iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Huge fun with Marina Hyde doing a mini series on culture with Goalhanger’s Rest is Entertainment. 1st episode we is on “Tradwives”. Later episodes cover celebrities and politics, Taylor Swift, changing tastes in music. All with lots of @focaldata.bsky.social polling open.spotify.com/episode/0yvo...

open.spotify.com

Have Tradwives Killed Feminism?

Spotify video

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Yup, twisted beyond original usage.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Parsimonious model - matching census variables can be 95% matched even going back to 2001 census. Before then more difficult. Also found 2011 census variables more predictive than 2001 even for early election. Think Focaldata have already done 1997-2019 on new boundaries. Will send

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Reposted by James Kanagasooriam

Patrick English @patrick-pme.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Join Scarlett Maguire, @jameskanag.bsky.social and myself live with @mattchorley.bsky.social from 5 past 3 for our regular @bbc5live.bsky.social Poll Position segment! Do tune in!

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Vs the SNP vote share is very dislocated - 16% of variance. I’ve described Westminster / Holyrood dynamic as a dysfunctional Stoppard play within a play

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

We’ve been analysing what drives support for scottish independence. I was surprised that 50% of the variance of support is driven by which PM is in charge and high the aggregate right wing (Con/Ref) vote is in the U.K.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Completely agree. Would have been a great gesture

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Interesting piece by Bloomberg’s Alan Crawford fleshing out my thesis on “collar flipping” in the UK, and how this might shift the political geography of the U.K. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

open.substack.com

The "collar flip"....what if class politics shifted in the UK?

Why the rise of AI, might change our politics in the UK (and US!)

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

The better pollsters have them nearer this figure. We’ve had them underestimated in 205, 2019 and 204, so not too surprising

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Firmly expect in the future “let’s wait for Verian”. So many polling firms today, with few barriers to entry. Online panels chock full of professional test takers and bots. Online samples lack two groups - time poor Tories and offline poorer left voters. These two groups explain most polling misses

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Very likely to be the truest measure of voting intention today given their Methodology and the expense of doing so / record at the general election. Reform surge real, labour collapse at worse end of expectations, big gains for liberals and greens. Tories at higher end of polling

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

New post just out: Six lessons from the 2024 election. And what they mean for the next one. Covering: Labour's fatal misunderstanding about why they won; effects of a more fragmented system; changes in media/polling. (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/six-lesson...

samf.substack.com

Six lessons from the 2024 election

And what they mean for the next one

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Reposted by James Kanagasooriam

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 08/09/2025

Podcast: Why Is Britain So Depressed? • James Kanagasooriam On Our "Low Agency" Culture And How To Fix It

ian-leslie.com

Podcast: Why Is Britain So Depressed?

James Kanagasooriam On Our "Low Agency" Culture And How To Fix It

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

I had enormous fun writing this piece over the half term break for @thetimes.com Why humour is the superpower of politics. Featuring polling from @focaldata.bsky.social and @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Done a long Twitter thread on it which I will post

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Adjusting for education, age and density interactions plus job occupation there’s not much else going on; except for 2 things. Welsh speaking areas of wales, and Liberal Democrat challenge areas (which applies +15 to their vote). Reason behind latter more to do with non conformism / Methodism

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Completely agree. Being able to do nice things without being super rich really is the acid test

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

George Abaraonye takes hard to nail. It’s interesting for orthogonal reasons. 1/ private fleeting moments blowing up to global scrutiny - a la Coldplay 2/ Oxford’s admissions criteria 3/ political reasoning across left and right that is sociopathic 4/ free speech debate 5/ why is Oxford in the news

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John Smith Centre @johnsmithcentre.com · 31/03/2025

🚨 The UK Youth Poll 2025 is here! 🚨 Young people believe in democracy but fear for its future. They want better politics & financial stability. 📊 Read the #UKYouthPoll2025 now: www.ukyouthpoll.com @focaldata.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social #Nationwide

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Parenting becoming more effort filled is downstream of so many things - the necessity of dual incomes in some areas, housing, atomised living, geographically dislocated families, a public realm that doesn’t have lots of nice free stuff, a culture of individualism over community, declining faith.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

I’ve written today for @thetimes.com on how our shortening attention spans are damaging our politics. Another slightly doomery column

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Just read this and it’s a pretty astonishing paper download.ssrn.com/2024/10/20/4...

download.ssrn.com

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

It’s in the telegraph, the national, GB news, the canary. I think Ben’s point is largely correct though - we don’t have a equally politically loaded town square since early Twitter and we’re all poorer for it

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

The sheer number of non voters towards the lower end of the income spectrum indicates the potential for much higher turnout in a multiparty system

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Reposted by James Kanagasooriam

Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

The lovely people @britishelectionstudy.com released the random probaility data which means we can begin to unravel some unanswered questions about turnout in 2024. A substack to follow but a starter of social class and vote/non-vote. Which party represents the working class? None of the above.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Clearly not a reference to every single person so I’ve deleted the comment. But the selection is interesting. Organically not much happened which is bens point.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Sorry - We’ve got polling on what people *actually do* re community and it’s rather complicated. Study released end of the year!

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Yup agreed MICs finding similar to our own. But reform voters aren’t necessarily less community minded. Was responding to the other person - not your comment

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

This simply isn’t true and not validated by any data.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

We don’t ask people using that word - we use less esoteric language (see the blog)

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

The UK is in a bad place; but it seems campaigners across the spectrum are starting to piece together what might fix our country. Agency. Substack here open.substack.com/pub/politica...

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

The global public affairs firm Edelman found this in their global trust tracking and found the U.K. to be toxic and world beating in its levels of grievance.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Once you realise agency is low in Britain you realise how many things suffer from the lack it - growth, productivity, accountability, positivity. At the heart of our political problems is a culture of grievance so wide it captures some of the luckiest people alive

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

The story of how Britain became a low agency culture is interesting. Lots of candidates. Dopamine culture, the realignment with the centre right tossing Thatchers intellectual legacy, growth in the philosophy of intersectionality, decline of religion (see AA’s concept of grace)

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

When you frame politics as “what could increase individual and group agency” you start to understand why very different political parties are starting to entertain similar policy fixes…

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

The groups that stress people’s agency are the ones that have been making waves across labour, conservative and reform. People want to take back control

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Our findings reflect work from @moreincommonuk.bsky.social and @luketryl.bsky.social work - agency is likely to be as big a thing in UK politics as the identity / multiculturalism axis over the next 5 years or so

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Things that drive high agency, high consciousness, pluralist, trusting and optimistic traits are three things. 1/ Money - income and inheritance and a stable familial set up 2/ Mindset (low levels of neuroticism and high amounts of agency) Hard to pinpoint causation but patterns are clear

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Broadly our polling suggests that there exists an ever shrinking band of voters who are optimistic, high agency and trusting “OATs” - and that the traditional parties (Labour and Conservatives) disproportionately draw people from this shrinking group

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

My latest substack is a labour of love (link below) on the issue of agency, and how bringing it back at the personal and institutional level might be critical to improving our politics again. Featuring detailed polling and analysis from us here at @focaldata.bsky.social

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Fascinating as per from @jameskanag.bsky.social - loads of great data and analysis but this particular graphic shows shares of those lucky people who are optimistic and have a strong sense both of their own agency/efficacy and trust in others. politicalwhiteboard.substack.com/p/agency-cou...

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