Under construction…

  Chumocracy: UK Prime Ministers, Cronyism, and the Pandemic

28 April 2021   •   Covid-19 and Democracy Podcast

I spoke with Dr. Peter Finn about why I created “My Little Crony”, and what it says about the state of British political institutions. This episode is part of a series that explores the intersection between the Covid-19 pandemic and democratic politics and policy.

  The Tories' ‘chumocracy’ over Covid contracts is destroying public trust

21 November 2020   •   The Guardian

Under the cover of an emergency, the government awarded £18bn in coronavirus-related contracts during the first six months of the pandemic, most with no competitive tendering processes.

  Will the Knowledge Economy Survive the Pandemic?

19 November 2020   •   Political Insight

While many highly-skilled white collar workers have been relatively insulated from the economic impact of the pandemic, the sudden transition to remote working has challenged fundamental assumptions about the knowledge economy.

  What I Learnt About the Great Procurement Scandal: Building ‘My Little Crony’

13 November 2020   •   Byline Times

“My hope is that tools like mine can help citizens to make sense of complex and fast-unfolding stories and – above all – that greater transparency will fuel action, not apathy.”

  Parties have failed voters — but they are still our best hope

12 December 2019   •   UK in a Changing Europe

“To borrow Schattschneider’s famous phrase: moving beyond the Brexit gridlock is unthinkable save in terms of parties. But with political trust falling and alienation growing, the question remains: will the parties rise to this challenge before it is too late?”

European Social Survey

• ESS-Partyfacts crosswalk: Crosswalk between ESS codes for political parties to Partyfacts ID. Allows you to merge in information from various party-level datasets (Manifesto Project, ParlGov, etc.)

• ESS cumulative dataset: R script to build a cumulative dataset from ESS rounds 1-9, with harmonized variables for vote intention, education, and social class. Also provides an example of using the Partyfacts ID to merge in information from an external dataset: in this case, I use the Manifesto Project data to add a variable for the party family.