Let me read to you!
You can now listen to me reading this email by clicking on the listen icon.
Last week some lovely people told me they really enjoyed it, so will def continue for a few weeks.
I’m pretty sure that everyone on the bus / train / park would like to hear it, too, so no need to worry about headphones.
A quick advert before we get started. I’m not sure if you know that we do comms training. If you or you office or whoever would like to brush up on your social media skills, drop me a line.
Dear lovely people,
We’ve been under increasing pressure to write about things that the Prime Minister hasn’t said.
I can see that it’s frustrating. If you’re a campaigner on something, you really hope that the PM will make it clear that this is his priority.
I would like to see named contacts for people with ‘severe’ mental health conditions; a focus on political and financial education in schools and cricket to be included in the Olympics.
He hasn’t said a word on any of these things.
He has spoken about walk-in mental health clinics, so people don’t need to be referred by the GP in order to get support. He’s also creating an alternative space for those in crisis so they don’t have to go to A&E. It’s a nice start, but doesn’t do much for those of us living with chronic and (occasionally) debilitating conditions.
Perhaps he’s shown his intent and more is on the way. Perhaps he’s put mental health in the ‘done’ pile and will move on. We shall see.
There has been a lot of chat about education, but mostly focused on technical and apprenticeships. Lucy Powell did an absolutely awful video for her socials in which she made a cup of tea in some kind of staff room kitchen while saying that there are different options for you if results haven’t gone your way. I’m not sure who it was supposed to help.
We know that education chat is coming. A tailored curriculum for communities, all of that. Is there to be a focus on political critical thinking and debate? No mention. How about managing debt and budgeting? Not a word.
Again, that doesn’t mean that our new PM won’t come to these things, he just hasn’t spoken about them yet.
Cricket at the Olympics? I can only presume he’s waiting for his big speech at the Labour Party Conference, where he will invite the entire One Day England squad onto the stage to celebrate the announcement of this campaign. Hilarity will ensue when it turns out they’ve all been drinking for since yesterday and try to start a fight with a bouncer.
It is hard. We all want specific things on the agenda. If it’s water nationalisation or foreign policy or whatever else on which he’s not been massively verbose. We just have to give it some time.
‘The first star I see may not be a star
We can't do a thing but wait
So let's wait for one more’
Jimmy Eat World
Peace and love,
Tatton x
ps - no email next week as I’m up in Leeds to watch England play cricket on my birthday. I shall be back on 28th to preview what’s going to be quite the autumn.
If you’d like more of this, I think I’ll be starting a Monday briefing email for paid subscribers in the autumn.
If that’s something you’d be up for, please pledge now, using the various buttons that Substack likes to insert. If there is enough demand, it will happen!
Do you talk to me (to me)
When you're talking to yourself, self?
When you're talking to your
Talk to me (to me)
When you're talking to yourselfCarly Rae Jepsen
Two (or more) things at the same time
Thing one:
Nigel Farage has stood up to the establishment. They were coming at him all the time. The BBC and the Guardian, the hecklers and the haters. Wave after wave of abuse and fabrication.
An MP doesn’t have many leavers to pull, so what could he do? He resigned as an MP and asked the good people of Clacton to back him and show his support.
The other parties decided not to stand against him - of course they did! Why would they want to lose to Farage? This is proof that the establishment don’t care about Clacton. This is proof that the ‘uni-party’ are running scared.
The sheer contempt in which Clactonites are held is evident in every sneering reference to a joke candidate. Joke candidates are a fine tradition in British electoral life and shouldn’t be discouraged, of course, but using this guy as a cypher, a woke dog whistle… the establishment should be ashamed of itself.
Of course, last night Farage got his resounding success. Turnout was much lower than in the General Election (down to 44% from 58%), but 44% is a decent number for a by-election. Even with fewer votes to distribute, Farage got over a thousand more votes than last time.
