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Jim Williams

@lintywilliams.bsky.social
280 followers 287 following 139 posts

Former semi-serious person. Current board game designer and armchair political strategist. Shares half-baked ideas about politics at prototypepolitics.substack.com, and writes about electoral data at ofseatsandsegments.substack.com

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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Time for another half-finished prototype! Here’s Polly C, a work-in-progress AI chatbot designed to provide comparisons of UK party policies. Give her a spin and let me know what she gets wrong and how she could be improved. prototypepolitics.substack.com/p/introducin...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
@leorzmigrod.bsky.social Thank you for your thoughtful answer to my question this morning around non-divisive political messages. I'd love to ask you some further questions, around rigidity and authoritarianism. Are you still around Hay at all?
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
@steveakehurst.bsky.social Hello! I'm doing a masters dissertation on electoral viability of policies that increase tax. Your MRP data on this is fantastic. Could we chat? I'd love to ask you some questions.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Cor. Very jealous. I particularly recommend Bath Soft Cheese, Gem Ale, those amazing biscuits by the Bath Cheese Company!
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Wera Hobhouse MP @werahobhouse.org.uk · 23/04/2025
Now more than ever, it is imperative that we buy local. I am delighted to be hosting some of Bath's best businesses in Parliament to give my colleagues a 'Taste of Bath'. Throughout the day I will be highlighting these fantastic businesses as I encourage you to buy Bath and back Britain 🇬🇧
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Should I set this organisation up? It's a monstrous hybrid of a lean think tank and a full fat public communications campaign. Could it ever work? Should it see the light of day? Come poke holes in it here: open.substack.com/pub/prototyp... With more art from the wonderful www.lengrant.co.uk
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Liberal Democrats @libdems.org.uk · 25/03/2025
The Digital Services Tax currently brings in over £830M a year - enough to completely cover the cost of free school meals. Politics is about choices. Cutting this Tax while diluting free schools meals would be choosing Donald Trump and Elon Musk over hungry school children.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Fred, my policy chat bot in training, is a show off. He already knows what happened at Conference this weekend. But is he getting it right? Maybe? Probably? Sort of? Take a look, let me know, and give me some of that juicy negative feedback goodness. prototypepolitics.substack.com/p/harro-grea...
prototypepolitics.substack.com
Harro-Great News! Frederalist the Policy Bot Made Some Friends at Conference
And he already knows all the policies that got passed. Bit keen if you ask me.
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UK Politics News // Papernaut @ukpolitics.papernaut.co · 23/03/2025
THE GUARDIAN: Kemi Badenoch’s floundering leadership struggles to inspire a beleaguered Tory party as PMQs reveal her weaknesses and undermine her authority ahead of critical local elections. - by Andrew Rawnsley
theguardian.com
Kemi Badenoch is failing to hit the spot at PMQs – and everywhere else | Andrew Rawnsley
The Conservative leader isn’t convincing fellow Tories that she possesses a viable route map to recovery
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
The UK is unusual in the low level of support among younger voters for a party of the radical right. (Reform polls at 5% among 18-24 year olds, compared with 31% for 65+). But there's clearly a significant pool of support that *could* be mobilised, by a successor (or rival) to Nigel Farage.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
The reason @eddavey.libdems.org.uk's focus on sewage has worked so well is that it's tapped into something bigger. People feel taken for granted and (to be honest) more than a little bit shat on. The party should lean into the metaphor. open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...
open.substack.com
Clean Up The Crap
A proposed narrative for the Liberal Democrats - take two!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
The reason @eddavey.libdems.org.uk's focus on sewage has worked so well is that it's tapped into something bigger. People feel taken for granted and (to be honest) more than a little bit shat on. The party should lean into the metaphor. open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...
