Never Mind The Bar Charts

Good News, Bad News

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.
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The five things an opposition party must do: interview with Tim Bale

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 Competence by Will Jennings and Jane Green: Amazon / Waterstones.
Will Jennings on Twitter.
Jane Green on Twitter.
Tim Bale on Twitter.
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Party leadership, online conferences and the election review

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.
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Why good pollsters are filled with doubt: interview with YouGov's Chris Curtis

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.
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What must the Liberal Democrats learn from Donald Trump?

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 Unsplash.
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The one in which I get compared to Terry Pratchett

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 others who you think may enjoy it.
Show notes
Terry Pratchett's footnotes were glorious.
The Not Enough Champagne podcast.
The Not Enough Champagne team on Twitter: @paperbackrioter and @acousticradical.
Bad News: what the headlines don't tell us.
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Protecting our privacy is key to fighting coronavirus: interview with Jim Killock

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.
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What do the experts say about coronavirus? With Dr Ben Johnson

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.
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The Project: how the Conservatives were beaten last time

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 Twitter.
The Liberal Democrat History Group.
Photo credits.
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Our bias toward pessimism - Sunder Katwala on reactions to coronavirus

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.
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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.