Rob Ford
@robfordmancs.bsky.social
Politics Professor, University of Manchester.
Author of "The British General Election of 2024", "The British General Election of 2019" & "Brexitland"
My Substack, "The Swingometer", is here: https://swingometer.substack.com/
https://www.robertford.net/
Author of "The British General Election of 2024", "The British General Election of 2019" & "Brexitland"
My Substack, "The Swingometer", is here: https://swingometer.substack.com/
https://www.robertford.net/
Pinned
Rob Ford
@robfordmancs.bsky.social
· Jul 29
I have some good news for election nerds - "The British General Election of 2024" will be out this autumn, and if you're quick you can grab a 25% pre-order discount from Waterstone's by ordering your copy by 31st July, just enter code SUMMER25 www.waterstones.com/book/the-bri...
One nice detail that can easily be lost in this graph - even right wingers trust the BBC more than the right wing tabloids
Here’s the same data, but with trust broken down by political views (circles are trust among people on the left, +s the right).
It’s not just that the BBC is widely consumed — it also has solid trust on both left & right, whereas trust in the biggest US media brands is hugely polarised.
It’s not just that the BBC is widely consumed — it also has solid trust on both left & right, whereas trust in the biggest US media brands is hugely polarised.
November 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
One nice detail that can easily be lost in this graph - even right wingers trust the BBC more than the right wing tabloids
Reposted by Rob Ford
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
Send Pundit of the Year medal to @stephenkb.bsky.social who has been predicting exactly this outcome on a regular basis pretty much since the first time Labour said they wouldn't remove the cap.
NEW: Rachel Reeves signals she intends to remove the two-child cap *in full*
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
November 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Send Pundit of the Year medal to @stephenkb.bsky.social who has been predicting exactly this outcome on a regular basis pretty much since the first time Labour said they wouldn't remove the cap.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Michael Prescott's report makes vital points about the importance of being accurate, and also how difficult that is. For instance, he describes himself as having been Political Editor of the Sunday Times for 10 years, which is not what the Guardian reported when he left the job.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Michael Prescott's report makes vital points about the importance of being accurate, and also how difficult that is. For instance, he describes himself as having been Political Editor of the Sunday Times for 10 years, which is not what the Guardian reported when he left the job.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Solar’s price drop is astonishing: panels are now 98% cheaper than when I first analyzed them in 2004.
Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.
Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.
November 10, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Solar’s price drop is astonishing: panels are now 98% cheaper than when I first analyzed them in 2004.
Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.
Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Sack the editor of the New York Times every time it writes about boiled mutton.
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Sack the editor of the New York Times every time it writes about boiled mutton.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Two fascinating nuggets from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com that have largely been missed:
1. Young people *less likely* to say 'don't know' in political polls - does this indicate better knowledge from social media compared to previous generations?
2. Young women are more confident in their opinions...
1. Young people *less likely* to say 'don't know' in political polls - does this indicate better knowledge from social media compared to previous generations?
2. Young women are more confident in their opinions...
November 10, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Two fascinating nuggets from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com that have largely been missed:
1. Young people *less likely* to say 'don't know' in political polls - does this indicate better knowledge from social media compared to previous generations?
2. Young women are more confident in their opinions...
1. Young people *less likely* to say 'don't know' in political polls - does this indicate better knowledge from social media compared to previous generations?
2. Young women are more confident in their opinions...
Funny the things proof reading reminds you of - it is less than two years ago that Nigel Farage was appearing on 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!'
November 10, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Funny the things proof reading reminds you of - it is less than two years ago that Nigel Farage was appearing on 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!'
Reposted by Rob Ford
This is true, but you know, equally, it's not like the BBC has in any way taken on *any* of the challenges in the serious thematic reviews into its coverage of the economy or of migration either!
Prescott's 19 page memo criticising specific programmes in 6 different areas. It is much more subjective - coming from his own perspective across issues - than the thematic reviews conducted by the BBC with a clear methodology & engagement with all perspectives
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:03 AM
This is true, but you know, equally, it's not like the BBC has in any way taken on *any* of the challenges in the serious thematic reviews into its coverage of the economy or of migration either!
Reposted by Rob Ford
Objectivity, impartiality and balance are all *different things*, and the lazy tendency to treat them as synonyms, and to use partisan balance alone as a proxy for the others, is the root cause of a vast amount of nonsense.
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
November 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Objectivity, impartiality and balance are all *different things*, and the lazy tendency to treat them as synonyms, and to use partisan balance alone as a proxy for the others, is the root cause of a vast amount of nonsense.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:
November 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
While going through the proofs for "The British General Election of 2024" (out very soon!) I came across this - Paul Johnson of the IFS's verdict on Labour's manifesto last year. Labour's current attempts to claim the need to break their tax pledges was impossible to forsee don't stack up
November 10, 2025 at 8:28 AM
While going through the proofs for "The British General Election of 2024" (out very soon!) I came across this - Paul Johnson of the IFS's verdict on Labour's manifesto last year. Labour's current attempts to claim the need to break their tax pledges was impossible to forsee don't stack up
Reposted by Rob Ford
"You, like Nigel Farage, are simply lying about what the ONS says."
I somewhat lost my patience with Reform Councillor Bill Piper here.. (from about 1h 27 min in)
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I somewhat lost my patience with Reform Councillor Bill Piper here.. (from about 1h 27 min in)
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Stephen Nolan - 08/11/2025 - BBC Sounds
The day's main news stories, topical debate and interviews.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:41 AM
"You, like Nigel Farage, are simply lying about what the ONS says."
