Tag Archives: Elections

‘Why are Tories suddenly in favour of proportional representation?’, The Independent, 25 June 2025.

here’s an increasing disconnect between those who want to run the country and the rest of us who merely live in it – and it seems to be making us more likely to call for a change to the way we … Continue reading

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‘Labour is struggling, but there are four reasons Conservatives cannot be complacent’, ConservativeHome, 26 September 2024

Not for the first time, it was Focaldata’s James Kanagasooriam – the analyst who initially drew attention to the Red Wall’s potential to turn blue in 2019 – who put his finger on it before anyone else. “Labour”, he predicted a … Continue reading

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‘Election vox pops may entertain – but they won’t tell you who’s won…’, Independent, 3 June, 2024.

Only one week into a six-week election campaign and, if you’re watching or listening to any of the UK’s biggest broadcasters, you already can’t move for vox pops. Ironically, the journalists who conduct them aren’t necessarily that keen on them. Indeed, some … Continue reading

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‘After an enormous victory in local elections, should the Tories fear voter complacency in the General? No’, CityAM, 8 May 2017

If your team is 3-0 up at half-time, then you can be fairly confident that you’re going to pull off an easy win. But even so, you need to guard against complacency. Remember the 2005 Champions League final, when the … Continue reading

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‘The true picture of Labour members and supporters and their election campaigning’ (with Paul Webb and Monica Poletti), Labour List, 16 April 2017

At elections, a good ground game may not be everything but it still means something. In a tight race, it may even mean the difference between a party winning and losing.  But, if “boots on the ground” are at least … Continue reading

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‘A Conservative secret weapon at the last election – the non-members who worked for victory’, ConservativeHome, 2 May 2017

With local elections only a few weeks away, the Conservatives, like the nation’s other political parties, will be relying on their activists to do the on-the-ground campaigning that can occasionally make a difference between winning a seat or even a … Continue reading

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‘Fighting force?  What Lib Dem members and supporters did for the party in #GE2015’ (with Monica Poletti and Paul Webb), Liberal Democrat Newswire, 2 April 2017

The Lib Dems have quite a reputation as election campaigners, renowned and resented in equal measure for their Focus leaflets, their ‘Can’t win here’ bar-charts and their ubiquitous dayglo diamonds. Indeed one of the reasons why, at least before the … Continue reading

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‘The Conservatives who threatened to vote UKIP. All mouth and no trousers.’, ConservativeHome, 19 March 2017

So much has happened in politics since the summer that it takes a bit of effort to remember a time when Theresa May wasn’t the Conservative leader and Brexit wasn’t all we ever talked about. But cast your mind back, … Continue reading

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‘Why don’t people vote? You asked Google – here’s the answer’, Guardian 27 July 2016.

For those of us who troop down to the polling station at every election, it can be pretty frustrating that not everybody does the same – especially when we end up with a result we don’t like, and which we reckon … Continue reading

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The Conservatives will face many challenges after the votes are counted in the European Parliament election, LSE British Politics and Policy Blog, 9 May 2014

To say the Tories are unlikely to do as well in May 2014 as they did in June 2009 is a bit of an understatement. Five years ago they topped the poll, getting just under 4.2 million votes or nearly … Continue reading

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