Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Top-5 discourse-generating things of all time: - Wars - Communism - The Royal Family - US Presidential elections (all) - A publication writes down an ordered list of cultural products 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Rare example of a polling Q where there is a) an objectively correct answer, and b) that answer is "don't know". 001
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I just don't think we should think of his job as "pollster" in the same way as a Peter Kellner or a Martin Boon. He's always been explicitly a political actor and a business guy. IIRC he got famous through a long-running campaign to get rid of the guy who ousted his old boss. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I think it's very underrated, how weak they are in every respect. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 14/08/2026A historic first as I get a 100 in the Pacific. www.maptap.gg August 14 96🔥 90👑 98🎯 95🏅 100🎯 Final score: 967maptap.gg🎯MapTap Daily Geography GamePlay MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers. 100
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Great prompt and great thread, can't argue with the recommendations. IMO Peter Jackson not getting enough credit for LOTR, and James Cameron for the run of Terminator-Aliens-T2. 011
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Enough of a difference for you to think there's something real there. Should think it's to do both with Americans being richer, *and* having more of an entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Oh I like this. My Labour backstory is that my grandfather was a fisherman. My Tory backstory is that he owned the boat. 000
Reposted by Peter McLeodNute @nutedawn.bsky.social · 10/06/2026The precise moment in Book V where Tolkien just says “fuck it” and dispenses with any sort of novel realism to lean into the full-blown medieval epic poem he’s been barely holding back from all along 2665
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 08/06/2026Absolutely love "there is a bit of concern about annoying residents too much. But it means the data is good." 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 06/06/2026In danger of being excessively normie here but 12 year old me would kill and/or die for a 5-movie cycle of The Silmarillion. Current me says Terrence Malick directs a couple of them. 010
Reposted by Peter McLeodJim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 04/06/2026your regular reminder that Reform published a draft bill in May last year which promised to deregulate the crypto industry and cut stamp duty on transactions from 24% to 10% 20717342
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Among the weirder overcorrections to "fewer" that I've ever seen. Honestly, the grammar pedants of c. a decade ago have done untold damage. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Roar. www.maptap.gg May 28 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 95🏅 100🎯 Final score: 985maptap.gg🎯MapTap Daily Geography GamePlay MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Turns out I was wrong. www.maptap.gg May 18 94👑 95🏆 99🎯 100🎯 99🎯 Final score: 984maptap.gg🎯MapTap Daily Geography GamePlay MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 17/05/2026Don't think I'll ever beat this one tbh. www.maptap.gg May 17 100🎯 100🎯 96🔥 99🎯 97🔥 Final score: 980maptap.gg🎯MapTap Daily Geography GamePlay MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Nothing to stop genre fans making their own lists? Idk why people remain surprised that those who read for a living value different things in books than those who only read as a pastime. See also: criticism of film, art, theatre, architecture, etc. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Should've mentioned Beloved, ofc. Thought there would be a Dickens, haven't read Bleak House tho. Anyway what I actually thought was interesting about the list overall was the view on contemporary writers. Ishiguro gets 2 entries, but none for Amis, Barnes, McEwan. 100
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 15/05/2026This is what's gonna make it such an odd event. Goes for any other big hitters who go to campaign there too. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 15/05/2026Been trying to work out what's in the top 20. Ulysses is a lock. 100 Years of Solitude, Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice and/or Emma. Madame Bovary. Probably both War and Peace and Anna Karenina. I reckon we're getting To the Lighthouse as well. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 15/05/2026Truly this is set to be one of the strangest by-election campaigns we've seen. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 15/05/2026One thing that has surprised me in coverage of this story is the lack of emphasis on Reform's lavishly pro-crypto policies. When NF says "I can't be bought", why isn't he asked "and what is so attractive about crypto-currency, do your voters love it that much?" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comReform UK to accept donations via bitcoin, Nigel Farage saysParty leader says he wants UK to be a ‘crypto powerhouse’ during speech at Las Vegas conference 100
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 12/05/2026This is *really* good. My scores are not, but it's very well done. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 09/05/2026Yes, bring actual ballot papers into line with opinion polls. 010
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 04/05/2026Reminds me of my second-worst rejection from a job. Got a call a couple of days after the interview and my heart rose as they opened with "we'd love to...". The sentence concluded: "... keep in touch with you." 010
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 28/04/2026Ha, a key reason I went there numerous times during the 2015 campaign. You could do most of a day's work and still get to evening focus groups in MK! 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 28/04/2026Fantastic writeup of my new poll by @samfr.bsky.social Tables are available at my site: www.hold-sway.com/news/hold-sw...hold-sway.comNew political strategy survey from Hold Sway covered by Comment is Freed — Hold Sway Insight & StrategyI’m pleased to introduce the brand new Hold Sway Political Strategy Tracker. This is the first in what I hope will become a long-running series. For the first wave I’ve partnered with Britain’s leadin... 030
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026Strangely prescient that in the Matrix the illusory world created by the machines for power-plant humans to live in is described by Smith as "the peak of your civilization," and is actually just: the late 90s. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Ethiopian famine Berlin Wall Poll tax '91 Russia attempted coup Annus horribilis Britpop Euro 96 '97 election Good Friday agreement 1999 "greatest movie year ever" 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Booking a flight on your phone feels decadent, the careless splurging of a child emperor. 010
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 28/02/2026There's quite a lot of "inventing a Starmer to get mad at" going on. He has explicitly stated that Reform's policies are racist, and taken a battering in the RW press for doing so. Not saying ppl shouldn't disagree w/ gov policy/strategy, just... Pick on things that have actually happened? 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 27/02/2026Since we're all in the business of over-interpreting this by-election, let's consider the fact that Reform did a much better job of consolidating the RW bloc than anyone did at consolidating the progressives. 100
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 21/02/2026Can't make up my mind whether this is a very funny headline, or one that the writer hasn't thought about at all. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 20/02/2026Gotta take issue with this. Am in danger of getting thrown out of the BPC here but imo misleading to say that when diffs are within MoE we can't tell with "any confidence" which party is ahead. 220
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 17/02/2026Would love for some journalists to do some detailed probes on what NF's limits are for decency, reasonableness and morality on migration and deportations policy. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 10/02/2026Sharp, brave insight work. Don't think anybody's come out of an FG and said "we need a detailed plan on COL, immigration and the NHS" before. And to have picked up on voters' distaste for the utility companies as well! 010
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 07/01/2026Reminder that to follow the Norway playbook you need to appoint Tony Blair as Chancellor. 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Elden Ring by a distance, then and now. A colossus, a landmark. 010
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Many thanks to NYT connections for the free publicity. Check out my blog! www.hold-sway.com/blog 000
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 05/12/2025Time to re-promote this week's blog post: on how to read polls that tell you a majority of the public support any given policy. 101
Peter McLeod @mcleodp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025New blog post: the trouble with issue and policy polls. www.hold-sway.com/blog/the-tro...hold-sway.comThe trouble with issue and policy polls — Hold Sway Insight & StrategyThere are three staples in the diet of the British poll watcher: voting intention, leader ratings, and policy/issue analysis. Spend a few weeks following the outputs of YouGov, Survation and the rest ... 100
