Folded Up
The first in a regular series of updates for all Folded readers and subscribers
Hi,
This is the first of what will be a series of regular updates to all Folded subscribers and supporters on the progress we are making together.
I’m pleased to say that thanks to your support, encouragement and contributions, this newsletter now has well over 5,000 subscribers, hundreds of whom pay for a full subscription.
Our readers include MPs, civil servants and journalists, many of whom generously support this newsletter. Thanks in large part to your help in sharing our stories with your own friends and followers, we also now reach hundreds of thousands of people across the UK and beyond.
Over the past year our most-read stories have included:
This widely-shared story from last February focused on comments by the then ‘Brexit Opportunities Minister’ Jacob Rees-Mogg in which he said that the Government was looking at reducing both workers’ rights and food standards in order to decide “who needs protection and who doesn’t.”
This piece from last Saturday, looking at the Home Secretary’s response to the Knowsley riots and her disgraceful attempts to inflame tensions over the issue of people seeking refuge in the UK was one of our most-read ever pieces.
The fact that two stories from just the past few weeks are in the most-read list, shows how fast the readership is now growing. In this piece I looked at the BBC Chairman Richard Sharp’s close relationship with Boris Johnson and how it fits into a long history of the corporation’s failure to effectively scrutinise the former Prime Minister.
This piece from last May looked at how political journalism really operates in the UK and why the tendency in the British press to focus on personality politics often misses the bigger story.
In a similar vein, this story from last May looked at the bizarre decision by the Times to pull a story suggesting that Johnson had attempted to give Symonds a £100,000 job as his chief of staff while he was still married to his second wife Marina Wheeler and looks at what the real reasons behind the decision really were.
From the upcoming budget to a set local elections which could ultimately decide Rishi Sunak’s future, the next few months should be hugely significant.
In my upcoming monthly print column for the Byline Times, I look at why this is and talk to the former Bank of England economist Danny Blanchflower and the former Justice Secretary David Gauke about what could soon be coming down the line. You can subscribe to get your copy here.
In the meantime Parliament is currently in recess until it returns next Monday. I’m planning to take a few days off during the second half of this week, before returning with the next full paid edition of Folded.
Thank you again for all of your continued support.
Adam Bienkov,
Editor, Folded