One crucial element of the Clacton by-election ignited by Nigel Farage is that it sharpens the already bitter fight between Reform and the Tories, who came a distant second there two years ago. Recently, the right-wing media has been visibly shifting against Farage and in favour of Kemi Badenoch – hence his fury with it. What we are going to see is not quite a “Makerfield of the right”, designed to reset politics in Reform’s favour, because the electoral jeopardy is so much slighter in Clacton – particularly given Labour and the Tories have said they won’t stand.
As Andy Burnham changed Labour politics with one by-election, so Farage hopes to do the same after many weeks in which Reform has been plateauing – and what he would regard as elite opinion is tilting towards the Tories. I suspect, however, the danger for him is not losing his end-of-the-pier show, but it just being a little boring. For the great showman of politics, that would be worse, even, than being pursued over his finances.
Soul of discretion
At Wimbledon, with Whitehall people and that promising young newspaper columnist Rishi Sunak. At a friend’s annual garden party; at another, surrounded by top lawyers, economists and judges, in Oxford… Everywhere, there is only one conversation: who will be chancellor? Everybody has a different theory: so much hangs on the answer. When I interviewed Andy Burnham I looked him in the eye and asked him, not who it would be (no point), but whether he himself knew his answer. He told me: no, not yet.
He says “policy first”, and everyone aching for a flourishing of ideas is so far feeling cautiously optimistic. A Thatcher-style special share to take ownership of utilities? A new department focusing on AI, relations with the tech companies, and the future economy, with one of the biggest beasts in charge?
Already there’s a different tone, as a government dominated by lawyers and due process is replaced by one thinking harder about angry voters in Makerfield. I don’t think we yet appreciate quite how different the Burnham government is going to feel.
Burnham is right to say nothing until the last minute about who gets which role. In politics, a completely private conversation between people who trust one another will nevertheless immediately leak. Given that Burnham’s moment of maximum danger in the short term will come when he announces his cabinet, he would be mad to say anything before he needs to.
Uncanny valley
These must be very strong drugs indeed. I stumble out of my front door into the street to discover that the estate agent is an express laundry, the letting agent an ironmonger’s shop, the nail bar a patisserie and Sam’s café has become the new Star café. Over the road, our local pub is now apparently a Greek restaurant, Aphrodite’s. What, in the goddess’s name, is going on?
Answer: it wasn’t a hallucinogenic pill. Camden Council has pimped out our street for filming. It happens quite a lot around here: sudden eruptions of “snow” in midsummer; old postboxes appearing and then disappearing again; well-known actors hanging around street corners. We should be flattered. At least the temporary closure of the pub right by my house gave me a quiet sleep on the night of the Mexico game.
Myth and legend
Speaking of Aphrodite, although I’m not a great cinema-goer, I’m desperate to see The Odyssey to discover how a real epic measures up against the slew of Marvel and other capers. I’m quietly pleased to see there is already controversy about the translation favoured by Christopher Nolan. I’ve long loved the one by Robert Fagles of Princeton, published 30 years ago. But he has been surpassed by Emily Wilson, the British American classicist whose version came out in 2017 and begins with the words: “Tell me about a complicated man.”
Wilson, the daughter of the novelist AN Wilson and the famous Shakespearean scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones, produced a gripping, fresh-feeling narrative for a new generation. Nolan agrees – a reminder, through the prism of a Hollywood blockbuster, of the continuing influence of English humanities. Anyway, whether you see the film or not, buy the book. You won’t be the first.
Modern heroes
A final thought on the classics: scholars keep telling us that the Romans and Greeks were in some deep sense better than us. In their epics, they certainly understood the importance of courage and endurance. But I’ve watched Novak Djokovic see off the younger Arthur Rinderknech over three nerve-shredding hours; and yes, I did watch the football, although only in the morning. At one level it’s all a bit silly… But don’t we do sweaty, heroic struggle, failure and triumph, better and with less blood than in the days of the gladiators?
[Further reading: The end of America’s beginning]
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This article appears in the 08 Jul 2026 issue of the New Statesman, The Great Con
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