"The British General Election of 2019", with @drjennings@ProfTimBale and @p_surridge , is out today! To celebrate, and hopefully encourage your interest, here's a thread of threads.
A thread by @ProfTimBale picking out his favourite cartoons from the book. Britain really is blessed with some outstanding political cartoonists, and their generously shared images really help us tell the story
Outgroup hate drives anger
Anger drives engagement
Engagement drives content algorithms...
Therefore, facebook's algorithms actively promote outgroup hate, & will likely continue to do so, because outgroup hate delivers the outcome facebook wants (engagement)
I'm honestly not sure this is a problem any social media company is going to resolve so long as the services continue to be free to users (i.e. advertising and hence engagement driven).
ELECTION 2019 - Last night PM Johnson once again called for a December 12th general election. "If [Parliament] genuinely want more time to study this excellent deal they can have it but they have to agree to a genreal election"
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to be drawn: "“Tomorrow the EU will decide whether there’s going to be an extension or not,” Corbyn told broadcasters this evening. “That extension will obviously encompass whether there’s a no-deal or not. Let’s find that out tomorrow.”
Corbyn has previously said Labour will back an election as soon as the EU agrees an extension to the looming Article 50 deadline. Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, an early election bill requires a two thirds majority in the Commons, and therefore needs Labour support
Its one year since Brexitland was published! In case you aren't familiar with the arguments @ProfSobolewska and I make, here's the "graph of the day" thread I did summarising some of the key data driven points
@ProfSobolewska Identity divides between graduates and school leavers, ethnic minorities and identity conservative white voters, have continued to reshape our politics since the book came out.
Good thread. As it is likely impossible to end online anonymity, we need better social and institutional mechanisms to address its disinhibatory effects. That is hard to do, but it needs doing.
I feel this will have to be a collective effort. We need to build a social media "immune system", with multiple lines of defence, to shut out toxic actors and violent, prejudiced and hostile discourse. Ultimately, its going to be a job for all of us.
Of course, social media platforms should reforms systems which promote toxicitiy. But there are also many ways we are users could help marginalise bad actors ourselves. What happens to people who behave offline like bad actors behave online? They are socially shamed & shunned
Voters can recall an MP in the event of a conviction (as happened in Peterborough in June 2019 and Brecon & Radnorshire in August 2019). I expect such a recall petition would be quite likely in Leicester East, and would trigger a v interesting contest 1/?
Webbe's 2019 selection for Leicester East, to replace long serving MP Keith Vaz, one of the first BAME MPs elected in 1987, was very contentious. Half a dozen Indian origin Labour councillors attacked Corbyn, accusing him of a policy of excluding Hindu candidates
The swing against Labour in Leicester East was by far the largest against the party in an ethnically diverse seat, the most plausible explanation being large numbers of Indian origin voters swinging away from the party as Webbe replaced Vaz.