waterstones.
Agent Jack by Rob Hutton - Amazon / Waterstones.
Electoral Shocks: The Volatile Voter in a Turbulent World - Amazon / Waterstones.
Phil Cowley's excellent books - Amazon / Waterstones.
Phil Cowley on Twitter.
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Before the coronavirus crisis hit, I recorded a podcast with my published, Biteback Books, about my new book, Bad News.
Listen to find out how you can make sense of the news all around us, the problem with news coverage on gun control, the (lack of a problem) with news echo chambers and filter bubbles, why I look back on my daily commute in years past with amazement and how I came to write Bad News.
Show notes
Biteback Chats Books podcast.
Buy Bad News from Waterstones, Amazon, Biteback or Hive.
Music: Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod / Link / License.

In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I welcomed back to the show academic Paula Surridge. We talked about what the British Election Study is and what its polling data from the 2019 general election shows, including its implications for the future for the Liberal Democrats.
Show notes
Paula Surridge on Twitter.
Is politics still about left versus right? - the previous show with Paula Surridge.
The British Election Study (BES).
Sign up for more polling news with Polling UnPacked.
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In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talk with Councillor Anton Georgiou from Brent, who won a spectacular by-election victory in January and is now getting to enjoy being a councillor.
What's it like? How did he win? And how can others emulate him?
Listen to find out...
Show notes
Anton Georgiou's by-election victory.
His tweets about being a councillor.
The importance of pointing at potholes.
Daniel Brown, former Lib Dem councillor for Alperton and his autocorrection tip.
Siobhan Benita's campaign to be Mayor of London.
Stephen Robinson on what it's like to be a council leader.
ALDC.
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In this episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, the Liberal Democrat leader of Chelmsford Council, Stephen Robinson is interviewed about what Lib Dem council leader does, and how he got to be one in the first place.
Show notes:
The Chelmsford team were great at welcoming and making good use of volunteers who came to help.
Read the then Conservative leader of Chelmsford Council explaining before polling day that, "we have mostly avoided canvassing up to now".
A big vote increase but a long way off winning: the Chelmsford result at the 2019 general election.
Black Box Thinking: the lessons of marginal gains.
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Professor Tim Bale, one of the leading experts in political party membership, talks about who joins parties, why they join and how those who join the Liberal Democrats differ from those who join other parties. Plus he gives his top tips on how to persuade people to join a party.
Show notes:
Footsoldiers: political party membership in the 21st century.
Why supporters don't always join parties.
The research on how to get members involved.
Five Year Mission: Tim Bale's study of Ed Miliband.
Tim Bale used the phrase, "That's a great question". Here's a whole other podcast episode just about that phase, from Freakonomics.
The previous Never Mind The Bar Charts show with Paula Surridge.
The preamble to the Liberal Democrat constitution.
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Welcome to the first episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts's second season, featuring for the first special guest former Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone.
Show notes:
Lynne Featherstone's book on legalising same-sex marriage.
The Guardian story which chose to highlight a coffee shop in the headline rather than a library.
Lynne Featherstone and a pothole.
An example of the sort of local campaigning that was so central to Lynne Featherstone's electoral successes.
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In the final episode of season one, Mark and Stephen pick over the general election result, another less important election result and the plans for Season 2 of Never Mind The Bar Charts.
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Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, taking a look at the key role for targeting in general elections, how the Lib Dem Brexit policy is going down with voters, some seats to watch out for on election night and a very large number of digressions.
Show notes
Reactions to Jo Swinson's interview with Andrew Neil.
The BBC's fact check of that interview.
Fiona Bruce's Question Time mistake.
The Boris Johnson interview question about him lying, missing any of the obvious follow-ups.
The latest YouGov polling on revoking Article 50, along with evidence from earlier in the year: #1, #2 and #3.
How to make a difference in the last week of the election.
How Lib Dem members can find a target seat to help in.
Fact check: thanks to @SoupDragon0 for pointing out a mistake in the episode about the letters than British Prime Ministers write setting out what to do with the country's nuclear weapons.
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