Showgirl

The Big Issue asked Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy for her cultural highlight of 2025. 

Her selection ? "It’s an easy choice – despite the mixed reviews, my album of the year is The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift. I’m sorry, to all the critics, you are completely wrong. It is a classic."

Lisa will be interested in how BBC chairman Samir Shah is going with the hunt for a new DG; applications closed on New Years Eve.  Technically, it's none of her business, but she did spend the first half of 2025 questioning the BBC's leadership (code for Tim Davie) until reined in. 

Meanwhile Caroline Thomson, as BBC Senior Independent Director, will be a key figure in choosing a new DG, a job many thought Caroline would get back in 2012. Caroline's husband is Baron Liddle, still an influential figure in the Labour Party at 78, noted for 'political' dinner parties and supper clubs at their Kennington home.  As one MP put it earlier this year “So much of the history of the Labour Party has been decided at Roger Liddle's house..."