What sort of people get into politics?

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After reading this fascinating breakdown of Trump and Cruz's Facebook support, I decided to do the same for British politics - to see what sort of people are fans of Cameron and Corbyn.

You can find the results on Medium - this piece on Cameron and the Tories and this piece on Corbyn and Labour.

Some of the results, especially to do with the PM, were pretty surprising. But beyond that, this exercise was another reminder of how much data can tell us about the world, and how much of an advantage accrues to those who own and analyse it.

I could have spent days carrying out similar surveys on pretty much any interest group you can imagine - and if I didn't have to earn a living, I might well have.

In other news, I've written for Politico about the Mark Clarke scandal and the decision to bomb Syria - and reviewed Mike Savage's Social Class in the 21st Century for the Telegraph. It's a fascinating (if flawed) attempt to map Britain's new landscape of wealth, privilege and power - and another reminder of the power of data to tell us important and surprising things about the world...

Labour's week from hell

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I have a feeling we'll be seeing that headline quite a few times over the next few months, but this week certainly qualified. I've written two pieces for Politico Europe – one on the march to war in Syria, the other on the Autumn Statement – trying to capture some of the chaos.

Yet it's not just the present that's haunting Labour – as I argued in this piece on Medium, it's the past, as well. I've written a review for CapX of 'Ken' by Andrew Hosken, exploring the connections between Corbyn and Livingstone – do check it out.

The deadly symbiosis between ISIS and Assad

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This was first published on Medium in the wake of the attack on Paris.

The bomb attacks in Paris were sickening, outrageous, and horrifying. And one of the most sickening moments came when Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad, decided to blame the deaths on French foreign policy. What Parisians were confronting, he said, was exactly what Syrians had faced the past five years. If only France had only helped him against the Islamists, rather than keeping its distance!

Obviously, the bulk of the blame for this week’s tragedy lies squarely on ISIS, and its doctrine of terror and atrocity. But the single individual most directly responsible for its rise, and its enduring strength, is Bashar al-Assad.

Not just because, by plunging Syria into civil war, he created the preconditions for it to flourish. But because he has done everything in his power to strengthen its hand. The truth is that Assad and ISIS are not enemies: they are allies.

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