Londoner’s Diary
Are the chart-topping podcasters Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell getting a bit too cocky? This week the hosts of The Rest is Politics chortled about former prime minister Liz Truss releasing a new book, Ten Years to Save the West.
“Shall we have a bet about whether it sells more or fewer than either Politics On The Edge or But What Can I Do,” said Campbell, referencing the most recent books by him and Stewart. “I’m going for fewer,” he condescended, eliciting a giggle from Stewart.
We were unable to get a full reaction to this from former PM Truss because, her spokesman informed us, “Liz doesn’t listen to Left-wing podcasts”.
Truss was once Stewart’s boss in government. He gave a pretty harsh account of her management style in his memoir. When he told her his father had died, he writes, “she paused for a moment, nodded and asked when the 25-year environment plan would be ready”.
He has since moved on to better things. One podcast industry analyst has speculated that Campbell and Stewart each make up to £100,000 a month from their show. It’s also an opportunity to relentlessly plug their books.
Unsolicited tickets to Taylor-world
Taylor Swift mania isn’t for everyone, which the Guardian learned the hard way. The newspaper have started a newsletter called Swift Notes, which is billed as “your ticket to Taylor-world”. Swifties can sign up to a weekly email where they receive essays, Q&As and analysis about the pop star. But things went awry when the Guardian accidentally sent out yesterday’s inaugural Swift Notes to the wrong subscribers.
Some readers were clearly rankled, as the head of newsletters followed up with a grovelling apology email. “It shouldn’t have happened, and we’re putting steps in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” they said. Here’s hoping there’s no bad blood after the mishap.
Reformtok
Who said that social media apps are only melting the brains of the young and naive? A vast survey of media consumption by the consultancy firm Charlesbye, founded by former Boris Johnson aide Lee Cain, shows that Britons across the spectrum are increasingly relying on pixels to get their information.
Charlesbye’s data gathering shows, for example, that among those who voted for the Brexit Party (now called Reform UK) at the last general election, some one in four are TikTok users. We’re surprised to learn the red-trouser brigade are such fans of the app. Did active TikTok content creator Nigel Farage bring them over?
