Evening all, 

Carole here. What a week. A heatwave. A thriller World Cup win. A Sturm und Drang soap opera from Dame Nigel Farage. AND the revelation that there’s an actual Met police investigation into a series of donations made to Reform and its leadership. 

These moments when stories break wide open are rare in British politics. Although politics impacts the lives of all of us in the most profound of ways, most political journalism is hot air. Spats, fights, so-called “scandals”. What’s happened this week is of a totally different magnitude. 

I’m very close to this story, so you could argue that I would say that, but it’s because I’m so close that I’m saying it. This isn’t just a story that affects the future of Farage, or the entire Reform party. It’s also momentous because the entire UK media landscape is fracturing. For the first time in a decade, a political story about Farage is being reported across both the left and right of the British press. There are powerful tectonic plates shifting. Hold the front page, I feel a fainting spell coming on. 

I wrote a long piece in an overheated sleepless haze last night that reflects on the “why now?” of this moment and the long backstory behind it. Because we’ve known a convicted felon – George Cottrell, this week’s main character – has been one of Nigel Farage’s closest aides for a decade. It’s one of those facts I enjoy telling my American friends. Though sometimes I lead with the KGB lieutenant-colonel who bought two of our daily newspapers to mix it up a bit. 

Why now? The short answer: Brexit. It’s the Sunday Times that led the charge last weekend, the belly of the Murdoch beast, and for the entire time I’ve been trying to report on this story, that’s been unimaginable. Because of the cancer that still festers away at the heart of British life: Brexit. The black hole where news went to die. This week, it feels like it could be the beginning of the end for the decade of denial. 

But there are lawyers to be consulted and facts to be checked so we’ll be publishing this piece next week. Please do consider signing up for membership to support this work if you read this newsletter for free.

We don’t yet have the ability to turn on comments for our stories but if you have thoughts/reflections – or even better, hot tips – after reading this story, please do always feel free to email us at [email protected] and one of us will get back to you. 

This week, don’t miss Stewart Lee on the absurdities of the Clacton byelection. And we have an edited transcript of a Q&A I moderated this week with the extraordinary photographer and filmmaker Misan Harriman, and the director of a new documentary about him, Shoot the People, Andy Mundy-Castle. You may know Misan for his striking black-and-white portraits of protesters and activists, for his advocacy on Palestine, or for the fact that last month, the Telegraph and the Times went to long and concerted efforts to try and cancel him. 

I’ve never quite seen anything like it. Almost as if a black man who’s been an outspoken critic of Israel has some sort of target on his back…

We will be back on Tuesday. I will hand over to the rest of the team to provide the links to today’s content…

Carole

“British people like to cause disruption, to not do as they're told, and vote for the funny underdog,” writes Stewart about the Clacton byelection. Once the beneficiary of that spirit was Nigel Farage, he says, “but now he’s a cryptobillionaire’s plaything and an absentee MP. And the funny underdog? It’s the man with the bin on his head”. Farage’s plan to be re-elected, and somehow vindicated, in the contest is in trouble now that his leading opponent is Count Binface. Read his brilliant column here.

After a Nerve screening on Tuesday of their documentary Shoot the People, the director Andy Mundy-Castle and photographer Misan Harriman came on stage to talk about their film and much more. Read an edited transcript of their conversation here.

While the PM-in-waiting was promoting his plan for a “No 10 North” on social media, he paraphrased lyrics – “I left the north again, I travelled south again” – from the Smiths, writes Jude Rogers. The band inspired Burnham as a teenager, as they did so many of his generation. Now his cohort has reached middle age and diverged politically (as the band notoriously have themselves), but fans of all persuasions would recognise the reference. Could the power of musical nostalgia offer some form of connection across party boundaries? “Also,” Jude writes, “as Burnham’s tone grows more serious with the prospect of Downing Street looming, pop-culture relatability may offer a bedrock for talking about more serious issues.” Read her piece here.

“Eat the rich. That’s what the spray-paint on the side of the bank enjoins us to do … Our tummy rumblings get more insistent with every newly minted trillionaire, but maybe they’ll eat each other first and save us the trouble?” writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones in the opening of her review for Karim Aïnouz’s stylish, starry satire Rosebush Pruning this week. The latest in a long line of films and TV shows indulging our desire to gawp at the excesses of the ultra-wealthy as global inequality rises (Succession, White Lotus, Parasite … we’re looking at you), it’s about a fabulously wealthy, seriously perverted American family now living in Catalonia. But is it worth spending your hard-earned cash to see? Read Ellen’s excellent review to find out.

Her psychedelic R&B and neo-soul sound has taken south Londoner Greentea Peng all over the world, but in this week’s Recommender slot the singer tells us that one of her favourite things to do is eat masala dosa at a vegan joint close to home called En Root. Read all about Greentea’s other recent cultural discoveries – including the book she carries with her everywhere and the film she watched to get her hyped for her Brazil tour – in the Recommender slot here.

Zena Kamgaing grew up in London in a Nigerian-Cameroonian family where her mum’s cooking was rich in strong flavours. Zena’s debut cookbook Dinner Time zeroes in both on bold tastes and on how long a dish takes to get from raw ingredients to the plate. This spicy salmon dish takes a speedy 30 minutes. Get the recipe here.

Thanks for reading. See you next week! And please click on the Proton ad in the link below to help us earn some money to fund our journalism.

Gmail tracks you. Proton doesn’t. Get private email that puts your data — and your privacy — first.

Ditch the Gmail data grab