John Potter of the Lib Dem Pod quizzed me about my first experiences of the House of Lords for our latest joint podcast.

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts is another in the occasional series looking back at previous party leaders with Duncan Brack.

This time we pick over Jeremy Thorpe's career - securing Britain's place in Europe, leading the Liberal Party to national prominence and then mired in scandal. What to make of it all?

Peter Kellner join sme to discuss a new report on what is going wrong with our politics, and the solutions. No surprise then that our conversation focused on populism, its causes and how liberals can defeat it.

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts saw Paula Surridge return to the show, talking about the impact of political values and of perceived competence on recent general elections. We got into some surprising similarities between Tony Blair and Nigel Farage, as well as ways in which Boris Johnson and Gordon Brown were the same.

Take a listen to find out how on earth we ended up there.

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts takes a look at a book that has made me rethink several things I thought I knew about the history of the Liberal Democrats and Liberals before them.

It also contains some wonderfully acerbic photo captions and some not terribly kind words about David Lloyd George.

It is a book from another David - David Laws - and is a history of Labour - Liberal (Democrat) relations over the last century.

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The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts takes a look at recent research into the impact of electoral reform on the stability of governments.

Does PR mean less stable government? Listen to my discussion with the research's author Dylan Difford to find out.

Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.

• Strong and Stable: the most politically stable democracies use PR.

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Election campaigns often put significant effort into persuading voters that their candidate(s) could win. But does such campaigning really change people's expectations of who might win? And even if it people's views do change, does being seen as a more likely winner really help you win the election?

Or in other words, are all those "winning here" posters and bar charts worth it?

The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts welcomes back to the show Justin Fisher to discuss just that, courtesy of new research from himself and two colleagues.

Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.

• "Innocent Bystanders or the Forgotten Actors? The Role of Parties and Candidates in Building Electoral Campaign Momentum" by Justin Fisher, Ed Fieldhouse and David Cutts.

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The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts sees a return to the show for Sam Freedman. This time he’s got a new book out, about how our government is broken – and what to do to fix it.

Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.

• Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It by Sam Freedman: Amazon, Waterstones, UK Bookshop (affiliate links).

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The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts discusses a great new book about the geography of British elections with its two authors, Jamie Furlong and Will Jennings.

Why do the Conservatives underperform on Merseyside yet overperform in Lincolnshire, and how much of electoral geography is really about individual campaigners?

Take a listen to find out...

• Get The Changing Electoral Map of England and Wales by Jamie Furlong and Will Jennings: Amazon, Bookshop, Waterstones. (Affiliate links.)

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The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts takes a look back to the five criteria for success that Professor Tim Bale set out for opposition leaders and considers how they played out by the end of the 2024 general election.

Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it.

• Our original discussion of five tests for opposition parties.

• Share the show's website, www.NeverMindTheBarCharts.com.