FT

Coverage of sport and media in the Guardian seems to have been steadily increasing over the past few months, infiltrating even the single digit pages at the front, which used to be kept for what might be called traditional news. I had assumed that this was all to do with money: such stuff was cheap and did not require expensive journalists. Maybe also, even more pessimistically, that is what people are prepared to pay for.

More recently, the same sort of thing seems to be happening at the FT, for which I pay serious money. There is still plenty of good stuff there, but the amount of what I regard as padding does seem to be increasing.

To be fair, it is Saturday, a day of rest for serious journalists, but in the snap above, there might be no sport, but there are three items about the state of our public houses, including one duplicate. One duplicated item about the art industry.

That item - reference 1 - very much reflects the pickle one gets into when what one might call heritage culture has got too expensive. Mainly patronised by the middle classes and not enough money is coming in from government and the rich, for whom it has replaced, to some extent at least, buying status with land. All the big sites in central London are awash with flashy (and expensive) specials and tourists. All too many of those elsewhere are more visitor attraction than anything else. How long will it be before the National Gallery runs a winter wonderland?

While our government no longer has the dosh to chuck at such things, in the way of old.

Reference 2 was more interesting, interesting more by virtue of what was missing than for what was there. We are told virtually nothing about the Iranian in question, apart from his being vaguely London based and very rich. Maybe an expatriate Iranian who is betting on the mullahs getting out and Farage getting in in the not too distant future? Will all the people who are likely to vote for Farage know or care where he gets his pocket money from?

Reference 3 is off-snap, all about some Tory Lords using a procedural device to slow the progress of our deal over Chagos, a relic of our imperial past. A sop to Trump. And, sadly, despite its presently huge majority in the Commons, it does not look as if the Labour Government is going to have the time or energy to spare to bring our second house into the twentieth - never mind the twenty first century - and give us an elected upper chamber in the way of much of the rest of the world. We might have been first off the blocks with modern democracy, but our recent record on governance is scarcely a good advertisement for same.

PS 1: I note in passing the often OTT graphics - graphics which are complicated and pretty, but which do not inform - and advertisements for luxury goods which infest the FT. They can irritate as well as intrude.

PS 2: I also associate to the flashy specials which charge you a great deal to see National Treasures in uncomfortable and crowded surroundings, which you can see in comfort - and for free - at other times. I suppose participating in the special must be the thing, never mind the ancient picture.

References

Reference 1: UK should show more gratitude to arts donors, says V&A chief: Tristram Hunt tells the FT that Labour’s non-dom tax changes have been a ‘challenge’ for fundraising - Franklin Nelson, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 2: Nigel Farage attended Davos as adviser to Iranian billionaire: Reform UK leader’s pass and hotel costs for World Economic Forum event were paid for by Sasan Ghandehari - Mercedes Ruehl, Ortenca Aliaj, Anna Gross, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 3: Tory peers force UK to pause passage of Chagos Islands bill after US criticism: Donald Trump called plan to transfer sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius an ‘act of great stupidity’ - Lucy Fisher, Anna Gross, Financial Times - 2026.