Miriam Sorace

Who actually were the Hero Voters? Labour won in 2024 because of economically insecure voters, not social conservatism.

Have been a bit frustrated by some of the conversation about Labour's voter coalition.

I've written about who the "Hero Voters" actually were, how we won them, and what we need to do to earn their support next time.

chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/who-actual...

New POAL methods brief out from @miriamsorace.bsky.social 🚨

Outdated policy‑insight frameworks = bad strategy, as exemplified by the government's current woes.

Here’s how to fix how we track what voters think about policy: www.poal.co.uk/miriam_brief...

BREAKING - Rachel Reeves on the need for closer relations with the EU 🇪🇺

"To go further in strengthening our global relationships, breaking down trade barriers and deepening alliances with our European partners for a more secured and connected economy.

This loss of talent will have long term consequences for our national research base. Government and funders should do something about it.

Defeat the Enemy : Do Negative Campaigns Outperform Positive Ones? Jade Holman, Producer at Politically In/Sane writes for POAL on emerging research about the affective responses generated by emotionally-charged campaign messaging

"The strategic use of negative campaigning in political fundraising is likely to continue through this next election cycle"

Check out @politicallyinsane.bsky.social's write-up on Substack about recent research from POAL members on negative campaigning

politicsinsane.substack.com/p/defeat-the...

YouGov has the Greens in second place for the first time

Gorton & Denton Final Update: All To Play For Anyone can win it, and each will have a tale to tell if they do

New Swingometer - Gorton and Denton Final Update!! Featuring seat polling, new adventures in abstract leaflet art, and a last word from Liam and Noel: open.substack.com/pub/swingome...

Final reminder: applications close in two days!! Join POAL and the DIVIDED team! Info below:

Time to reassess.

At the time of the Brexit vote, I thought that (at the aggregate level) the UK would be a little poorer but a little more sovereign. It’s now clear that the UK is quite a lot poorer, and only marginally more sovereign …

The impact at the individual level is much worse, too

📢 JOB ALERT! Postdoc opportunity in Political Behaviour & Political Economy (UKRI‑funded) - Please do share with anyone who might be a great fit. If you’re interested or would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch!! jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They Were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next? How private equity reshaped the local and the postcode tool that shows the pubs most at risk.

My brother wanted a London pub crawl. The result? My new Substack post: "Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?" How private equity reshaped the local, which pubs are most at risk and most importantly what to do about it.
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

We’re delighted to announce that the Politically In/Sane podcast is now part of POAL!

Hosted by Marc Bokobza, the podcast dives into Political Behaviour, exploring how people think, feel, and act politically with insights from prominent experts.

Find it here: www.poal.co.uk/events/

Thrilled to see my joint work with Natascha Zaun published in @wepsocial.bsky.social 🎉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... a 🧵...

Thanks Seth! Very much keen to hear what you think of it!!

Abstract of "Dimension-specific party and public opinion responsiveness in the EU immigration acquis" by Miriam Sorace and Natascha Zaun, published in West European Politics.

Wordscores results – increasing immigration restrictiveness in EU legislation over time, Loess Line.

Marginal effects plot of the marginal effect of dossier responsiveness on "yes" votes by public euroscepticism (left panel) or public anti-immigration sentiment (right panel).

🎉 Online first:

How do EU parties balance immigration and EU integration views in Parliament votes?

In this study, @miriamsorace.bsky.social and Natascha Zaun show parties stick to their immigration stance but shift with public opinion on EU integration.

doi.org/10.1080/0140...

📢 JOB ALERT! Postdoc opportunity in Political Behaviour & Political Economy (UKRI‑funded) - Please do share with anyone who might be a great fit. If you’re interested or would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch!! jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

NEW PAPER ALERT! My paper, with @bjornhoyland.bsky.social , on how “policy loss” shapes support for the EU has just been published in @cpsjournal.bsky.social. Check it out!
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If the EU Commission is serious about advancing a more integrated and independent Europe, directly targeting public opinion in each Member State - rather than focusing on party competition at the EU level - will be key.

We also find that EP national delegations tend to stick closely to their programmatic positions on immigration, but are more directly responsive to short‑term shifts in public opinion on the EU integration dimension when voting.

We show that the EU immigration acquis has become increasingly restrictive on immigration and permissive on EU competence expansion over time.

We then combined roll‑call votes of 350+ national parties in the European Parliament with CHES and Eurobarometer data to examine how the immigration regulation and EU integration dimensions of policies shape voting decisions.

We analyze how national parties balance party positions and public opinion when voting on EU immigration policy in the European Parliament. We quantitatively content-analyzed nearly 30 years of EU immigration legislation (1990–2018).

Thrilled to see my joint work with Natascha Zaun published in @wepsocial.bsky.social 🎉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... a 🧵...

Overview of seminar series, details available at: https://www.ucd.ie/connected_politics/events/

Connected_Politics Lab Seminars, Spring Trimester ⤵️

- 28 Jan: @jessicadicocco.bsky.social
– 11 Feb: Akitaka Matsuo
– 25 Feb: @malojan.bsky.social, @luissattelmayer.bsky.social, and Noémie Piolat
– 4 Mar: @vivifabrien.bsky.social
– 1 Apr: @elisaadamico.bsky.social
– 15 Apr: @miriamsorace.bsky.social

📰 Issue 33:2 out! 👉 Special Issue: European Democracy in Action? The 2024 European Parliament Elections, guest edited by @sarahobolt.bsky.social, Sebastian-Adrian Popa, and Wouter van der Brug

Read the whole issue: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpp20/3...

📸 © European Union 2024 - Source : EP

Ten years after Brexit, we’re talking about getting close... Labour won’t seek to rejoin the customs union – but could this be the year Starmer looks to emulate the Swiss relationship with the EU?

V interesting piece on some crucial shifts in thinking on the EU issue within Labour (also evidenced by recent Erasmus decision) … will 2026 be the year we can finally break the spell of ‘Bresignation’? observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say

EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Revealing long-term trajectories of public opinion and polling in Britain: a new resource of historical data from the Gallup Poll in Britain, 1955–1991 From the 1930s to early 2000s, the British affiliate and later subsidiary of the Gallup Organization conducted around three thousand surveys of public opinion in Great Britain. While the records of...

For the historical polling nerds out there, an article about our project with @ropercenter.bsky.social that digitised ~800 surveys by Gallup poll in Britain between 1955 and 1991 has been published in JEPOP. The merged dataset contains over three-quarters of a million respondents.

It is almost 10 years since Hanspeter Kriesi published his seminal article on the politicization of European Integration @jcms-eu.bsky.social.

A short thread on how things stand as of 2024, with @chesdata.bsky.social, looking at salience, clarity, and unity of party positions towards the EU 🧵: