Never Mind The Bar Charts

What's it like being a councillor and how do you get to be one? With Anton Georgiou

In the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talk with Councillor Anton Georgiou from Brent, who won a spectacular by-election victory in January and is now getting to enjoy being a councillor.
What's it like? How did he win? And how can others emulate him?
Listen to find out...
Show notes
Anton Georgiou's by-election victory.
His tweets about being a councillor.
The importance of pointing at potholes.
Daniel Brown, former Lib Dem councillor for Alperton and his autocorrection tip.
Siobhan Benita's campaign to be Mayor of London.
Stephen Robinson on what it's like to be a council leader.
ALDC.
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What does a Liberal Democrat council leader do? With Cllr Stephen Robinson

In this episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, the Liberal Democrat leader of Chelmsford Council, Stephen Robinson is interviewed about what Lib Dem council leader does, and how he got to be one in the first place.
Show notes:
The Chelmsford team were great at welcoming and making good use of volunteers who came to help.
Read the then Conservative leader of Chelmsford Council explaining before polling day that, "we have mostly avoided canvassing up to now".
A big vote increase but a long way off winning: the Chelmsford result at the 2019 general election.
Black Box Thinking: the lessons of marginal gains.
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How do you make someone join a political party? Tim Bale has the evidence

Professor Tim Bale, one of the leading experts in political party membership, talks about who joins parties, why they join and how those who join the Liberal Democrats differ from those who join other parties. Plus he gives his top tips on how to persuade people to join a party.
Show notes:
Footsoldiers: political party membership in the 21st century.
Why supporters don't always join parties.
The research on how to get members involved.
Five Year Mission: Tim Bale's study of Ed Miliband.
Tim Bale used the phrase, "That's a great question". Here's a whole other podcast episode just about that phase, from Freakonomics.
The previous Never Mind The Bar Charts show with Paula Surridge.
The preamble to the Liberal Democrat constitution.
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What does the future hold for British politics? With Lynne Featherstone

Welcome to the first episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts's second season, featuring for the first special guest former Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone.
Show notes:
Lynne Featherstone's book on legalising same-sex marriage.
The Guardian story which chose to highlight a coffee shop in the headline rather than a library.
Lynne Featherstone and a pothole.
An example of the sort of local campaigning that was so central to Lynne Featherstone's electoral successes.
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Season 1 Finale: an interim elections post-mortem

In the final episode of season one, Mark and Stephen pick over the general election result, another less important election result and the plans for Season 2 of Never Mind The Bar Charts.
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How to change the result of the election with the help of targeting

Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, taking a look at the key role for targeting in general elections, how the Lib Dem Brexit policy is going down with voters, some seats to watch out for on election night and a very large number of digressions.
Show notes
Reactions to Jo Swinson's interview with Andrew Neil.
The BBC's fact check of that interview.
Fiona Bruce's Question Time mistake.
The Boris Johnson interview question about him lying, missing any of the obvious follow-ups.
The latest YouGov polling on revoking Article 50, along with evidence from earlier in the year: #1, #2 and #3.
How to make a difference in the last week of the election.
How Lib Dem members can find a target seat to help in.
Fact check: thanks to @SoupDragon0 for pointing out a mistake in the episode about the letters than British Prime Ministers write setting out what to do with the country's nuclear weapons.
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How is the Liberal Democrat general election campaign going?

In Episode #24, Stephen and Mark take a look at how the Liberal Democrat general election campaign is going so far.
They used a blog post from Mark about the YouGov MRP results to structure their discussion, so here as the show notes is an updated version of that post: https://www.markpack.org.uk/160501/yougov-mrp-polling/.
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Prince Andrew, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and the Liberal Democrats

Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, which takes a look at the general election and in particular the policy-heavy message the Liberal Democrats are pushing.
Show notes
The David Davis 'look, no notes' photo.
One, two, three, four Lib Dem candidate problems.
Not Enough Campagne podcast on the impact of candidate deals.
A summary of the Liberal Democrat policies.
The problem with the Liberal Democrat message in 2005.
Liberal Democrat party committee election results.
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Battlegrounds, bar charts but not Brexit

With the general election underway, Stephen Tall and Mark Pack discuss how things are going so far for the Liberal Democrats, what the constituency polls are saying, the role of bar charts and the latest on the party's internal elections.
Show notes
What the national opinion polls are saying.
All the constituency polls made public so far.
The full list of Unite to Remain seat arrangements.
What went wrong with the Liberal Democrat constituency polling in 2015?
Responsible bar charting.
More information on voting in the Liberal Democrat internal elections.
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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.

How are the Liberal Democrats going to do in the general election?

Once again, an MP has kindly timed their decision to join the Liberal Democrats for just before the recording of an episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts.
So Stephen and I discussed the party's latest Parliamentary recruit along with the outlook for the general election.
Show notes
Antoinette Sandbach joins the Liberal Democrats.
How many Liberal Democrat MPs are there now?
The new Liberal Democrat election slogan.
Got problems voting in the Liberal Democrat internal elections? Email elections@libdems.org.uk.
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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.