2019

Here are some really outstanding comments on our campaign in 2019. James Meadway writes in Novara about the manifesto and economic policy. Andrew Fisher in the Guardian about mobilization. Simon Fletcher in the Daily Mirror about general issues. Matt Zarb-Cousin on online advertising. They have in common that they all worked on the 2017 campaign…

Read More A question – Election introspection 3

One impression I often had was of a gulf between the political activity on the ground and that in the media, almost as if the two contests were happening in different countries – the pays réel and the pays virtuel – or even that the contest was one between the canvassers and the opinionators. Maybe…

Read More Four waves of mobilization – Election introspection, 2

Everyone wants to share what came up on The Doorstep. I am quite suspicious of doorstep insights; I can’t think of any campaign when I had the kind of synoptic, oversailing insight people tend to claim. The experience isn’t like that. This time out I campaigned in four different constituencies, and instead of a sense…

Read More Everyone’s doing it so why can’t I? Election introspection, 1

Is there any point trying to make consumers save the world? One of the most important debates of our time is whether we should approach climate change as a primarily individualistic or collective problem. Individualistic approaches include things like cap-and-trade at the consumer level, carbon taxes imposed on the final consumer (like VAT), shouting at…

Read More Coal, the Manski bounds, and the correct choice of Milibands

So we’re having a moment about John Boyd: The really interesting thing about the Dom Cummings appointment is that we now have someone in charge of No10 who is a devotee of Col. John Boyd, whose central thesis was to confuse your enemy and do the opposite of what they expect (1/4). — Damian McBride…

Read More Round and Round the OODA Loop: Folk Boyd and the Brexiters