open.substack.com
Clean Up The Crap
A proposed narrative for the Liberal Democrats - take two!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
I've been playing around with messaging recently about cleaning up the crap (sewage, dirty money, crony contracts, etc), and decided that an image of Nigel Farage as a fatberg could be quite fun. ChatGPT told me it could call Dall-E and make a cartoon for me, so I said yes. I'm so glad I did.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
@sarahgreenld.bsky.social - reporting from the Guardian today shows that raw sewage poured out of the Chesham sewage treatment works for 2,681 hours last year. That's 111 days' worth of sewage dumped on your patch by Thames Water. Here's the article: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
@rory-stewart.bsky.social As a supporter of proportional representation, I wonder if this might be of interest to you? Updates and analysis regarding electoral reform and the broader fight to clean up British politics, from @libdems4er.bsky.social.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
@compassoffice.bsky.social @bestforbritain.bsky.social @electoralreform.bsky.social @unlockdemocracy.bsky.social Latest issue of Fair Votes Watch from @libdems4er.bsky.social, full of updates and analysis about developments in the first to clean up British politics. All feedback welcome!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
@openbritain.bsky.social @mkieran.com @mattmgallagher.bsky.social @appgfairelections.bsky.social @fairvote.bsky.social Hi all! @libdems4er.bsky.social has launched a monthly newsletter about developments in electoral reform. Might be of interest!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Hello @makevotesmatter.bsky.social! 👋 This month's issue of Fair Votes Watch includes a link to your upcoming seminar this week on Equal Votes & Women's Representation in Politics. Best of luck with it! actionnetwork.org/events/make-...
actionnetwork.org
Webinar - Thursday 20 March 2025, 6pm to 7pm
We would like to invite you to a special webinar that delves into the impact of proportional representation on increasing women's representation in politics. We are honoured to feature three esteemed...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
@markpackuk.bsky.social @lisasmartmp.bsky.social @wendychambld.bsky.social @ollyglover.bsky.social Second issue of LDER's Fair Votes Watch out now. Might be of interest!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Issue 2 of Fair Votes Watch from @libdems4er.bsky.social is out now, bringing you the latest news on the fight to clean up Britain's democracy. This issue: Badenoch criticises FPTP; Farage praises it; and Diane Abbott backs Proportional Representation. fairvoteswatch.substack.com/p/issue-2-18...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
@robfordmancs.bsky.social Hi Rob. Has the online appendix for Brexitland been moved? The footnotes say it's at www.cambridge.org/brexitland, but that gets a 404 error. I'd love to dig into the data.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
It's heart-wrenching watching R1 reason on Perplexity. I've asked it to select strings of up to four words from larger strings, and the poor thing nearly has a breakdown. Got there in the end though!
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Just looking at the latest YouGov poll - the Tories are on 9% with people under 50. It is not clear to me how this helps with that problem.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Looks positive certainly, but there's a challenge in the underlying data, kindly shared by Opinium (and then befouled by my horrendous formatting). Breaking the 'NET' line apart shows that our support is not as strong as it appeared.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Exactly right. It's not just in Bath. Britain wants to *get on with it*. Labour's heart might be in the right place, but they're missing opportunities to make people's lives better again and again.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Once again, the big banks are taking the easy way out. Stopping catastrophic climate change is hard. Most things worth doing are. Backing out because the US investors have swung to the right? Sheer cowardice. Britain needs bravery. Take the hard way out. www.thetimes.com/business-mon...
thetimes.com
Barclays and NatWest drop climate targets from executive bonuses
Sustainability measures removed from assessment of annual awards after US lenders pulled out of net-zero alliance
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Britain might be tough old boots, but without newcomers to staff the NHS, boost the economy and build our houses, we'll soon find ourselves on our last legs. Britain needs migrants. Let's embrace it, not shy away from it. #ImmigrationMatters #NHSStaffing #BuildBritain
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
People use 'net popularity' (% favourable minus % unfavourable) as a measure of how well a political leader is received by the public. I wonder though whether 'gross profile' wouldn't be just as important a measure. That is, % favourable *plus* % unfavourable. Thoughts, @robfordmancs.bsky.social?
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
@markpackuk.bsky.social and I co-wrote a proposed electoral strategy for @libdems.org.uk just before Christmas. I'll be writing some follow-ups soon, so as a reminder, here it is! Below, in replies to this message, I'll set out main recommendations. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
What next for the Liberal Democrats?
What next for the Liberal Democrats? By Jim Williams and Mark Pack Jim Williams is a former member of the Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee (FPC) and Mark Pack is President of the Liberal Dem...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Uh oh. @markpackuk.bsky.social @libdems.org.uk First they came for our jobs, now they come for our right to point at potholes and look like we mean business! What will the robots take next? www.thetimes.com/uk/transport... £££
thetimes.com
The hi-tech battle to banish Britain’s potholes
UK roads are poorly designed and badly built. Could the answer lie in AI — which predicts problems before they appear — and rupture-fixing robots?
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
A good listen! Thanks @markpackuk.bsky.social and Peter. Summary of how to beat populism 1. adopt a proportional *and* moderating electoral system, 2. get the economy going, 3. revitalise public services, 4. rebuild trust in politicians, and 5. tackle concern over immigration (one way or another).
