Never Mind The Bar Charts

What makes someone a Liberal Democrat? What should the party's anthem be? Can you order cheese toasties via the internet? And can I avoid embarrassing myself in a quiz about chocolate? Find out the answers to all these and more in my recent appearance on the excellent Politics of Sound podcast with Iain Carnegie. Show notes The Beautiful South music video with the elephant. Subscribe to the Politics of Sound podcast. Follow Iain Carnegie on Twitter. Never Mind The Bar Charts music by Hugo Lee. New to listening to podcasts? Here are some tips on how to listen to podcasts. Enjoy the show? Spread the word Follow the show on Twitter. Like the show on Facebook. Share the show's website, www.NeverMindTheBarCharts.com.

What impact is digital campaigning having on politics, and is it for the better or the worse? That's what I discuss in the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts with Kate Dommett, Senior Lecturer in the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield. We started off with her research into how new ways of digital campaigning do - or don't - take root at the political grassroots of parties. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Katharine Dommett, Luke Temple and Patrick Seyd, "Dynamics of Intra-Party Organisation in the Digital Age: A Grassroots Analysis of Digital Adoption", Parliamentary Affairs. The relative failure of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign: a critique of my talk, the original talk and what the electoral data shows. Report from the House of Lords Committee on Democracy and Digital Technologies. Bad News has a section on filter bubbles. Was the impact of Cambridge Analytica over-hyped? Social Media and Politics p

I've tried something a little different for this episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts: taking a look at the career of a previous party leader to see the lessons for the current Liberal Democrats. I picked Jo Grimond, who saved the Liberal Party from disastrous election results and had a plan for a realignment on the left of British politics. You might be able to spot some parallels there... No surprise that for my guest, I'm joined by the closest thing the party has to an official historian, Duncan Brack. Hope you enjoy the show and do let us know what you think of it; would you like more shows looking at the lessons from other party leaders? Show notes Mark Egan’s book Coming into Focus: The Transformation of the Liberal Party 1945-64. The Orpington by-election. Jo Grimond campaigning for Britain to join the European Economic Community (EEC). Why I am a Liberal Democrat, edited by Duncan Brack: Waterstones / Amazon. Great Liberal Speeches, edited by Duncan Brack and Robert Ingham: Waterstones / Amazo

Laura Shields and Dirk Singer, communications consultants, members of Democrats Abroad and authors of an excellent piece “Swimming with the sharks: What progressives can learn from Republicans Against Trump” join me for the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts. You may recall an earlier show had Rob Blackie on talking about what the party can learn from how Trump himself communicates. This time with Laura and Dirk, the show looks at what can be learnt from those campaigning against Trump. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Swimming with the sharks: What progressives can learn from Republicans Against Trump. Rob Blackie episode on learning from Trump. The Lincoln Project and some of its adverts. The Meidas Touch group and some of its adverts. Republican Voters Against Trump and some of its adverts. The Taliban bounties story. My book about trusting - or not trusting - the news. Donald Trump boasting about slowing down coronavirus

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 electio

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. Enjoy the show? Spread the word Follow the show on Twitter. Like the show on Facebook. Subscribe, rate or review via your favourit

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. Enjoy the show? Spread the word Follow the show on Twitter. Like the show on Facebook.

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 Comp

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. Enjoy the show? Spread the word Follow the show on Twitter. Like the show on Facebook.  

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. Enjoy the show? Spread the word Follow the show on Twitter. Like the show on Facebook.

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 Uns

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

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. Enjoy the show? Spread the word Follow the show on Twitter. Like the show on Facebook.

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. Find Never Mind The Bar Charts on social media Like the show? Do follow on Twitter or Facebook. It's a great way to hear more about the podcast - and to let your friends and collea

In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talk with Duncan Brack, the closest thing the party has to an official historian, about the lessons for the Liberal Democrats from the last time that a Conservative government was defeated. A key part of that was cross-party cooperation so we dive into what then party leader Paddy Ashdown's plans were, what worked, what didn't work and what lessons apply to this Parliament. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Lessons from the Ashdown-Blair ‘Project’ - Duncan Brack's book chapter on the topic. The Cook-Maclennan talks. Ways for parties to cooperate without making seat deals. Never Mind The Bar Charts on Paddy Ashdown's legacy. Never Mind The Bar Charts on what it's like working with Dominic Cummings. Coalition Diaries by David Laws - Amazon / Waterstones Who Killed Kitchener? The Life and Death of Britain's most famous War Minister by David Laws - Amazon / Waterstones Duncan Brack on

In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talk with Sunder Katwala from the British Future think tank. Along with discussing civil rights in the age of coronavirus and the impact on BAME communities, he raised the important issue of the human bias towards pessimism and its impact on our reactions to the coronavirus crisis. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Sunder on how the Liberal Democrats can improve their diversity. The University of Leicester study into who has caught Covid-19. Research into our pessimism bias. Sunder on Twitter. British Future. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow: Amazon / Waterstones. John Maynard Keynes by Robert Skidelsky: Amazon / Waterstones. Image by Jasmin Sessler from Pixabay. Find Never Mind The Bar Charts on social media Like the show? Do follow on Twitter or Facebook. It's a great way to hear more about the podcast - and to let your friends and colleagues know about it too.

In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talked with the chief executive of Demos, Polly Mackenzie, about the impact of coronavirus on public policy. We got a bonus bit of background music courtesy of one of her children and a piano. As with the other shows since coronavirus, this one was recorded over video call so apologies for the occasional blip in sound quality. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes The Demos website, including the old content being re-released as discussed in the show. The previous show with Phil Cowley and that Martin Kettle piece. Nervous States: how feeling took over the world by William Davies - Amazon / Waterstones. Georgette Heyer's books - Amazon / Waterstones. Polly's previous appearance on Never Mind The Bar Charts. Follow Polly on Twitter. Find Never Mind The Bar Charts on social media Like the show? Do follow on Twitter or Facebook. It's a great way to hear more about the podcast - and to let

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 Cowl

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.