James Crouch

Head of Policy & Public Affairs Research @OpiniumResearch. Have some public policy to develop and communicate? Get in touch.

[Danielle Dunfield-Prayero @DunfieldPrayero]

Great to speak at the @ToriesinComms x @PolicyMogul reception and introduce @ClaireCoutinho.

@OpiniumResearch polling for @Tories4Business shows that lower energy costs are the #1 ask from SME leaders. @Conservatives have a plan to bring bills down and back British business.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

If the prime minister does eventually resign this summer, I will miss how malleable his quite unusual name was for his opponents.

Particular highlights from both sides of the spectrum: Sir Beer Korma and Sir Kid Starver.

[Rachel Wolf @racheljanetwolf]

What a great shame he feels this. Canary Wharf transformed one of the great cities of the world and will likely stand long after we’re all dead. What better reward is there?

[Robert Largan @robertlargan]

I’ve got this brilliant birthday present this year. An educational map produced by the Attlee Government.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

Now everyone is evaluating Blair’s legacy, it’s amazing how much time has passed and we’re only just doing this.

Temporally, Burnham’s response is the equivalent of Heseltine exchanging essays with Macmillan, or Roy Jenkins with Attlee. It should feel weirder than this.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

This by-election is the gift that keeps on giving.

[Helen Barnard @Helen_Barnard]

Imagine a PM Andy Burnham, MP for Makerfield.

Would he really put Rejoin the EU in a future Labour manifesto?

Even if it was appealing to a big chunk of the progressive block, it might well lose him his own seat.

Do we see Andy Burnham falling on that sword??

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

@UKPoliticsLive Especially problematic is where some see exchanging hard power for soft power advantages. That exchange is a fiction, or at best very rare. As I say, soft power diminishes with hard power.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

I think soft power is useful, but you should always think of it as a multiplier on hard power. A mid-tier power with strong soft power can have a greater impact than you’d otherwise expect, but it doesn’t fundamentally change the fact that it is still a mid-tier power.

[Matt Kilcoyne @MRJKilcoyne]

You can tell that soft power is a bs term by the fact that their own soft power could not even prevent n{t rebutt this headline.

I think we're all well past pretending it's a thing for the We Want To Be Liked At Dinner Parties brigade to have something to do.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

@TaliFraser @ConHome @reporterboy @spectator Congrats Tali!

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

I guess the finding here is we produce essentially a quarter of the emissions we used to for the same economic output.

[Kane Emerson @KaneEmerson]

The UK has successfully de-coupled carbon emissions and GDP.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

Agreed. Although what this reminds me of is a more interesting real use case: In the 70s Granada used lobby journos to do a 'reconstruction' of the IMF bailout cabinet meeting to demonstrate the split in govt to viewers.
How incredible (and scary) it would be to see AI do this.

[Fergus Navaratnam-Blair @Fergus_NBlair]

The thing about these kinds of Gen AI use cases is that the BBC could have easily made this video before these tools existed - you could do it with actors in makeup, you could do it with traditional VFX.

The fact that you're only doing it now means you only thought it was worth doing once the cost was essentially zero. That is to say, the content's existence has become a tacit acknowledgement of its own worthlessness.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

The weird thing to me is they are all contemporaries. They genuinely could all have been on a panel together.

[BBC Question Time @bbcquestiontime]

Tonight Question Time features an imagined AI panel made up of historical figures who shaped the modern world

Watch the #bbcqt AI special now on @BBCiPlayer and @BBCNews to see what our REAL panel have to say on AI, including how it can blur the lines between reality and fakery

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

If Burnham's response to Blair is deemed of good enough calibre, it does make Streeting look diminished as a figure by comparison.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

I've only read this bit, so forgive me for being facetious. Sentence one, surely what he means is "taken seriously" not "read carefully".

[Tom Forth @thomasforth]

Here we fucking go.

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

You know when Tony Blair starts with “it is a party of largely decent, well-meaning people” it’s going to be a scorcher.

[Scarlett Maguire @Scarlett__Mag]

On Restore: Facebook overlooked relative to X by most in terms of its reach with ordinary voters.

I now regularly hear people organically bring up Lowe's fb content in groups.

Lowe has *1.3mn followers* on fb. To put that into perspective, Starmer has 650k, Burnham has 65k...

[James Crouch @MrJCrouch]

@christiancalgie @RaynerUpdates Ignore the nasty people. You’re doing great but also you have zero need to justify yourself to that horrid thing, whatever it is.

[Opinium @OpiniumResearch]

🚨 Latest Opinium @ObserverUK poll 🚨

A third now prefer rejoining the EU (36%).

But the least divisive option for public opinion is staying outside the EU while negotiating a closer relationship (only 24% find that unacceptable)

[Opinium @OpiniumResearch]

🚨 Latest Opinium @ObserverUK poll 🚨

Local election losses and leadership speculation appear to be hurting Labour unity.

💥62% now think Labour is disunited.
🤝Just 14% think the party is united.
Labour’s net unity rating now stands at -48 (down 56 points since entering gov't)

[Opinium @OpiniumResearch]

🚨 Latest Opinium @ObserverUK poll 🚨

Keir Starmer remains stuck near historic lows with the public.

🌹Keir Starmer stays on -43
🔶Ed Davey is on -2
🌳Kemi Badenoch is on -7
➡️Nigel Farage is on -18
🌍Zack Polanski is on -19