Laura Serra
@lauraserra.bsky.social
postdoctoral researcher at the LSE with an interest in all things elections, age and generations
more about my work here: https://lauraserra.co.uk
more about my work here: https://lauraserra.co.uk
Pinned
Laura Serra
@lauraserra.bsky.social
· Nov 13
Political Socialisation in the UK: Describing Generational Changes of Values - International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society
A growing bulk of research examines intergenerational shifts in attitudes and the extent to which they are attributable to new cohorts of voters being socialised under different socioeconomic and cult...
link.springer.com
🚨 New paper with Maria Grasso on generational shifts in political values. Despite talk of rising age polarisation, we show that gaps in attitudes are stable or even narrowing. Economic attitudes move in cycles, while social values have become more liberal – mainly due to generational replacement.
Reposted by Laura Serra
a) a century is not a long time in the context of the UK parliament and the law
b) it's only a century old if you count the 1911 Parliament Act and ignore the 1949 Parliament Act which amended it
c) Parliament Acts are established parts of the UK system- reporting them as "old" is a weird framing
b) it's only a century old if you count the 1911 Parliament Act and ignore the 1949 Parliament Act which amended it
c) Parliament Acts are established parts of the UK system- reporting them as "old" is a weird framing
How a century-old Act could help assisted dying supporters override the Lords
How a century-old Act could help assisted dying supporters override the Lords
While rare, the Parliament Act can technically be used to pass a private members' bill if the House of Lords rejects it, provided the bill passes the Commons in two successive sessions and one year elapses.
news.sky.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:34 PM
a) a century is not a long time in the context of the UK parliament and the law
b) it's only a century old if you count the 1911 Parliament Act and ignore the 1949 Parliament Act which amended it
c) Parliament Acts are established parts of the UK system- reporting them as "old" is a weird framing
b) it's only a century old if you count the 1911 Parliament Act and ignore the 1949 Parliament Act which amended it
c) Parliament Acts are established parts of the UK system- reporting them as "old" is a weird framing
Reposted by Laura Serra
This is just ridiculous. There is no political space for a party that has the same positions as Reform. This space is taken. There is a space for a centre-right political party in the UK, but it’s currently vacant: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Centrist ideas no longer wanted in Conservative party, says Kemi Badenoch
Party leader tells MPs that one-nation Tories doubting her rightward direction ‘need to get out of the way’
www.theguardian.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:00 PM
This is just ridiculous. There is no political space for a party that has the same positions as Reform. This space is taken. There is a space for a centre-right political party in the UK, but it’s currently vacant: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Laura Serra
Robert Jenrick: an apology. thecritic.co.uk/fran...
January 15, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Robert Jenrick: an apology. thecritic.co.uk/fran...
In case you missed it, here is mine and Jen’s latest piece on how Labour’s vote is fragmenting across two of its strongholds: London and the youth ⬇️
💡New! With the creation of Your Party and the Greens’ soaring popularity, @lauraserra.bsky.social and Jenevieve Treadwell trace the movement of voters to the left, and argue that Labour is facing a more serious challenge on its left than on its right.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
The Greens, Your Party and Labour’s left challenge | British Politics and Policy at LSE
With the creation of Your Party and the Green's soaring popularity, Labour is facing a more serious challenge on its left than on its right.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
December 11, 2025 at 10:38 AM
In case you missed it, here is mine and Jen’s latest piece on how Labour’s vote is fragmenting across two of its strongholds: London and the youth ⬇️
Reposted by Laura Serra
💡New! With the creation of Your Party and the Greens’ soaring popularity, @lauraserra.bsky.social and Jenevieve Treadwell trace the movement of voters to the left, and argue that Labour is facing a more serious challenge on its left than on its right.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
The Greens, Your Party and Labour’s left challenge | British Politics and Policy at LSE
With the creation of Your Party and the Green's soaring popularity, Labour is facing a more serious challenge on its left than on its right.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
December 1, 2025 at 12:45 PM
💡New! With the creation of Your Party and the Greens’ soaring popularity, @lauraserra.bsky.social and Jenevieve Treadwell trace the movement of voters to the left, and argue that Labour is facing a more serious challenge on its left than on its right.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
Reposted by Laura Serra
Overall, we find that immigration looks important in polls because it’s highly salient, not because it outranks daily concerns.
Polling captures the salience, but requires a bit of digging to see the whole picture of public priority.
You can read more here!: www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
Polling captures the salience, but requires a bit of digging to see the whole picture of public priority.
You can read more here!: www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
Measuring What Matters — Labour Together
Knowing what issues are most important to the public is the bedrock of understanding voters. Ironically, its own importance can’t go understated. This report applies some overdue methodological experi...
www.labourtogether.uk
November 17, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Overall, we find that immigration looks important in polls because it’s highly salient, not because it outranks daily concerns.
Polling captures the salience, but requires a bit of digging to see the whole picture of public priority.
You can read more here!: www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
Polling captures the salience, but requires a bit of digging to see the whole picture of public priority.
