Jo Swinson is the only one of the five major leaders who can really be thought of as a new face to the British electorate. While she has some experience as a cabinet minister in coalition with the Conservatives and as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the perception is that she could have walked down the street unperturbed until this summer. This is backed up by social media engagement data – of the 2,196,432 reactions to articles about her in the past five years, 90% of them came since the start of June.
Our Chief Strategy Officer Jon is the lead forensic expert in this excellent documentary about the death threats levelled against MPs during the Brexit debate, how those death threats have been incited and triggered by various activist networks, and the impact on democracy. Be warned - it is a depressing watch with foul language from the start. But for us, a proud moment to see Jon talking about a tiny fragment from the monumental tapestry of hatred and fake news that he and his team have been piecing together for the better part of a year.
From the US Guardian’s live coverage of the mid-terms; “This is a fear election. Fear around immigration and security versus fear about health care coverage, according to analysis by Signify, an ethical data science company. And of the two, health care seems to be the winning issue despite Donald Trump’s dire warnings of a caravan heading towards the US-Mexico border.”
Trump’s divisive rhetoric and a comparatively disciplined issues-driven campaign from the Democrats have presented voters with a stark choice in tomorrow’s mid-terms: turn out to vote because you fear a tidal wave of immigration and criminality, or go to the polls because you fear losing your access to affordable health care. Analysis conducted by Signify indicates that healthcare is more important to voters than any other issue and may swing results all over the country.
