Nigel Farage’s unresignation, Mayoral candidates and the Avon lady’s funny turn: Here’s what got us talking this week

It was the week we dealt with the fallout of the election – including the coining of the phrase “doing a Farage” (aka “taking an extra day off to prolong the weekend”).

 

Some called it Ukip’s Easter (“on the third day, he rose again”), some just called it baffling. All we know is, Nigel Farage went, then he came back, then everyone started arguing about it. Somewhere in all of this, there were claims about electoral fraud, too. 

 

Still, at least the Great British public can be trusted to extract the odd gag from this sort of thing – here’s how Twitter reacted to his unresignation.

 

 

Now #GE2015 is done and dusted (electoral fraud claims notwithstanding), those in the capital are about to be forced to endure more campaigning: this time, for the Mayoral election. 

 

So far, eight people have officially thrown their hats into the ring (find out who here), although after Labour leadership candidate Chuka Umunna pulled out of the race, he’s another possibility. We've got everything you need to know about Diane Abbott and Sadiq Khan. 

 

 

The first order of business for the new government (once it had announced its entire cabinet – which we’ve got full details of here) is to decide when it will go through the unpleasant business of renegotiating its relationship with the EU (not going brilliantly, by all accounts). 

 

Following a less-than-encouraging inflation report, it’s clear businesses are worried, so it’s hardly surprising Bank of England governor Mark Carney favours a ripping-off-the-plaster approach to a referendum: here’s his explanation of why.

 

 

Investors were left utterly confused after a private equity firm whose name appeared to have two different spellings submitted a typo-addled statement to the US’ Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming it had made a comically high offer for door-to-door cosmetics company Avon. 

 

Still, investors seemed to be ok with it – shares rose 19 per cent, before things became even weirder. Here’s what happened. 

 

 

Yep, an inanimate object is earning more than you: specifically this Kensington mansion, which has made 20 times the national minimum wage per hour since it was last sold. 

 

Meanwhile, London’s luxury market got pretty excited about the election outcome. Find out how many top-end central London homes were sold last Friday. 

Bottoms up – Saturday is World Whisky Day. It turns out whisky is a huge contributor to the UK’s GDP – find out just how massive the industry is here. 

 

The General Election wasn’t just a disaster for Labour and the Liberal Democrats – it was a nightmare for pollsters, too. 

 

Here, YouGov founder Stephan Shakespeare explains why we should still trust the polling industry. “YouGov has become the face of the industry, and now there’s an egg on it”. 

 

Are steamed buns the new burgers? The success of new London eatery Bao London points towards a new contender for the streetfood crown. 

 

If you don’t have the time (or energy) to queue for Bao, we’ve trawled the best places in the capital to find steamed buns. Veggies need not apply.

What was it like in the Miliband camp in the days running up to the election? “I’ve never worked in a place with a more poisonous atmosphere,” one insider tells The Spectator, whose bleak picture of denial and back-stabbing goes some way to identifying the heart of Labour’s crisis. 

 

The New Yorker explores the inner workings of the decidedly pointy head of Mark Andreessen, Silicon Valley’s “quintessential” venture capitalist. 

 

Surprise, surprise – the number of would-be cabbies going through the gruelling training required to get a black taxi license has fallen since Uber arrived in town, data obtained by Bloomberg shows. Those who do apply, though, reckon it’s the best – “having that taxi badge, that means something”, points out one.