You can read more here!: www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
Reposted by Laura Serra
The only Legitimate Concerns about asylum seekers are concerns for their well being and safety. For a rich country like ours to incessantly whine about these people as if we are their victims is perhaps the single most pathetic spectacle in British politics over the past quarter century.
No, I'd say it's racists and those pandering to them.
November 16, 2025 at 7:19 AM
The only Legitimate Concerns about asylum seekers are concerns for their well being and safety. For a rich country like ours to incessantly whine about these people as if we are their victims is perhaps the single most pathetic spectacle in British politics over the past quarter century.
🚨 New paper with Maria Grasso on generational shifts in political values. Despite talk of rising age polarisation, we show that gaps in attitudes are stable or even narrowing. Economic attitudes move in cycles, while social values have become more liberal – mainly due to generational replacement.
Political Socialisation in the UK: Describing Generational Changes of Values - International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society
A growing bulk of research examines intergenerational shifts in attitudes and the extent to which they are attributable to new cohorts of voters being socialised under different socioeconomic and cult...
link.springer.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:29 AM
🚨 New paper with Maria Grasso on generational shifts in political values. Despite talk of rising age polarisation, we show that gaps in attitudes are stable or even narrowing. Economic attitudes move in cycles, while social values have become more liberal – mainly due to generational replacement.
Reposted by Laura Serra
🚨 🆕 analysis w/ @turnbulldugarte.com: most British young men reject the far right @ukandeu.bsky.social Despite media claims, 71% of young men & 75% of young women say they’d never vote Reform UK. The gender gap exists, but it’s steady across ages—not youth-driven.
🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...
🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...
Most British young men reject the far right - UK in a changing Europe
Emilia Belknap and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte explain their analysis on the demographics of Reform UK voters in the UK. They argue that while the dominant narrative is that young men are the most likely ...
ukandeu.ac.uk
October 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
🚨 🆕 analysis w/ @turnbulldugarte.com: most British young men reject the far right @ukandeu.bsky.social Despite media claims, 71% of young men & 75% of young women say they’d never vote Reform UK. The gender gap exists, but it’s steady across ages—not youth-driven.
🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...
🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...
Reposted by Laura Serra
Print and send this chart (from your newsletter on Tuesday) to every household in the country.
October 9, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Print and send this chart (from your newsletter on Tuesday) to every household in the country.
Reposted by Laura Serra
Reposted by Laura Serra
Today is #WorldPostDay, marking the establishment of the Universal Postal Union—a UN agency coordinating postal policies globally. The post revolutionised communication and is an increasingly common voting method, so to mark the occasion, here are some of our recent articles on postal voting... 📫 ✉️
October 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Today is #WorldPostDay, marking the establishment of the Universal Postal Union—a UN agency coordinating postal policies globally. The post revolutionised communication and is an increasingly common voting method, so to mark the occasion, here are some of our recent articles on postal voting... 📫 ✉️
Reposted by Laura Serra
Politics is not like selling biscuits, where the task is to find out what people like & flog it to them.
It's a moral activity. It's about arguing for the things you believe in. It's about *shaping* the "median voter".
Farage has moved the centre-ground of politics. His opponents can move it back.
It's a moral activity. It's about arguing for the things you believe in. It's about *shaping* the "median voter".
Farage has moved the centre-ground of politics. His opponents can move it back.
Crying racism only hurts Labour
Activists like it, but the median voter will feel attacked.
📊 @bwalker.uk
Activists like it, but the median voter will feel attacked.
📊 @bwalker.uk
Crying racism only hurts Labour
Activists like it, but the median voter will feel attacked.
www.newstatesman.com
October 1, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Politics is not like selling biscuits, where the task is to find out what people like & flog it to them.
It's a moral activity. It's about arguing for the things you believe in. It's about *shaping* the "median voter".
Farage has moved the centre-ground of politics. His opponents can move it back.
It's a moral activity. It's about arguing for the things you believe in. It's about *shaping* the "median voter".
Farage has moved the centre-ground of politics. His opponents can move it back.
Reposted by Laura Serra
I'll have more to say on Reform's proposals to scrap ILR at some point but for now I'll just note this - anyone telling you this is a popular idea doesn't know the polling. Overwhelming majority of public back giving people who work and pay taxes most or all rights after 5 years or less
September 22, 2025 at 10:10 AM
I'll have more to say on Reform's proposals to scrap ILR at some point but for now I'll just note this - anyone telling you this is a popular idea doesn't know the polling. Overwhelming majority of public back giving people who work and pay taxes most or all rights after 5 years or less
And that’s a wrap for another EPOP
– my all time favourite conference 🫶🏼
Always the greatest pleasure to reconnect with this lovely bunch of people, meet new ones and share ideas over panels and (too many) late nights
– my all time favourite conference 🫶🏼
Always the greatest pleasure to reconnect with this lovely bunch of people, meet new ones and share ideas over panels and (too many) late nights
September 8, 2025 at 11:23 AM
And that’s a wrap for another EPOP
– my all time favourite conference 🫶🏼
Always the greatest pleasure to reconnect with this lovely bunch of people, meet new ones and share ideas over panels and (too many) late nights
– my all time favourite conference 🫶🏼
Always the greatest pleasure to reconnect with this lovely bunch of people, meet new ones and share ideas over panels and (too many) late nights
Reposted by Laura Serra
what if I don't really care about career stuff but instead actively enjoy choosing to live in a smaller place because I get to be surrounded by interesting people and music and culture and art and things to do! what then Bloomberg!!!!
