I wrote some festive political fiction for the New Statesman's magnificent Christmas issue
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I cannot overstate what a gripping, breathtaking read the Kate Mossman feature in this issue is. Buy a copy, read it in print, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
🎄THE NEW STATESMAN CHRISTMAS ISSUE🎄
Our Christmas issue has landed! Inside the 120 page jumbo issue:
🗣️ Interviews with @Nigel_Farage, @wesstreeting and Salman Rushdie
✍️ Columns by @ZackPolanski, @GordonBrown, @AndrewMarr9 and @lewis_goodall
📚 Features from @DalrympleWill, @jimmy__mcintosh, @CharlieFBBaker1, Kate Mossman, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, @TomMcTague, @finn_mcredmond, Rowan Williams and more
🏛️ Geoff Dyer, @AmandaPCraig , John Gray and Janet Todd in the New Society
🤯 A new story by Anton ChekhovView quoted post on X
This is genuinely unmissable: detailed, insightful reporting from inside the rooms (and smoking areas) where Farage and others have spent decades planning the future of British politics.
If I was a publisher I'd be throwing money at @freddiejh8 to do this at book length
If I was a publisher I'd be throwing money at @freddiejh8 to do this at book length
NIGEL FARAGE'S AMERICAN DREAM by @freddiejh8
When Nigel Farage flew into JFK Airport, New York, for the first time in 1988, he was travelling into the future. Ronald Reagan was the global figurehead of a conservative counter-revolution sweeping the West, one that merged tradition with new money and black-tie balls with the mantra “greed is good”. America was what’s next. For Farage, it still is.
This love affair began decades before he met Donald Trump. Farage has been commuting to the US since the late 1980s, crossing the Atlantic more times than he can count. During our interview, when I asked Farage what he admired about America back then, he said: “The can-do. The applauding of success.”
Raheem Kassam, a former Ukip aide who has reinvented himself into a flamboyant restaurateur in Washington, told me “If England were the 51st state, Nigel Farage would be one of the senators.”
Steve Bannon was hosting a dinner in Manhattan in 2018. Kassam, who had organised rallies in support of Tommy Robinson, told Farage that he should stop criticising those to his right. “I was like, let Tommy be Tommy,” Kassam said. “Your problem is you’re a Dulwich [school] posh boy.” Then they “literally lunged at each other, and Steve had to put his arm in the middle of us”.
Now, Bannon says Farage “draws crowds the size of Ted Cruz… He’s plugged in to every senior person in Maga from the president on down. He couldn’t be more highly regarded, because the guy’s delivered. He’s a major player. He’s going to be the next prime minister.”
Over the past two decades, Senator Farage has built a gentlemen’s club of connections in Washington. The New Statesman has spoken to figures on the Hill, key players in the Trump administration and sources within Reform. The picture that emerges is of a future prime minister who sees Trump’s US as a blueprint for the country that Britain must become.View quoted post on X
Change in minimum wage since it was introduced in 1999: +239%
Change in UK average property price over same period: +359%
Change in UK average property price over same period: +359%
Minimum wage should not go any higher, suggests Badenoch bbc.in/3KFsjUSView quoted post on X
Infuriating and deeply unfair that Finn is able to turn a trip to Harrods food hall into such a brilliant column.
All I'd get from such a venture would be a third chin, and possibly gout
All I'd get from such a venture would be a third chin, and possibly gout
This week I investigated the explosion in the London luxury supermarket scene
Click through to learn exactly how much it costs to buy carrots at HarrodsView quoted post on X