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
As @james.fieldleveltech.org says, it's frighteningly easy to train ChatGPT to write posts that further a narrative. (I'm doing this openly: I want to show how a narrative I've written could be adapted to a wider range of news topics than I can cover. But others could do it covertly and harmfully.)
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Zoë Crowther @zoecrowther.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
A Reform source has admitted that one of their MPs – and maybe even Farage himself – would now not pass their vetting process… www.politicshome.com/news/article...
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James Southern @james.fieldleveltech.org · 15/02/2025
I did know that this kind of thing was possible. But it’s pretty worrisome just how easy it is now. Jim is being responsible but others won’t be. I think @cleanuptheinternet.org.uk are right. We need “verified human” account labels
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
India-Pakistan border famously a v chilled region where everyone is happy now & no remaining arguments over sovereignty etc
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Introducing my plucky little bot-in-training, Frederalist! He's new on the job as an up and coming Lib Dem policy expert, who I've trained on how to weigh up different Lib Dem policy sources. Please give him a go and tell me what he gets wrong! chatgpt.com/g/g-67ae219b...
chatgpt.com
ChatGPT - Frederalist! Your Unofficial Lib Dem Policy Bot
New to the job and eager to learn, Frederalist provides unofficial but diligent summaries of Lib Dem policy. Might make mistakes, so do check with the official party website!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I'm having fun training up some GPTs at the moment. One is a messaging bot to respond to the news in terms of the (very rough and ready) narrative I've written. What do you think of the suggestions below? (For reference, the draft narrative is here: prototypepolitics.substack.com/i/156181775/...)
prototypepolitics.substack.com
A (very early draft) vision for the Liberal Democrats
Because there's a meeting coming up I can't attend, and I like the sound of my own voice too much not to contribute.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
@adampayne26.bsky.social Just catching up with your piece on Tory Voters switching to Reform. I'd love to see the data. Do you have crosstabs or a fuller report available? (Asking because it doesn't look like the authors of the research are here on Bluesky. Might be wrong though!)
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Congrats on your first day in the Lords today @markpackuk.bsky.social! Please send a selfie.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Despite many winnable local elections being delayed to 2026, the @libdems.org.uk still can make big gains this year, with Conservative councils up for grabs in Lib-Dem held / contested constituencies. Brilliant reporting here from @zoecrowther.bsky.social: www.politicshome.com/news/article...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
1 of 5 @psurridge.bsky.social Hello! Really enjoyed listening to your chat with @markpackuk.bsky.social on Never Mind the Bar Charts. Super interesting stuff. Lots of questions for you!
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Cor. Congratulations @markpackuk.bsky.social! I'd better buy a cap for all the doffing in the offing. www.libdems.org.uk/news/article...
libdems.org.uk
New Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords
Two Liberal Democrat appointments to the House of Lords have been announced today - Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed MBE and Dr Mark Pack, they join Caroline Pidgeon who was appointed to the House of Lords in Ju...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
In the prototyping spirit of my new Substack, Prototype Politics, I've drawn back the curtain a little on how @markpackuk.bsky.social's feedback on a really bad idea of mine kickstarted the conversation that led us to write 'What Next for the Liberal Democrats?' open.substack.com/pub/prototyp...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
@markpackuk.bsky.social and I have written a proposed strategy for the @libdems.org.uk. In short, our order of priorities should be: 1. Defend our seats! 2. Lay the groundwork for winning more 3. Offer a home to disappointed Labour votes 4. Keep growing our local and devolved elected base
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
New blog in the works! prototypepolitics.substack.com About politics, games & political games - and flying the flag for a prototyping approach to all of them. Politicians don't get the luxury of having bad ideas. Thankfully, I'm not a politician, and I have *lots* of bad ideas.
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Can board games be used to shed insight on how systems work, and what incentives they create? I'm hoping to find out by designing an elections game that tests whether different electoral systems incentivise different strategies. Let's see! #PR #FPTP #GameDesign docs.google.com/videos/d/1Q_...
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Here are the game designs I'm working on! Much silliness within, plus the occasional 'Serious' game about elections, policy, politics and other such nerdery. docs.google.com/presentation...
docs.google.com
Portfolio - Jim Williams
Jim’s⁁Portfolio of (mostly) very silly games super professional
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Jim Williams @lintywilliams.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Very excited to play Poll & Write 2024 by @tzartzam.bsky.social in my political games group tonight. Looks great!
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