@robfordmancs.bsky.social
Politics Professor, University of Manchester. Author of "The British General Election of 2024" & "Brexitland". All takes, good & bad, are mine only. My Substack, "The Swingometer", is here: https://swingometer.substack.com/ https://www.robertford.net/
Actually, this on a banknote
A strong & brave intervention from Zubir Ahmed on the depressingly familiar discrimination and abuse Muslims face in public: online but also at work & on the streets. That Islamophobia is racism is shown his case: there can never be a good or British Muslim, even when they save people's lives
“$100 a barrel for first time since X” discussions rarely adjust for inflation
Which is odd
Site here lets you do so, with mildly soothing results www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-o...
Interesting! Suspect using such vague categories may skew things a bit towards landscapes/wildlife as it’s easier to imagine “generic landscape or wildlife” than “generic historical figure”
It wasn’t a survey which would be representative of the public, it was a consultation - those are skewed towards the highly organised and interested.
Fair enough. Maybe political philosophy sky is different in that regard. Electoral politics sky often features a lot of very partisan people saying very partisan things. I was told in all earnestness this video was Davey taking sides in a reactionary culture war campaign.
Personally I don’t think aggressive mocking of anything and anyone which deviates from an often narrowly defined orthodoxy is healthy. And it certainly isn’t “liberal” as I understand the term.
Sure Chris but some of the relies to things like this remind me that (a) BlueSky is in many ways even more of an echo chamber that Elon Era Twitter (even if what is being echoed is generally more congenial) (b) plenty of ppl on here either aren’t aware of this or embrace it
They should put a monkey on the £50 note and a pony on the £10 note to confuse the hell out cockneys.
"Well, the good news is, we have secured Margaret Thatcher on the currency as you hoped. Now, there is a trade-off..."
Yeah fair
I’m very on board with this idea though also conscious that my enthusiasm for it may reflect my bias towards long form podcasts
Compromise.
Yes maybe the salience/seriousness element is what they’ve missed here. Yes, centre-right voters agree with this stance. But perhaps doesn’t follow that any good comes from shouting about it (and risk is Davey looks unserious to opinion coming types like you and Stephen)
Yeah fair point but I refer you to my previous point about struggling for attention. This may well be wrong way to go about it but I can see where the temptation comes from. And it is just harder to get people outside of elections to care about the kinds of things LDs are distinctive on.
You think “I like historical figures on bank notes” is a voter antagonising position in Surrey? 🙄
Yes it was excellent issue and message selection and I think top marks on that but it was not ultra sophisticated as policy or as messaging. Nor does it need to be!
So I’m just struggling to see why you regard “nasty water companies, sewage bad” as good LD approach but “wealth tax the wealthy people you like least somehow” as bad LD approach. What is the failing the latter has that doesn’t also apply to the former?
Yes I don’t think it was a bad campaign! I just don’t think it was particularly sophisticated policy offer: “Sewage is bad, less please. Social care is good, more please.” Unsophisticated policy offers are fine! Particularly for small opposition parties.
Do we have any recent examples of such an approach ending badly for a centre left party, Chris?
OTOH not ideal for them if they are given poor marks on policy by FT politics desk given many of their seats will heavily overindex on FT subs!
I think most of the bits of the LD campaign that cut through then were pretty vapid. Or at least banal. Maybe their policy ideas have go worse but I’m not really convinced those mattered hugely in 2024 (doubt many voters would have been able to name any beyond “sewage is bad, less in rivers pls”)
Personally I think the more time the voters of Surrey, Hampshire etc spend imagining Polanski or Kemi as PM the better Lib Dem prospects there get
But “vapid man saying and doing cringe things you vaguely like” has been his whole shtick for ages. Worked out pretty well in 2024. Seems pretty plausible it would again next time given the nature of the seats where LDs are competitive
“Moving beyond this”. We’re talking about popular historical figures on bank notes Joe. Not Section 28.
Could well be “too online” granted. But given Davey’s struggles to even get noticed recently I can understand the thinking - he just needs one of these stunts to go viral and plenty of target voters notice him saying things they agree with, seems a punt worth taking
It isn’t cynical to take positions that voters you want to win/retain agree with. And the position isn’t fundamentally ridiculous to most people. It is peak BlueSky thought to imagine “I like Churchill on a fiver” is a “fundamentally ridiculous” position.
I for one would love a bank note with Churchill cuddling a badger
Bit unfair on Ed Davey really
Calling this a culture war issue just signals ignorance of what actual culture war issues are.