Never Mind The Bar Charts

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts features Southwark councillor Rachel Bentley on what it's like being a councillor, the difference you can make to improve people's lives, the disappointments of Sadiq Khan, life campaigning against Labour and, of course, her love of pointing.
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Show notes
The Bentley Ramp.
Rachel Bentley on X/Twitter.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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Professor Kate Dommett is one of the UK’s absolute top rank experts on political campaigning, data and the internet. So who better to have back on Never Mind The Bar Charts to talk about how parties use data and what the next general election might bring?
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Show notes
Data-Driven Campaigning and Political Parties: Five Advanced Democracies Compared by Katharine Dommett, Glenn Kefford and Simon Kruschinski: available from Amazon, Waterstones and independent bookshops.*
My previous scepticism about the impact of Cambridge Analytica.
Using a Personality-Profiling Algorithm to Investigate Political Microtargeting: Assessing the Persuasion Effects of Personality-Tailored Ads on Social Media: an academic study showing how targeting people by personality type could work.
The small effects of political advertising are small regardless of context, message, sender, or receiver: Evidence from 59 real-time randomized experiments: the limited impact of online advertising.
Podcast with Florian Foos on the effects of different campaign tactics.
Eitan Hersh on what data US campaigners really use.
Ground Wars – Personalized Communications in Political Campaigns by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen: or what canvassers really do when they are on the doorstep.
Ground Wars – Personalized Communications in Political Campaigns by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Kate Dommett's previous appearance on this podcast: What really happens at the grassroots when political parties push new ways of campaigning?
One of my early experiments with using Zoom for politics and how Pokémon GO was used by some Lib Dems.
Kate Dommett and John Curtice talks for the Political Studies Association.
Kate Dommett on X/Twitter.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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* Affiliate links which generate a commission for sales.

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts welcomed back Duncan Brack for another of our reviews of previous party leaders. This time, it’s Charles Kennedy we took a look at.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Greg Hurst’s biography of Charles Kennedy.
Charles Kennedy on Have I Got News For You.
The 1983 TV report on his first election (second video on the page).
My earlier take on lessons from Charles Kennedy’s leadership.
Nick Clegg’s tribute to Charles Kennedy following his death.
The Lib Dem History Group.
Duncan Brack on Twitter.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts is another special with the Lib Dem Pod team. We talked about a year of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister and lessons from the Mid Bedfordshire by-election. Listen carefully also to spot a little Easter Egg from me...
Show notes
The Lib Dem Pod
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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I've been honoured to have many great guests on Never Mind The Bar Charts but wow... this time's guest really blew me away with his moving life story and with the thought of just how exciting it would be to see him on the national political stage.
Come take a listen and meet Josh Babarinde from Eastbourne.
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Show notes
The sunniest town in the UK.
The kayak tipping incident.
Follow Josh Babarinde on X/Twitter or Instagram.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts features Paula Surridge once again, who since last time has been promoted to Professor - congratulations!
We talk about what's driving British politics, whether the Conservatives can win next time - and what lessons she sees in the data for the Liberal Democrats.
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Some of Paula's previous appearances: on the role of values, the Lib Dem win in Tiverton & Honiton and how Boris Johnson won the 2019 general election.
How the polls can be wrong - but why you should still pay attention to them.
The British Social Attitudes Survey.
The moderate pitch of Mrs Thatcher in 1979.
Jonn Elledge on how Labour winning power would change the terms of British politics.
What that reference to seven bins was about.
The long-term liberalisation of Britain.
The British General Election of 2019 by Rob Ford, Tim Bale, Will Jennings and Paula Surridge: Amazon / Waterstones / Bookshop.org.*
Paula Surridge on Twitter/X.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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It took decades of campaigning for Prohibition campaigners to win in the US, getting alcohol banned in the early twentieth century. Once they'd won, their victory seemed set to last. Yet in less than a decade and a half their victory had been undone and the the idea killed off politically. So can pro-Europeans take heart from drawing parallels between Prohibition and Brexit?
 
Find out in the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts as I discuss this with Professor Ben Ansell who has just written a great piece comparing Prohibition and Brexit.
 
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
 
Show notes
 
Ben Ansell's piece, Brexit's 21st Amendment: Can the Rejoin campaign learn anything from the End of Prohibition?
Abraham Lincoln on the political value of honey.
Plastic bags chaos looms ... Supermarkets are braced for chaos and confusion (the Daily Mail, of course).
Polling on Europe.
Why Politics Fails by Ben Ansell: Amazon / Waterstones / Bookshop.org *
Ben Ansell on Twitter and Threads.
Photo by Chris F on Pexels.com.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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* Affiliate links.
 
 
 

So wrote John Curtice after the latest record-breaking Parliamentary by-election by the Liberal Democrats. Who better therefore to discuss how happy Liberal Democrats should be after Sarah Dyke's victory than Frome-born political scientist and podcast favourite, Professor Tim Bale?
Hear what Tim and I made of all three of the recent Parliamentary by-elections in the latest 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
There were quite a few Lib Dem leaflets in Somerton and Frome.
The Lib Dem alternative on ULEZ.
The predictive power of Parliamentary by-elections.
The Liberal Democrat Yellow Halo of support.
What issues most concern voters?
Tim Bale on Twitter.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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Florian Foos has worked with eight different political parties in five different countries carrying out field experiments to test what does and doesn't work in election campaigning. So I invited him on Never Mind The Bar Charts to talk about what both his research and that of others reveals.
 
Show notes
How Much GOTV Mail is Too Much? Results from a Large-Scale Field Experiment by Adam Zelitzer and Donald P. Green
Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout: How to Increase Voter Turnout by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber: Amazon / Bookshop.org / Waterstones*
How same-sex marriage campaigners won people over by finding common values.
Abraham Lincoln's advice on winning campaigns by befriending rather than demonising people.
Reasons to be sceptical of the impact of deep canvassing.
Florian Foos on Twitter.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
Image by Nathan Copley from Pixabay.
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* Affiliate links

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts features Sam Freedman, talking about his recent excellent article on why apparently obvious policy ideas keep on being talked about, but not getting implemented. What's going on?
Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
The Policy Paradox: The more obvious an idea is the less likely it will happen.
David Gauke's proposal for an Office for Spending Evaluation.
Lynne Featherstone on the Institute for Government's induction sessions for new ministers.
The Shelter report on housing mentioned in the show.
How Keith House and colleagues get houses built in Eastleigh.
Sam Freedman's email newsletter.
Sam Freedman on Twitter.
Theme tune by Hugo Lee.
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