General Election 2019

'Sally Ann Heart'--it does make you wonder what the real Sally Ann would have to say about such a heartless impostor.

Well. It's fairly obvious that those were all the questions that Johnson basically doesn't have any answers to. It sounds as if the BBC have given up on Johnson doing it, so I don't think this was a bad thing to do (and there's obviously no guarantee that Andrew Neil wouldn't ask other questions, or indeed follow-up questions). I can't say I'm a huge fan of Neil either, but I think it's quite clear that he wouldn't allow himself to be talked over like Marr did.

I don't know how important it is whether or not Johnson attends--it could once more just be a convenient distraction--, but what it reminds me of is his 'chicken' nonsense with Corbyn--who's the chicken now?

The BBC should empty chair him and do that 30 mins of fact checking as mentioned earlier. See if Pob wants to turn up and try to get himself into that one; I bet he doesn't.

Get dialling!

https://twitter.com/CalumAM/status/1202857202857521152?s=19

I so hope that this time next week we are laughing at Raab, Johnson, Redwood, IDS etc having lost their seats.

List in order of preference time...?

So do I, but I have absolutely no idea how it will all pan out. You just don't know what's going on in the anti-social media world. I mean ...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/05/uncovered-reality-of-how-smartphones-turned-election-news-into-chaos

Small sample size, but is that really how people in general experience it?

Gutted my postal vote has not come through and missed my chance for a proxie only good thing is lambeth where my vote would be is Labour majority but still anoyed my vote is lost. Any other overseas people lost there vote?

but is that really how people in general experience it?

And is it really functionally that different from how it used to be? I think some people have this nostalgic idea of times long past where people read serious newspapers and were informed about what is actually going on. I don't think that was ever the case for a majority though.

Adrian Chiles did this piece last week on R4 about the unheard third, non-voters
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bvxl

A lot of them just don't feel informed enough to vote which I guess is better than the ignorant who do vote, maybe

This person keeps trying to get my hopes up
https://twitter.com/centrist_phone/status/1202678707288264709?

The context of news consumption was very different a few years back, I guess. You got the paper once (or perhaps twice if you lived in a city) a day for news, and there are set points during the day for broadcast updates on TV or radio. Perhaps you were in a mindset that allows more for thinking about what's being presented to you ("it is time for the news so I'll tune in"), and the organisation doing it had more time to formulate actual analysis on whatever the story is.

Now it's a relentless slew of constantly updating stories from an array of sources, so it's jading, and you remember the controversial points or those which reinforce your existing worldview.

Interesting and depressing article @Oliver Schick

That part is true, I suppose. However, don't underestimate the influence of word-of-mouth stuff that would have been just as random and possibly uncorroborated as some of the stuff on social media now is. And I'm not sure whether a group of guys having an after-work pint were necessarily discussing things on a higher level than now, for example.

I think there is probably something in that, but it seems to be double counting the impact. eg demographic changes = +3% to Labour through new young voters / dead old voters and then another circa +3% from newly registered, but these are surely the same group.

True - but you are interacting with people who you know to be people. Now your friends and acquaintances could be lobbing fake news into your facebook feed that looks legit - you read the headline, take in that it looks like it's from a source somewhat based in fact, maybe drop a like or a smiley, and scroll on to the next meme. Meanwhile some algorithm sees that you've seen that and serves you something similar, reinforcing your view...?

That is a very good point. I was getting at the fact that you had 'echo chambers' and weird / stupid hot takes before social media too, but it is true - having access to way more people's opinions (or maybe bot 'opinions'?), the influence of the different algorithms, and maybe also the feeling of getting actual news (therefore also being informed) when in fact it's at best misleading headlines, at worst completely fake - that kind of stuff does change the equation significantly.

It’s on!!!

Also, the idea that "old people dying + new young people voting = big swing to remain" seems too simplistic. I mean, over the same time period, all the existing voters who haven't died have got older, and therefore possibly a bit more Brexit-y?

Fingers crossed though. :-)

Led by Donkeys are crowdfunding an attempt to counter the Facebook and other social media disinformation from the Conservatives:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/by-donkeys

Could have an impact against the massive social media propaganda from the Tories in the next few days (which will be as per the Vote Leave playbook)

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You may still be entitled to an emergency Proxy, as it hasn't arrived. Get in touch with them and check. They can certainly reissue the postal vote...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/06/tories-victory-stats-tell-different-story-labour-youthquake

Another optimistic article if anyone wants a little afternoon high.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/06/uk/top-british-diplomat-quits-brexit-intl/index.html

Just to depress people a little more - interesting thread from Lewis Goodall:

https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1202982233520386048

...right-wing. Evan Davis helped invent the poll tax, which is a bit shocking.

He was seconded in his early twenties. Unless you have some sort of in depth first hand knowledge on his role that's a highly misleading statement.

I know everything has to be binary now, but describing someone who is pro-business as right wing is ludicrous. He was even done for his bias against Le Pen.