TikTok won’t win the election

Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”.

Let’s start with TikTok, which the …

TikTok won’t win the election

Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”.

Let’s start with TikTok, which the …

Mama Swifties need to grow up

It’s been a bumper week for middle-aged journalists enthusing about Taylor Swift. Broadsheet music critics attending the Edinburgh leg of her ongoing Eras tour seemed positively high on second-hand oestrogen fumes as they filed their encomiums. And there were further …

The rise of California’s vanlords

For outsiders experiencing it on YouTube, homelessness in San Francisco has a sort of up-close profile — overdoses and open drug deals, vacant and filthy faces, bodies sprawled on dirty concrete or, sometimes, just standing, bent incredibly in half, forehead …

Why voters love local MPs

You may not have heard of Ed McGuinness. The Conservative candidate for Surrey Heath this weekend posted a picture on social media of him holding a set of keys outside a front door. “Surrey Heath residents,” he said, “expect their …