Kemi Badenoch wrote a letter to everyone in the constituency, Rachel Reeves quipped about him spending the summer arguing with a bin. That’s uni-party bullying. When push comes to shove, the people of Clacton back Nigel Farage. They want him to represent them in Parliament.
Immediately, the Commission are going back to look at these spurious sleaze claims. A rich man gave him some money - before he was even running to be an MP. How is this a story? The only reason it’s a story is because Farage speaks a truth that has previously been unspoken.
He will blast through this because he is the man the people want to be the next Prime Minister. He will save our country.
As he said this morning: ‘Today, the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment.'
Thing Two:
The absolute state of it. The snake oil salesman, never far from sleaze, never far from scandal, has thrown his toys out the pram.
Things have been going wrong for Farage since the local elections in 2025. The problem with winning things is that you have to then run things.
They are inexperienced and simply don’t know what they’re doing. Culture wars and deeply unpleasant opinions at the heart of Town Halls across the country.
He then announced some ‘shadow ministers’. Zia Yusuf, for example, is the Shadow Home Secretary. Of course, he’s not. The ‘Shadow’ is an official position. It is the name for the Official Opposition’s minister who shadows the Secretary of State. That’s the Conservatives. Other parties have spokespeople for Home Affairs. This is classic Reform, trying to sound big and important, but actually being misleading and factually incorrect.
Every week it feels like there is another shady thing about Farage himself. Most of all that £5m payment. It turns out that he had actually been ‘thinking’ about running for election in 2024 when the payment was made. £5m.
The thing about rich people is that they tend to like being rich people. They do not hand out £5m here and £5m there. This is not a reasonable argument.
Now it’s falling apart on the right, too. His old friend Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain are stealing votes on the right. Badenoch has slowly started to re-build her party and take some votes from the centre. Reform’s bubble is bursting.
So, of course he strops about and calls an unneccesary election.
Nobody would dignify it with a response. Why validate this odd move? Let him degrade himself by facing off against Binface. It’s hilarious.
Now he’s an MP again, the investigations are back up and running. He can run, but he can’t hide. The mask is slipping.
Conclusions:
It is likely that you either fall into one of the things above, or at least sympathise strongly with one of the arguments.
The thing is, if you do, it is likely that this opinion is validated everywhere. The media you consume, the social media algorithm, Chat GTP is programmed to be validating and tell you how right you are.
People don’t talk about echo chambers any more. It’s all a bit 2019. But they’re stronger than ever.
Both the things above are true at the same time, because these narratives are real. The way you feel isn’t irrelevant. To many people Nigel Farage being an MP again feels exactly the same as it did before all of this. To others it has a whole new meaning. An MP with a real mandate.
Politics isn’t just about arguments and policy, it’s always been about emotions and response. Communities can feel things collectively.
I was speaking to a member of the LGBT community recently about how far we’ve come as a country in terms of same sex couples. To me it feels like there is near universal acceptance that, love is love.
This did not go down well. They had suffered a huge amount of abuse just for being who they are. My understanding wasn’t just ignorant, it was offensive and denying their experience.
I had to understand my own echo chamber. I wanted a thing to be true and it looked true and my experience suggested it was true. It was not true. I was wrong.
I hate that I was wrong. I hate that this is still a problem, but isn’t wishful thinking so frequently a feature of the echo chamber?
Nothing in this country is going to improve while we dig further and further into our own, comfortable spaces. We need to have conversations and find common ground.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to start with yourself. Watch GB News, read the Guardian, listen to phone ins on local radio. Understand where you stand. What feelings hold you back? What do you believe is true because you want it to be true?
The House of Commons is in recess until September.
The new Phoebe Bridgers album is out today. Hearing her beautiful voice on 15 new tracks is just wonderful.
‘I’m on the outside, watching.’
Be well x
Still love it, hope you have a fab time x
The listening feature is still awesome. I hope you have a fabulous birthday and holiday and look forward to the next instalment on a fortnight ❤️