Can YOU take Mansfield Town all the way to 10 Downing Street?

it looks like football manager for politics...

Chuffed with these @politicshome.bsky.social numbers — but the work continues!

Young @stephenkb.bsky.social writes about the much mocked cones hotline today. (Younger readers: ask your parents). I knew someone who thought it meant that if you had seen a cone that had fallen over, you would ring, and someone would come and put it the right way up. ep.ft.com/permalink/em...

New post showing +2050 Reform seat gains in English local elections this year would be on par with last year, +1935 on par with local by-elections since then. Same pattern of gains from Con and Lab as last year means +2270. Polls suggest Reform may win even more. electionsetc.com/2026/03/20/b...

Young @stephenkb.bsky.social writes about the much mocked cones hotline today. (Younger readers: ask your parents). I knew someone who thought it meant that if you had seen a cone that had fallen over, you would ring, and someone would come and put it the right way up. ep.ft.com/permalink/em...

And a chance to re-use this, perhaps the best quote on the psychology of elite politicians...

The article was a chance to dig out the Crossman and Howard reviews of Finer at al - an early example (surely not the first?) of political practitioners meeting political science and not being overly impressed.

New article for @thehousemag.bsky.social, this time on Early Day Motions. They are often dismissed as parliamentary graffiti, but even graffiti can sometimes be revealing. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

In which I note a decline in the popularity of EDMs:

Hope this important story about House of Commons giftshop Prime Ministerial toby jug sales gets the attention it deserves www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This would have been an EDM a decade ago I think votes.theyworkforyou.com/statement/co...

New article for @thehousemag.bsky.social, this time on Early Day Motions. They are often dismissed as parliamentary graffiti, but even graffiti can sometimes be revealing. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

from Fraser Nelson:

NEW on Wonkhe: Students aren't confused about AI – they're making rational choices in a system that has removed the incentives to learn. Jim Dickinson and Mack Marshall preview findings from new research on learning in an age of AI buff.ly/4TKftU3

Coming next year, meet Sycamore Bell. He's not the world's greatest detective. But he does answer the world's greatest detective's letters.

Paperback eater?

Have compiled a Beatles playlist in honour of the @psaepop.bsky.social visit to Liverpool: Split Ticket to Ride Let It BESIP Electoral Roll Over Beethoven The Ballot of John Curtice and Yo-co-authors (More Funding) From Me to You(Gov) I Saw (Spence-)Her Standing There (and Beating Matt Goodwin)

The History of Parliament is excited to announce a new 8-week internship position for postgraduate-level researchers, working with the House of Lords 1640-60 section. Follow the link below for more details on the role, and how to apply!

Best and most fun conference in the schedule.

A cool thing about the effective number of parties is that you can compute it using a simple physics simulation. As particles collide, the ratio of *all collisions* to *collisions of the same colour* converges on the effective number of parties.

Congratulations to Dr Innocent (Ib) Batsani-Ncube, whose book has been shortlisted for L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize. Ib examines China's expanding influence, using parliament buildings as a lens for understanding China–Africa relations. Read more👇 www.qmul.ac.uk/society-and-...

The actual Matt's new book - much mocked on here - is currently at 45 on the Amazon rankings. Most of us would *kill* for that.

wtf is this??

The call for papers for #EPOP2026 in Liverpool (17–19 September) is now open! We welcome submissions across all areas of research on elections, public opinion and parties. Deadline: 26 April Submit your proposals here: www.liverpool.ac.uk/politics/eve... @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social

This is magnificent and confirms my view that unless you've secured funding for a royal yacht, one should never speak to Chris Hope.

Why did the People's Vote campaign fail? Could Brexit have been stopped? What lessons can be learned? We can't wait to host @qmul.bsky.social alumna @morganj0nes.bsky.social's sparkling new history of the People's Vote campaign on Thursday. A handful of tickets are still available so do join us!

