FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Weekend EDITION

Stewart Lee: I wanted a King of the North. Not a King of the North Sea

Jul 24, 2026

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4 min read

Stewart Lee: I wanted a King of the North. Not a King of the North Sea

In the face of heat and urban wildfires, is Andy ‘Burn Them!’ Burnham really going to approve more oil drilling? So much for net zero – or voting Labour again

Stewart Lee

Joe Lycett: ‘Part of me thinks: we've had so many prime ministers, why not give the bin a go?’

Jul 24, 2026

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6 min read

Joe Lycett: ‘Part of me thinks: we've had so many prime ministers, why not give the bin a go?’

Ahead of a major solo exhibition, the comedian, artist and presenter answers the Nerve Q&A - on Celebrity Traitors, politics, and how his toddler has already started heckling Richard Tice. Interview by Michael Hogan

Michael Hogan

Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial

Jul 17, 2026

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15 min read

Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial

The Reform leader’s relationship with the UK media has enabled him to operate with impunity for years. This past fortnight, that impunity finally appeared to be coming to an end. Carole Cadwalladr, who’s tracked him for a decade, reports on why

Carole Cadwalladr

Review of the Week: Music, Fashion, Film by Charli xcx

Jul 24, 2026

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3 min read

Review of the Week: Music, Fashion, Film by Charli xcx

The follow-up album to 2024’s zeitgeist-defining Brat is short, sharp and rocky – but also feels like it’s grasping for something that stays out of reach, writes Nerve music critic Kate Hutchinson

The 10 best things to see at Edinburgh festival 2026 – from chaotic monks and teen punks to Bigfoot hysteria

Jul 24, 2026

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4 min read

The 10 best things to see at Edinburgh festival 2026 – from chaotic monks and teen punks to Bigfoot hysteria

Four thousand shows, one month: how do you choose? Critic and dedicated festivalgoer Fergus Morgan offers a guide to the hottest tickets

Natasha Walter: We’ve gone from climate denial to something worse – climate fatalism

Jul 21, 2026

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6 min read

Natasha Walter: We’ve gone from climate denial to something worse – climate fatalism

The message in the western media, as global heating becomes undeniable, seems now to be that nothing can be done. That is unacceptable – especially for those in developing countries who are suffering so greatly from the crisis we created

Liz Truss, dark money and the gen-Z Catholics: who’s behind CPAC in the UK?

Jul 21, 2026

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8 min read

Liz Truss, dark money and the gen-Z Catholics: who’s behind CPAC in the UK?

The British debut of Maga’s favourite conference last week was widely seen as a joke. But a Nerve investigation reveals its young organisers are part of a web of culture-war connections – from the US Christian right to Viktor Orbán's influence network. Alice McCool reports

Jul 24, 2026

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3 min read

The Nerve Weekend Dish: Spicy mushroom skewers with peanut lime sauce

The vegan chef Christina Soteriou shares a zingy dish that works both as a healthy evening meal and a dinner-party treat

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May 22, 2026

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10 min read

Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

The crypto investor’s £5m gift to Reform’s leader coincided with the party’s new-found advocacy for digital assets – part of a pattern of significant political donations that also included £1m to the former Tory prime minister. Report by Charlie Young and Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Charlie Young, +1

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Feb 13, 2026

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14 min read

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-long project that cloaked eugenics, race science and sexual misconduct in Ivy League respectability

Virginia Heffernan

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread

Feb 24, 2026

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14 min read

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread

When Britain's most powerful political fixer was caught on an oligarch's boat in Corfu, we called it Yachtgate and moved on. The Epstein files now reveal the full picture: a web of Russian money, paedophile kompromat and New Labour access that shaped a decade of British politics, writes Tamsin Shaw

Tamsin Shaw

‘What will Jesus say?’ Tony Blair, Big Tech and the Israel connection

Sep 30, 2025

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18 min read

‘What will Jesus say?’ Tony Blair, Big Tech and the Israel connection

As Trump announces the former British PM as his choice to help govern Gaza, Carole Cadwalladr investigates the opaque workings of Blair's institute, its funding from friends of Israel's government – including billionaire Larry Ellison – and an emerging rightwing media takeover of the global information space

CULTURE

'We’ve been here before – bizarre men naming themselves king and behaving horribly': author Max Porter on hope, history and his dog, Happy

Jul 17, 2026

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5 min read

'We’ve been here before – bizarre men naming themselves king and behaving horribly': author Max Porter on hope, history and his dog, Happy

The bestselling writer fears for growing crises in both politics and literacy, he tells Jude Rogers – so he’s written a children’s book to get back to a ‘joyful place’

Jude Rogers

Jul 10, 2026

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3 min read

He was looking for a job, now he’s found a job: Burnham, Manchester and the power of the Smiths