August 19, 2025 at 1:07 PM
what if I don't really care about career stuff but instead actively enjoy choosing to live in a smaller place because I get to be surrounded by interesting people and music and culture and art and things to do! what then Bloomberg!!!!
Reposted by Laura Serra
We took a close look at Split Ticket's WAR metric, which has become influential in Democratic circles for suggesting moderates significantly outperform progressives.
Our finding: The metric contains systematic biases that overstate the advantage of moderation. A corrected model shows no advantage.🧵
Our finding: The metric contains systematic biases that overstate the advantage of moderation. A corrected model shows no advantage.🧵
Do Moderates Do Better?
Uncovering Bias in Split Ticket’s WAR Scores
data4democracy.substack.com
August 14, 2025 at 8:44 PM
We took a close look at Split Ticket's WAR metric, which has become influential in Democratic circles for suggesting moderates significantly outperform progressives.
Our finding: The metric contains systematic biases that overstate the advantage of moderation. A corrected model shows no advantage.🧵
Our finding: The metric contains systematic biases that overstate the advantage of moderation. A corrected model shows no advantage.🧵
Glad to see increased reporting on the disconnect between reality and the public perception of reality. "If you could choose any era to live in Britain, but not your place in society, you’d choose right now"
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Violent, lawless, broken Britain? The facts tell a different story
The populist narrative of a migrant-driven crimewave is catnip on social media and oil to the wheels of Reform. But it is so far from the truth that we’re in danger of losing sight of the country we l...
www.thetimes.com
August 9, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Glad to see increased reporting on the disconnect between reality and the public perception of reality. "If you could choose any era to live in Britain, but not your place in society, you’d choose right now"
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
A very interesting piece on growing youth far-right support in Latin America (including a couple of quotes from myself and @casmudde.bsky.social), and on how this party family differs from their European cousins. www.connectas.org/analisis/der...
¿La derecha conquistó a la juventud latinoamericana?
El giro hacia la derecha rompe con la tradición progresista de América Latina
www.connectas.org
August 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM
A very interesting piece on growing youth far-right support in Latin America (including a couple of quotes from myself and @casmudde.bsky.social), and on how this party family differs from their European cousins. www.connectas.org/analisis/der...
I was on Swiss TV news the other day discussing the British electoral reform and where it sits in broader trends
July 29, 2025 at 9:50 AM
I was on Swiss TV news the other day discussing the British electoral reform and where it sits in broader trends
A very enjoyable and topical read for anyone wondering what the implications of lowering the voting age might be - featuring some of my research on generational shifts in values and voting behaviour! Give it a read ⬇️⬇️⬇️
🚨🔔 NEW, from me!
I’ve taken some time to review the evidence and try to give answers on…
🤔 Are Reform popular with young voters?
🌹 How much ground have Labour with the British youth?
⬇️ Who will benefit most from ‘Votes at 16’, Starmer or Farage?
patrickenglish.substack.com/p/reform-and...
I’ve taken some time to review the evidence and try to give answers on…
🤔 Are Reform popular with young voters?
🌹 How much ground have Labour with the British youth?
⬇️ Who will benefit most from ‘Votes at 16’, Starmer or Farage?
patrickenglish.substack.com/p/reform-and...
Reform and young people in the context of votes at 16
Anecdotes may claim rising support for the right among the British youth, but is that so?
patrickenglish.substack.com
July 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
A very enjoyable and topical read for anyone wondering what the implications of lowering the voting age might be - featuring some of my research on generational shifts in values and voting behaviour! Give it a read ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Reposted by Laura Serra
The govt's reforming democracy paper isn't perfect, but it's a serious attempt to make registration easier, to reduce barriers to participation and to increase the number of people voting.
That's a very welcome contrast with the last govt's approach to electoral reform.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
That's a very welcome contrast with the last govt's approach to electoral reform.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections
www.gov.uk
July 17, 2025 at 8:19 PM
The govt's reforming democracy paper isn't perfect, but it's a serious attempt to make registration easier, to reduce barriers to participation and to increase the number of people voting.
That's a very welcome contrast with the last govt's approach to electoral reform.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
That's a very welcome contrast with the last govt's approach to electoral reform.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Reposted by Laura Serra
📣 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨
"School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support"
Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1080/0140...
🧵👇
"School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support"
Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1080/0140...
🧵👇
July 14, 2025 at 1:13 PM
📣 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨
"School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support"
Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1080/0140...
🧵👇
"School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support"
Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1080/0140...
🧵👇