Shorter (but still sceptical) version here: www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Westminster Hall debate this afternoon, triggered by an e-petition calling for automatic by-elections whenever an MP defects to another party. Some (sceptical) background reading (by me) here: swingometer.substack.com/p/waka-waka-...

Even the journal publishing this research gets this wrong. Younger men are not shifting right: "The widening of the gender gap, then, is driven... by women moving leftward at a faster pace or men doing so more slowly – rather than a true divergence"

Don’t really understand the political strategy in picking a fight with petrol stations about ‘price gouging’. If oil prices stay high, petrol prices are going up. And assuming the govt aren’t going to subsidise drivers, they just look weak. Better to start pinning as much blame as possible on Trump.

Dowman this, Dowman that. But it doesn't beat Sammy Igoe, scoring the same sort of goal in a play off final. This was one of the highlights of my life... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmJ2...

A recent article in PQ advocated a ‘sortition of candidature’, where parliamentary candidates would be chosen at random from within the membership of political parties. @philipjcowley.bsky.social, Paul Web & @timbale.bsky.social explain why this idea is unlikely to work. tinyurl.com/32fjx99v

Piece I did here, in case of interest, on regional populism and the ‘two deprivations’: parables.substack.com/p/the-two-de...

The whole of Hannah Spencer's first speech in the Commons is interesting hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026...

"Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?"

in my bit of Bristol for example. I see everyone as mere objects to be beaten in a freestyle dance contest, if I started to think of them as human beings I wouldn't be able to put my avant garde moves together, in the unique manner that I currently do.

"I am pleased to be here representing the misanthropes of Bosetshire South, where the milk of human kindness has been suppressed for centuries".

Can you imagine the opposite? "Where I am from, we are taught to look out for ourselves, and the devil take the hindmost. I am so proud of that lack of humanity and that people in <my constituency> feel that way too. It is in our blood and in our bones—we don't see each other as human".

This bit from Hannah Spencer's maiden speech struck me. On one level, it's just the sort of flimflam people say in maiden speeches or on the campaign trail. But it implies there are bits of the country where these things are not true. Where in the UK do we not see each other as human?

Very happy to have been able to contribute to the latest Commons Library briefing paper on private members’ bills. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

The Community Life Survey gets at some of this. Manchester and Tameside (like other urban areas) tend to score slightly lower than average on indicators such as people getting on and pulling together to help. But overall levels of cohesion quite high (imo) everywhere. www.gov.uk/government/s...

This bit from Hannah Spencer's maiden speech struck me. On one level, it's just the sort of flimflam people say in maiden speeches or on the campaign trail. But it implies there are bits of the country where these things are not true. Where in the UK do we not see each other as human?

Looking for something else entirely, and came across this bit of fan mail from 2014, that I had forgotten about entirely.

Obviously, no one at Queen Mary does this (perish the thought!), but from what I've heard from colleagues at other institutions, this article is spot on about how rampant AI is in universities, and its effects. unherd.com/2026/03/how-...

Latest article for @thehousemag.bsky.social, looking at floor crossings and similar, ahead of the debate on 16 March. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Why did the People's Vote campaign fail? Could Brexit have been stopped? What lessons can be learned? Join us on 19 March to celebrate @morganj0nes.bsky.social's sparkling new book, "No Second Chances: The Inside Story of the Campaign for a Second Referendum". www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/no-second-...

Lots of polling out this week, and it is very variable (I think across them three different parties in 2nd place). This is really helpful for understanding the process and for looking for differences in methodology - though differences in sample quality are of course a whole other conversation.

Latest article for @thehousemag.bsky.social, looking at floor crossings and similar, ahead of the debate on 16 March. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Not a suprise that you had lots of abstains here; Turner advocated this with the aim (and I suspect some promises) of altering the bill at committee. But implies a large rebellion if these changes don't come. Of course, the Immigration changes already have even greater opposition...