Owen Michael
owenwmichael.bsky.social
Owen Michael
@owenwmichael.bsky.social
2.3K followers 2.4K following 7.1K posts
Welsh and European. Biromantic Asexual. @UKLabour, @unisontheunion, and @thefabians. Data person and all round geek. He/him/o
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Was more thinking of one of the then-leader's closest lieutenants and possible heirs getting an ultra-marginal successor seat in 2010 /to his previous safe seat that had been abolished/
(From what I've heard he really has been doubling down on local campaigning though - and it generally has been much more of a problem in Labour than for the Tories [see Ed Balls])
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New Labour used the prospect of licence fee increases as a tool to nudge the BBC in a more liberal direction, but for some reason the current Labour government has shown no interest in repeating that strategy
She's the one I remember explicitly saying they wouldn't have one (on the same Sunday Supplement she said Plaid had ceased to be a separate party from Labour)
I think the default would probably be Laura Ann Jones but Caroline Jones has been pretty visible too (obviously Nathan Gill /was/ but they're now trying to pretend otherwise)
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The unwillingness of a great many people to call racism racism because doing so is seen as rude or uncivil is hugely problematic.
They have been insisting they won't so far in Wales AFAIK, idk about Scotland
In some ways there's a sweet spot of wrongness for international coverage of your own country's elections....
I'm willing to believe /some/ of this is opposition hangover but even so it really should have been sorted by now
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another common denominator I've noticed is that a good chunk of the cross-ideological "Nazi tattoos aren't that big a deal!" support of Platner seems to be at least partially rooted in remaining on American Twitter
When Jacobin and the Pod Save bros are aligned on defending nazi tattoos, we’ve got a problem and it’s not going to be solved by you coming into my mentions and telling me I’m not seeing what I’m definitely seeing—

which is white people left, right, and center coming together to defend Nazi tattoos
I mean she basically is, but they kept her on the leash last week for some reason
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Note how, when the government’s condemnation is timely, the rest of the Westminster ecosystem does in fact, react differently!
I remember FiveThirtyEight used that to talk about how this means other countries doing exit polls are bad and wrong to, Actually
I think there was some level of it earlier even, that was just when you could actually do vaguely live updates of it in the short campaign
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God, this comes up as an 'innovation' every couple of years lol, whereas parties have been using canvassing data since.. the 1940s?
I'm always quite sceptical of claims like this. The main barrier to data-led campaigns in Britain is the availability of data on registered voters, not the tech to analyse it
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Legitimate concerns about... too many ethnic minorities on TV.

Go fuck yourself. This is clearly not about migration and entirely about racism.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp repeatedly refusing to say that he thinks Reform MP Sarah Pochin saying she doesn't like seeing black people on TV was racist.

Says he wouldn't use her "language" but it's right for her to express "legitimate concerns" about migration
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And then allowed two completely unaffordable tax cuts as a desperate election ploy, screwing up the public finances while leaving the overall tax burden still at a high.
A reminder that this is the same Rishi Sunak who when he was Prime Minister raised taxes to their highest level in more than 70 years
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This is worse than her doing it IMV
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp repeatedly refusing to say that he thinks Reform MP Sarah Pochin saying she doesn't like seeing black people on TV was racist.

Says he wouldn't use her "language" but it's right for her to express "legitimate concerns" about migration
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Side note: her “apology” largely consisted of a further rant about “DEI” gone mad, which is always a dead giveaway that someone is out of touch with their own country’s legal and working culture, and is interpreting everything they encounter through right wing American political discourse.
Nothing on the BBC Radio news this morning. Nothing I could find on their website. This is an MP from the party whose lead in the opinion polls normally ensures them wall-to-wall coverage. She spouts racist nonsense for which even she feels obliged to apologise. What on earth are they playing at?
Reform’s Sarah Pochin forced to apologise after claiming adverts 'full of black people' drive her 'mad’ | LBC
The Runcorn and Helsby MP was responding to a viewer live on air who complained about the demographics of advertising.
www.lbc.co.uk
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Discount 'informed ballot' push poll questions obviously (& credit to the pollster, they explicitly note this) but the basic conceit of 'when told the guy has a tattoo resembling a Nazi icon, they become less supportive' is both incredibly obvious and apparently *shocking* to some politicos!
Just posting the numbers here means you miss what’s going on with Undecideds, where they all look at Platner after learning about the tattoo and go “yeah nah”
(Not sure anybody will get this, but it amused me)
Ricky Carlson!
My hot take is the 2028 Dem nominee will be someone that no one is suspecting
gotta be honest, I'm not sure her run would get to Super Tuesday but stay blessed, i guess
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Montgomerie has been a dick for a long time yes but there genuinely was a time when I do not believe he would be out there saying it’s not racist to say it drives you mad to see ads full of black people. This is a new thing! It is not a good thing!
Montie gives Pochin the benefit of his wisdom.