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Robert Ford
@robfordmancs
Politics Prof, University of Manchester. Sky News Elections Analyst. Personal account, my opinions only. My substack: swingometer.substack.com
Manchester UK (not Toronto CA)
robertford.net
Joined November 2010
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44.1K
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  • Pinned
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Nov 26, 2025
    Replying to @robfordmancs
    Simply go the the Springer site for the book, and enter discount code "BGE25", and you'll get 25% off the definitive guide to last year's general election - with many lessons for the current mess we are in. Here's the website:
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    link.springer.com
    The British General Election of 2024
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Jul 7, 2024
    A prize for anyone who can find Telegraph articles arguing this after 2017, or 2019 (or 2015, or 2010, or 1983…etc etc)
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    The Telegraph
    @Telegraph
    Jul 7, 2024
    ✍️ 'First past the post is now a threat to our political stability' | Stephen Davies Read more👇 telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/0…
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Mar 16, 2019
    The mismatch between the ideal of 100,000 jolly patriots marching through verdant English countryside and the reality of a few hundred old men stomping miserably through mud is a really on point Brexit metaphor.
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    Chris Deerin
    @chrisdeerin
    Mar 16, 2019
    this Brexit March is *fantastic*
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Jun 24, 2017
    I'm sure the BBC will be happy to broadcast what happens if you walk onstage at Glastonbury too Nigel.
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    Nigel Farage MP
    Reform UK
    @Nigel_Farage
    Jun 24, 2017
    Why should we pay the BBC licence fee just so they can promote @JeremyCorbyn? Outrageous.
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Oct 21, 2022
    Seeing as the Bring Back Boris Barmy Army is now on the march, time for a little public service thread on Johnson's electoral appeal in 2019 and popularity since. Tl;dr - he wasn't popular then, and he *certainly* isn't now 1/?
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Mar 12, 2020
    Good piece of advice from the chief advisor to govt on epidemic modelling just now on Newsnight: don’t behave as if you’re trying to avoid getting the virus, behave as far as possible as if you *already have it* and are trying to stop others from getting it.
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Sep 29, 2022
    In an odd coincidence, I've been reading Kwasi Kwarteng's "Ghosts of Empire" (which is really good, highly recommended). One of the repeated themes is the dangers of handing massive discretionary power to inexperienced, out of touch graduates of grand public schools
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Jul 8, 2024
    So sick of this. “In the right place” invariably means “not here”. “At the right scale” invariably means “not enough”. Enough dreams have been sacrificed on the altar of NIMBY homeowners’ self-interest. Our country deserves a better future than one where progress permanently
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    Nigel Huddleston MP
    Conservatives
    @HuddlestonNigel
    Jul 8, 2024
    Today, Rachel Reeves announced Labour’s changes to planning and housing - and name-checked a proposed site at Worcestershire Parkway within my Droitwich and Evesham constituency. During the election campaign I expressed grave concerns about Labour's instincts to make top-down
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Dec 7, 2023
    The true figure is not 90%. It is 10% (thread with data and sources in next tweet). This is the kind of scaremongering campaign the BNP used to run back when Goodwin studied them.
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    May 26, 2020
    “Do what’s in the best interests of your family what happens to everyone else is secondary” says Dan Hodges on national radio, defending Cummings. Illustrating exactly how this story has the potential damage adherence to isolation rules going forward.
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Jun 13, 2024
    I am once again asking the Green party leader to pass this message on to her own elected councillors, who keep blocking housing
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    Politics UK
    @PolitlcsUK
    Jun 13, 2024
    🚨 NEW: Carla Denyer says "my god" do we have a housing crisis She adds the Green plan is to create 150k council & new build homes #ITVdebate
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Jan 2, 2024
    This is rapidly becoming one of the more pernicious zombie myths regarding immigration. Recent arrivals to Britain *cannot* claim housing benefits or social housing (except asylum seekers whose claims have been accepted. “Foreign born” stat imcludes - and is mostly driven by -
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    Tom Harwood
    @tomhfh
    Jan 2, 2024
    Is it right that some recent arrivals to the UK have the same eligibility to apply for housing benefits as people who have lived here all their lives? A higher proportion of the foreign-born population live in subsidised social housing than the UK-born population.
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Feb 28, 2018
    I believe PM has just in one half hour of PMQs stated that there will be: 1. No hard border between NI and Ireland 2. No hard border between NI & UK 3. No customs union between UK & EU But it is impossible to have all of 1,2,&3. No wonder the EU get frustrated with us.
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    Robert Ford
    @robfordmancs
    Jun 27, 2024
    Why? Angela Rayner dressed as Super Mario promising to ban a thing people don’t like? Why is there a French flag emoji? Who is this aimed at?
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    Conservatives
    @Conservatives
    Jun 27, 2024
    Angela Rayner’s Britain? 🇫🇷
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