Time for another half-finished prototype! Here’s Polly C, a work-in-progress AI chatbot designed to provide comparisons of UK party policies. Give her a spin and let me know what she gets wrong and how she could be improved. prototypepolitics.substack.com/p/introducin...

@leorzmigrod.bsky.social Thank you for your thoughtful answer to my question this morning around non-divisive political messages. I'd love to ask you some further questions, around rigidity and authoritarianism. Are you still around Hay at all?

@steveakehurst.bsky.social Hello! I'm doing a masters dissertation on electoral viability of policies that increase tax. Your MRP data on this is fantastic. Could we chat? I'd love to ask you some questions.

Cor. Very jealous. I particularly recommend Bath Soft Cheese, Gem Ale, those amazing biscuits by the Bath Cheese Company!

Now more than ever, it is imperative that we buy local. I am delighted to be hosting some of Bath's best businesses in Parliament to give my colleagues a 'Taste of Bath'. Throughout the day I will be highlighting these fantastic businesses as I encourage you to buy Bath and back Britain 🇬🇧

Should I set this organisation up? It's a monstrous hybrid of a lean think tank and a full fat public communications campaign. Could it ever work? Should it see the light of day? Come poke holes in it here: open.substack.com/pub/prototyp... With more art from the wonderful www.lengrant.co.uk

The Digital Services Tax currently brings in over £830M a year - enough to completely cover the cost of free school meals. Politics is about choices. Cutting this Tax while diluting free schools meals would be choosing Donald Trump and Elon Musk over hungry school children.

Fred, my policy chat bot in training, is a show off. He already knows what happened at Conference this weekend. But is he getting it right? Maybe? Probably? Sort of? Take a look, let me know, and give me some of that juicy negative feedback goodness. prototypepolitics.substack.com/p/harro-grea...

THE GUARDIAN: Kemi Badenoch’s floundering leadership struggles to inspire a beleaguered Tory party as PMQs reveal her weaknesses and undermine her authority ahead of critical local elections. - by Andrew Rawnsley

The UK is unusual in the low level of support among younger voters for a party of the radical right. (Reform polls at 5% among 18-24 year olds, compared with 31% for 65+). But there's clearly a significant pool of support that *could* be mobilised, by a successor (or rival) to Nigel Farage.

The reason @eddavey.libdems.org.uk's focus on sewage has worked so well is that it's tapped into something bigger. People feel taken for granted and (to be honest) more than a little bit shat on. The party should lean into the metaphor. open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...

The reason @eddavey.libdems.org.uk's focus on sewage has worked so well is that it's tapped into something bigger. People feel taken for granted and (to be honest) more than a little bit shat on. The party should lean into the metaphor. open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...

I've been playing around with messaging recently about cleaning up the crap (sewage, dirty money, crony contracts, etc), and decided that an image of Nigel Farage as a fatberg could be quite fun. ChatGPT told me it could call Dall-E and make a cartoon for me, so I said yes. I'm so glad I did.

@sarahgreenld.bsky.social - reporting from the Guardian today shows that raw sewage poured out of the Chesham sewage treatment works for 2,681 hours last year. That's 111 days' worth of sewage dumped on your patch by Thames Water. Here's the article: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

@rory-stewart.bsky.social As a supporter of proportional representation, I wonder if this might be of interest to you? Updates and analysis regarding electoral reform and the broader fight to clean up British politics, from @libdems4er.bsky.social.

@compassoffice.bsky.social @bestforbritain.bsky.social @electoralreform.bsky.social @unlockdemocracy.bsky.social Latest issue of Fair Votes Watch from @libdems4er.bsky.social, full of updates and analysis about developments in the first to clean up British politics. All feedback welcome!

@openbritain.bsky.social @mkieran.com @mattmgallagher.bsky.social @appgfairelections.bsky.social @fairvote.bsky.social Hi all! @libdems4er.bsky.social has launched a monthly newsletter about developments in electoral reform. Might be of interest!

Hello @makevotesmatter.bsky.social! 👋 This month's issue of Fair Votes Watch includes a link to your upcoming seminar this week on Equal Votes & Women's Representation in Politics. Best of luck with it! actionnetwork.org/events/make-...

@markpackuk.bsky.social @lisasmartmp.bsky.social @wendychambld.bsky.social @ollyglover.bsky.social Second issue of LDER's Fair Votes Watch out now. Might be of interest!

Issue 2 of Fair Votes Watch from @libdems4er.bsky.social is out now, bringing you the latest news on the fight to clean up Britain's democracy. This issue: Badenoch criticises FPTP; Farage praises it; and Diane Abbott backs Proportional Representation. fairvoteswatch.substack.com/p/issue-2-18...

@robfordmancs.bsky.social Hi Rob. Has the online appendix for Brexitland been moved? The footnotes say it's at www.cambridge.org/brexitland, but that gets a 404 error. I'd love to dig into the data.

It's heart-wrenching watching R1 reason on Perplexity. I've asked it to select strings of up to four words from larger strings, and the poor thing nearly has a breakdown. Got there in the end though!

Just looking at the latest YouGov poll - the Tories are on 9% with people under 50. It is not clear to me how this helps with that problem.

