Nick Anstead
@NickAnstead
Assoc Prof working on political communication & political ideas @MediaLSE. Also 🧵 nickanstead.
The dangers of austerity plus for the Conservative party
Tomorrow Jeremy Hunt will give the Autumn spending review. The trailing of spending cuts and talk of a black hole in government spending has led to the suggestion that the UK is about to enter an era of “austerity 2.0.”
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63622032
Without getting into the rights & wrongs of austerity/balancing the budget as economic policy, I wanted to reflect on an article I wrote a few years ago in Political Studies on the politics & rhetoric that surrounded the Osborne era of austerity.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0032321717720376
the Queen and Thomas Hobbes
A lot has been written about this photo, taken on the day the #Queen met Boris Johnson to receive his resignation and Liz Truss to invite her to form a government.
I think it is one of the most remarkable political photos I have ever seen. I try to explain why in a 🧵 ↓
By-election thoughts
It's by-election day! #wakefield #tivertonandhoniton
A short 🧵 with a few thoughts on luck in politics, why these seats matter, things to look out for in the results, and an (entirely unscientific) prediction.
theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/23/boris-johnson-double-verdict-wakefield-tiverton-and-honiton-byelections
By-elections play a strange role in the macro history of British politics. Their significance is often a product of luck, in terms of which seats become available at which points in time, and how that fits with the wider narrative of political events.
Would-be 2nd time leaders
A fact that has only just occurred to me. Jeremy Hunt is current favourite to be next Con leader.
However, were he to succeed Johnson, it would be very unusual in British politics for a previous (unsuccessful) leader candidate to gain the role.
olbg.com/news/next-conservative-leader-betting-odds-jeremy-hunt-41-favourite-be-next-party-leader-after-no-confidence-vote-set-boris-johnson
Communication crisis: Thatcher vs Johnson
Yesterday, the highest inflation figures for 40 years were announced. This got me thinking about the communication of the cost of living crisis in historical context.
(Apologies, long thread alter. TLDR: Thatcher was good at these comms, Johnson very poor).
My main observation is that the government is being pretty rubbish at this. Take Johnson at PMQs yesterday (as detailed by @johnjcrace in the @Guardian).
theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/18/boris-johnson-pmqs-cost-of-living-crisis
Fake News and Narrative in Ukraine
Thank you @SAGE_Publishing and @LawDavF for a brilliant lecture and evening discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and where we now stand.
I was very struck by @LawDavF opening point, which was that Russian hybrid war (which he defined as a synergy of different approaches where each element is more effective in combination than it would be in isolation) had been much less effective than expected.
The errors of Unionism
Great episode of the @restispolitics w/ @campbellclaret & @RoryStewartUK.
Fascinating discussion on Northern Ireland & puzzle of contemporary Unionism. Why have they made such strategically bad decisions in recent years?
A 🧵 w/ some thoughts ⬇️
twitter.com/RestIsPolitics/status/1524329456382488576?s=20&t=FNEjVb8maIzA5fpsmdakrQ
My guess, fwiw, is that Unionism saw backing Brexit as an assertion of their British identity.
But this is mismatched with developments in Conservative Party, which is now English nationalist in outlook, captured by a UKIP tendency.
Everything you need to know about attic ventilation
So I was reminded today why it is important to keep your digital identity up to date and make sure you are on top of all the links coming out of your various web presences.
I used to blog (very 2000s) and owned my own branded domain. A few years ago, as the blogging died off (very 2010s), the domain lapsed.
Local Conservatives?
The rise of the "local Conservatives" is an interesting development in British politics.
twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1521806308118343680?s=20&t=sfkJjuUO8Gq2IsVVzoD1Dg
I am old enough to remember when the leadership / locality situation was rather different, and Conservative candidates appeared on the ballot paper as "David Cameron's Conservatives".