I somewhat lost my patience with Reform Councillor Bill Piper here.. (from about 1h 27 min in)
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I somewhat lost my patience with Reform Councillor Bill Piper here.. (from about 1h 27 min in)
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Rob Ford
I agree with @arusbridger.bsky.social about BBC governance. Although v hesitant about another rearrangement, the single corporate-style board is massively flawed, not least because there needs to be some distance for the governors/board members from editorial decisions
Michael Prescott and Sir Robbie Gibb both bailed out of journalism years ago, and enjoy lucrative careers in corporate PR. And now they are the arbiters of BBC editorial standards. Go figure www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
The BBC has bigger impartiality problems than its coverage of Trump
It is the BBC’s entire governance structure–rather than individual stories–that should cause most concern
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:46 AM
I agree with @arusbridger.bsky.social about BBC governance. Although v hesitant about another rearrangement, the single corporate-style board is massively flawed, not least because there needs to be some distance for the governors/board members from editorial decisions
Reposted by Rob Ford
The BBC really is facing some trust issues, as our surveys of over 11,000 people reveal.
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
November 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
The BBC really is facing some trust issues, as our surveys of over 11,000 people reveal.
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Michael Prescott was ‘“shocked” that after an hour-long Panorama documentary dealing with Trump and the January 6 insurgency, there was no “similar, balancing” programme about Kamala Harris.’
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
The departure of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness means the BBC is leaderless when it needs leadership more than ever. Where are the people at the head of the BBC standing up for it?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 9, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Reposted by Rob Ford
Ask people what changes were most significant during the 1960s and you usually hear about the counterculture and the sexual revolution. In reality the major change for many families was getting an indoor toilet.
It is genuinely hard for most people to grasp how poor the past was.
November 9, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Ask people what changes were most significant during the 1960s and you usually hear about the counterculture and the sexual revolution. In reality the major change for many families was getting an indoor toilet.
Oh god AI powered NIMBYs this really is the worst timeline
‘A new service called Objector is offering “policy-backed objections in minutes” to people who are upset about planning applications near their homes.’
Another reminder that AI can be used for things you don’t like as well as things you like…
Another reminder that AI can be used for things you don’t like as well as things you like…
Bloody hell www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
November 9, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Oh god AI powered NIMBYs this really is the worst timeline
Also, this is a low turnout off-year election in a city where the population is overwhelming Democratic and from progressive demographics, and in a country with an unpopular right wing incumbent. I would be wary of generalising from this to contexts where some or all of these things aren't true.
Perhaps it worked for him (don't know enough about US politics to know) but it's an all too familiar hope on the part of the British left - one that, time and time again, is sadly dashed when the results are counted and the analysis is done.
Zohran Mamdani’s win shows the power of mobilizing non-voters | Ben Davis
Mamdani reshaped the electorate, bringing hundreds of thousands of non-voters out to the polls, from young people to left-behind immigrant communities
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Also, this is a low turnout off-year election in a city where the population is overwhelming Democratic and from progressive demographics, and in a country with an unpopular right wing incumbent. I would be wary of generalising from this to contexts where some or all of these things aren't true.
Reposted by Rob Ford
Write for us!
Here are 26 ideas of articles we'd like to commission.
www.worksinprogress.news/p/more-artic...
Here are 26 ideas of articles we'd like to commission.
www.worksinprogress.news/p/more-artic...
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Write for us!
Here are 26 ideas of articles we'd like to commission.
www.worksinprogress.news/p/more-artic...
Here are 26 ideas of articles we'd like to commission.
www.worksinprogress.news/p/more-artic...
Sounds to me like someone could end this mess by just presenting him with a policy practically identical to Obamacare, but call it "Trumpcare" and tell him it is an AMAZING ADVANCE and GREAT CHANGE from the EVIL OBAMACARE
He has no idea what Obamacare is. Absolutely no idea.
We are ruled by the dumbest monarch ever.
We are ruled by the dumbest monarch ever.
November 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Sounds to me like someone could end this mess by just presenting him with a policy practically identical to Obamacare, but call it "Trumpcare" and tell him it is an AMAZING ADVANCE and GREAT CHANGE from the EVIL OBAMACARE
Denmark also has PR, which has been crucial to the entire Social Democrats' strategy for a long time, and the current Social Democrat government is a coalition with two centre-right parties.
The Danish Social Democrats whose immigration policy the Labour Party wants to copy are the red line that starts at 35% in 2019 and ends at 21% in 2025
November 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Denmark also has PR, which has been crucial to the entire Social Democrats' strategy for a long time, and the current Social Democrat government is a coalition with two centre-right parties.
Reposted by Rob Ford
The Danish Social Democrats whose immigration policy the Labour Party wants to copy are the red line that starts at 35% in 2019 and ends at 21% in 2025
November 8, 2025 at 1:27 PM
The Danish Social Democrats whose immigration policy the Labour Party wants to copy are the red line that starts at 35% in 2019 and ends at 21% in 2025
Reposted by Rob Ford
🧵. The weird thing about parts of the Labour right’s Denmark obsession is that it is either a) a strategy to maximise the number of votes for the left bloc, which is pointless under our electoral system or b) a strategy to do Blairism in government…which they could do tomorrow if they wanted.
are people attributing how terrible the parties in the post-2022 danish govt is polling on immigration policy? bc i don't think danish immigration policy has changed significantly since 2022.
November 8, 2025 at 11:53 AM
🧵. The weird thing about parts of the Labour right’s Denmark obsession is that it is either a) a strategy to maximise the number of votes for the left bloc, which is pointless under our electoral system or b) a strategy to do Blairism in government…which they could do tomorrow if they wanted.