The band inspired the UK's new PM as a teenager. Now his generation has reached middle age, he is using their lyrics to explain policy – and perhaps even speak to a new electoral coalition with adherents from left and right, writes Jude Rogers

Jude Rogers

Jul 21, 2026

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4 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

This week's don't-miss cultural picks, from Nia Archives' genre-blending new album to a riveting King Lear in Pitlochry, as enjoyed by our team of editors and writers

THE HARBORNE receipts

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

Jun 19, 2026

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5 min read

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

In the latest part of our series The Harborne Receipts, we look at how the chief architect of Brexit fared in post-EU Britain – short of cash, out of politics, but becoming increasingly attracted to digital currencies. Report by Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

Jun 12, 2026

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14 min read

Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

Part two of the Harborne Receipts, the Nerve’s investigation into the billionaire's influence on UK politics brings us to the 2019 election – which took the UK out of Europe while dumping 300 Brexit party candidates, leaving a wound on the far right still raw today. By Carole Cadwalladr and Lucia Osborne-Crowley

May 22, 2026

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10 min read

Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

Charlie Young, +1

SPOTLIGHT ON PALANTIR

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials

Apr 24, 2026

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8 min read

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials

The AI company holds £670m in UK government contracts. It has also hired dozens of senior officials from the departments awarding them – raising what transparency experts call an 'acute' corruption risk, write Charlie Young, Carole Cadwalladr and Ian Tucker

Charlie Young, +2

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is threat to UK’s security

Mar 13, 2026

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10 min read

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is threat to UK’s security

Experts say that claims UK data remains under government ownership miss the point that the company has the capability to build its own detailed picture of the British population, and even infer state secrets. Report by Charlie Young and Carole Cadwalladr

Charlie Young

Revealed: Palantir deals with UK state total at least £670m – including £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency

Jan 27, 2026

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13 min read

Revealed: Palantir deals with UK state total at least £670m – including £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency

EXCLUSIVE Nerve investigation finds Trump ally Peter Thiel's surveillance firm has won at least 34 contracts, including management services for Britain's nuclear deterrent, with MPs warning of 'gaping vulnerability' as US president threatens Nato allies. By Carole Cadwalladr, Charlie Young and Max Colbert

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH

Jul 17, 2026

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3 min read

Richard Makin’s spicy tahini lime noodles

The author and Instagrammer (aka @SchoolNightVegan) shares an ultra-fast dinner recipe that can be done in 10 minutes flat

Jul 10, 2026

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2 min read

Zena Kamgaing's one-pan Thai curry salmon with coconut rice

The recipe developer shares a speedy, delicious dinner from her easy-cook recipe book

Jim Moore’s Gold Coast-inspired coconut and lime shrimp skewers

Jul 3, 2026

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2 min read

Jim Moore’s Gold Coast-inspired coconut and lime shrimp skewers

The Northern Irish barbecue champion shares a sun-soaked, Australian-influenced recipe for the grill from his new book

May 22, 2026

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2 min read

Honey & Co’s herby chicken burgers

The restaurateurs and life partners Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer share a fresh, summery dish for a sunny weekend

FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Weekend EDITION

Stewart Lee: I wanted a King of the North. Not a King of the North Sea

Joe Lycett: ‘Part of me thinks: we've had so many prime ministers, why not give the bin a go?’

Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial

Review of the Week: Music, Fashion, Film by Charli xcx

The 10 best things to see at Edinburgh festival 2026 – from chaotic monks and teen punks to Bigfoot hysteria

Natasha Walter: We’ve gone from climate denial to something worse – climate fatalism

Liz Truss, dark money and the gen-Z Catholics: who’s behind CPAC in the UK?

The Nerve Weekend Dish: Spicy mushroom skewers with peanut lime sauce

SIGN UP TO STAY UP TO DATE AND SUPPORT THE NERVE

FREE

£0

ANNUAL member

£68

MONTHLY member

£6.95

FOUNDER member

£250

POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS

Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread

‘What will Jesus say?’ Tony Blair, Big Tech and the Israel connection

CULTURE

'We’ve been here before – bizarre men naming themselves king and behaving horribly': author Max Porter on hope, history and his dog, Happy

He was looking for a job, now he’s found a job: Burnham, Manchester and the power of the Smiths

The Nerve Hotlist

THE HARBORNE receipts

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

SPOTLIGHT ON PALANTIR

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is threat to UK’s security

Revealed: Palantir deals with UK state total at least £670m – including £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH

Richard Makin’s spicy tahini lime noodles

Zena Kamgaing's one-pan Thai curry salmon with coconut rice

Jim Moore’s Gold Coast-inspired coconut and lime shrimp skewers

Honey & Co’s herby chicken burgers