Looks positive certainly, but there's a challenge in the underlying data, kindly shared by Opinium (and then befouled by my horrendous formatting). Breaking the 'NET' line apart shows that our support is not as strong as it appeared.

Exactly right. It's not just in Bath. Britain wants to *get on with it*. Labour's heart might be in the right place, but they're missing opportunities to make people's lives better again and again.

Once again, the big banks are taking the easy way out. Stopping catastrophic climate change is hard. Most things worth doing are. Backing out because the US investors have swung to the right? Sheer cowardice. Britain needs bravery. Take the hard way out. www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Britain might be tough old boots, but without newcomers to staff the NHS, boost the economy and build our houses, we'll soon find ourselves on our last legs. Britain needs migrants. Let's embrace it, not shy away from it. #ImmigrationMatters #NHSStaffing #BuildBritain

People use 'net popularity' (% favourable minus % unfavourable) as a measure of how well a political leader is received by the public. I wonder though whether 'gross profile' wouldn't be just as important a measure. That is, % favourable *plus* % unfavourable. Thoughts, @robfordmancs.bsky.social?

@markpackuk.bsky.social and I co-wrote a proposed electoral strategy for @libdems.org.uk just before Christmas. I'll be writing some follow-ups soon, so as a reminder, here it is! Below, in replies to this message, I'll set out main recommendations. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Uh oh. @markpackuk.bsky.social @libdems.org.uk First they came for our jobs, now they come for our right to point at potholes and look like we mean business! What will the robots take next? www.thetimes.com/uk/transport... £££

A good listen! Thanks @markpackuk.bsky.social and Peter. Summary of how to beat populism 1. adopt a proportional *and* moderating electoral system, 2. get the economy going, 3. revitalise public services, 4. rebuild trust in politicians, and 5. tackle concern over immigration (one way or another).

As @james.fieldleveltech.org says, it's frighteningly easy to train ChatGPT to write posts that further a narrative. (I'm doing this openly: I want to show how a narrative I've written could be adapted to a wider range of news topics than I can cover. But others could do it covertly and harmfully.)

A Reform source has admitted that one of their MPs – and maybe even Farage himself – would now not pass their vetting process… www.politicshome.com/news/article...

I did know that this kind of thing was possible. But it’s pretty worrisome just how easy it is now. Jim is being responsible but others won’t be. I think @cleanuptheinternet.org.uk are right. We need “verified human” account labels

India-Pakistan border famously a v chilled region where everyone is happy now & no remaining arguments over sovereignty etc

Introducing my plucky little bot-in-training, Frederalist! He's new on the job as an up and coming Lib Dem policy expert, who I've trained on how to weigh up different Lib Dem policy sources. Please give him a go and tell me what he gets wrong! chatgpt.com/g/g-67ae219b...

I'm having fun training up some GPTs at the moment. One is a messaging bot to respond to the news in terms of the (very rough and ready) narrative I've written. What do you think of the suggestions below? (For reference, the draft narrative is here: prototypepolitics.substack.com/i/156181775/...)

@adampayne26.bsky.social Just catching up with your piece on Tory Voters switching to Reform. I'd love to see the data. Do you have crosstabs or a fuller report available? (Asking because it doesn't look like the authors of the research are here on Bluesky. Might be wrong though!)

Congrats on your first day in the Lords today @markpackuk.bsky.social! Please send a selfie.

Despite many winnable local elections being delayed to 2026, the @libdems.org.uk still can make big gains this year, with Conservative councils up for grabs in Lib-Dem held / contested constituencies. Brilliant reporting here from @zoecrowther.bsky.social: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

1 of 5 @psurridge.bsky.social Hello! Really enjoyed listening to your chat with @markpackuk.bsky.social on Never Mind the Bar Charts. Super interesting stuff. Lots of questions for you!

Cor. Congratulations @markpackuk.bsky.social! I'd better buy a cap for all the doffing in the offing. www.libdems.org.uk/news/article...

In the prototyping spirit of my new Substack, Prototype Politics, I've drawn back the curtain a little on how @markpackuk.bsky.social's feedback on a really bad idea of mine kickstarted the conversation that led us to write 'What Next for the Liberal Democrats?' open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...

@markpackuk.bsky.social and I have written a proposed strategy for the @libdems.org.uk. In short, our order of priorities should be: 1. Defend our seats! 2. Lay the groundwork for winning more 3. Offer a home to disappointed Labour votes 4. Keep growing our local and devolved elected base

New blog in the works! prototypepolitics.substack.com About politics, games & political games - and flying the flag for a prototyping approach to all of them. Politicians don't get the luxury of having bad ideas. Thankfully, I'm not a politician, and I have *lots* of bad ideas.

Can board games be used to shed insight on how systems work, and what incentives they create? I'm hoping to find out by designing an elections game that tests whether different electoral systems incentivise different strategies. Let's see! #PR #FPTP #GameDesign docs.google.com/videos/d/1Q_...

Here are the game designs I'm working on! Much silliness within, plus the occasional 'Serious' game about elections, policy, politics and other such nerdery. docs.google.com/presentation...

Very excited to play Poll & Write 2024 by @tzartzam.bsky.social in my political games group tonight. Looks great!