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steveakehurst.bsky.social
Politics, policy, public attitudes. Work in polling and comms. Director, Persuasion UK. ex- Shelter, civil service and various other things. 🏳️‍🌈 https://persuasionuk.org/about https://strongmessagehere.substack.com/
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Posts 21 Comments 29

"I'm getting a lot of pre Iraq war vibes" we get it, your 43

submitted 22 hours ago • 2 comments

Its very funny he wrote this after trump had already been president. Its like you calling the scammer and giving them your info for no particular reason

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Carswell has changed enormously. Defected to Ukip tactically in 2014 as a pro-migration libertarian who wanted to keep Farage's "nativism" out of the 2016 referendum campaign, arguing Leave must ditch Powellism to win Now in Mississippi as a pro-AfD advocate of racist deportations of legal migrants

submitted 5 days ago • 21 comments

Today’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show. Representative Sarah McBride reckons with the trans rights movement’s shortcomings, and how to win hearts and minds through a politics of grace. open.spotify.com/episode/1Ryl... youtu.be/KlbNFsAGFRc?...

submitted 5 days ago • 37 comments

Fascinating profile of Keir Starmer that gets at the contradictions of Britain, and of the monumental task Starmer faces www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

What outcomes would most give Labour defectors since GE2024 a more positive impression of the government? Some areas of difference: small boats for Reform defectors; poverty, taxing the rich & Gaza for left defectors. Some unity: NHS and energy bills. (caveat: prompted list!)

submitted 9 days ago • 3 comments

Particularly striking quote in @patrickmaguire.bsky.social ‘s interesting column today. www.thetimes.com/article/df83...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Obviously we’re far past the days where just press releasing stuff helps a govt’s poll rating - but the positioning and tone today (and many decisions) suggests they’ve at least understood what they got wrong last summer

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

🚨 Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP: "Austerity was a destructive choice for our economy, choking off investment and demand" "Creating a lost decade for growth, wages and living standards"

submitted 12 days ago • 8 comments

A couple of charts ahead of CSR tomorrow. Firstly always worth remembering how absolutely essential 'the public realm' was and is to Labour’s mandate. It’s overwhelmingly how swing voters will judge their record. From @persuasionuk.bsky.social / IPPR experiment back in November:

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Musk right now...

submitted 17 days ago • 29 comments

Somehow - thankfully - I had missed the context on this but yet another example of the weird petri dish of alt-right media getting high on their own supply (see also ‘yookay’)

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Quite an interesting gender gap opening up in vote intention at the mo: Reform vote notably more male, residual Con vote more female. Boris’ 2019 coalition was unusually male by historic standards, and has fractured in quite gendered ways. Lab->Green also more female than Lab->LDs, curiously.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

There’s some good points in this piece - Labour/Reform voters exist and matter in Red Wall esp - but there’s a lot it gets wrong too IMO. For starters, Labour to LD/Green defectors exist in marginals too. Labour’s coalition is more complicated than just one swing group in one battleground!

submitted 33 days ago • 5 comments

I really feel like a hugely underrated factor in our politics is "everyone in Westminster and the broader media assumes newspapers represent the range of public opinion, as opposed to the range of public opinion who still buy newspapers". Yet another thing pushing us towards gerontocracy.

submitted 34 days ago • 46 comments

Labour 2024: Still Lab 46% Don't know 15% Lib Dem 12% (record high for Lab > LD defections with YouGov) Green 9% Reform 6% Would not vote 5% Plaid 2% Con 2% SNP 1% Con 2024: Con 48% Reform 28% (record high for Con > Reform defectors) Don't know 12% Lib Dem 6% WNV 2% Lab 1%

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

I’ve seen enough, BlueSky has won Eurovision timeline rights from the other place

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Inaccurate to say "Reform voters are our people". Many people who have never voted Labour. Many say never would. "Some Reform voters are engageable" Lab should be interested in sixth of its vote [5% of voters] were Labour 2024 & would consider Reform. Few Reform 2024 voters gettable, maybe 1/6 are

submitted 39 days ago • 27 comments

People have real problems believing Reform voters don't come from Labour, if not recently, then in the past. A small proportion do, but let's look at how far back you'd have to go now ...

submitted 46 days ago • 9 comments

Evidence shows that rolling back our climate ambitions would do nothing to win back voters from Reform, but instead risk losing crucial votes to the Liberal Democrats and Greens. Net zero is popular and essential. Labour must take the fight to Badenoch and Farage, writes @lukemurphy.bsky.social

submitted 41 days ago • 4 comments

A under-discussed backdrop to yesterday's election results—Britain today feels less pleasant, well-maintained and orderly than a decade ago: from potholes to phone-snatchers. I've spent the past few months digging in to why for @economist.com. A short 🧵 on what I've concluded.

submitted 52 days ago • 3 comments