Mapping Labour's tribes (Odds and Ends #97)

Plus my take on the Labour leadership drama – and my panel with Jimmy Wales.

Some election posters we encountered in Japan. (Pic: Liz Lutgendorff.)

Hello! It’s time for Odds and Ends, your semi-regular roundup of the most interesting links I’ve seen lately – plus some shorter takes.

I’m on holiday for the next three weeks, but I will have some guest posts coming up – the first one should be dropping tomorrow. And below the paywall today is indeed an extremely hot short take.

So please do read on, as this time I’m featuring:

• My view on the current Labour leadership drama (including who I think is probably Labour’s best bet).

• A major report from the Labour faction that’s pitching an abundance agenda

• The NHS has made a mad decision about open source software

• A frankly horrifying realisation about the Lower Thames Crossing’s planning process

• And vertical farming... in London?!

But first, a couple of things involving, er, me.

Labour Tribes Mapped: Interactive guide to Labour’s MPs (LabourList)

MPs that are calling for Starmer’s resignation by size of majority is just one of the things you can visualise with this new tool.

I’ve been helping the team at LabourList build this incredibly cool interactive that attempts to map all of Labour’s ‘tribes’ – think all of the different categories you can split Labour MPs into, such as their faction (Mainstream, LabourFirst, Blue Labour, etc), or other things like the size of their majority or whether they are calling for Keir Starmer to resign.

Using the tribes tool you can visualise the divisions in the party, and see how the different tribes and interests intersect – which is going to be invaluable for understanding the forthcoming leadership contest. And even more useful if you’re a Labour MP plotting a leadership bid. Click through to LabourList to try it for yourself.

WATCH: Me on a panel with Jimmy Wales!

Excitingly, a few weeks ago I was invited to be on a panel at Kings College London, alongside none other than Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, discussing trust in the age of generative AI.

I thought it was a super fun event – and now the video has now been posted online. I’ll be honest – I’m pretty horrified by the state of my (lack of) hair, to the point where I’m realising I just need to bite the bullet and shave my head. But if you can ignore that, I think it’s a pretty interesting chat!¹