In this week's episode, Mollie and Jack look back on the last two years of reporting on Sacha Lord.

With thanks to Manchester Building Society for sponsoring this week's episode. In 2025, Manchester Building Society will be offering a different way to manage your money. We believe in branches, where people can access savings, mortgages and in-person financial advice. We’ll be opening on King Street later this year, before setting up in high streets and towns across Greater Manchester. Now we need your help. Building societies exist to serve their members and communities — so we want to hear from Mill readers about what you would want from your building society. Find out more here.

16 months, 12 stories — the Sacha Lord Saga in full

15/07/2023: Part one of our profile of Sacha Lord, delving into the childhood, personal life and success of the nightlife impresario.

19/07/2023: Part two looked at the conflict of interest created by Lord being a nightlife boss as well as an advisor to the mayor.

16/05/2024: Mark Turnbull said he could prove Lord had cheated his way to over £400k by telling the Arts Council a regional security company was in fact the “backbone of the national creative events sector”.

18/05/2024: Lawyers representing Lord threatened legal action unless we took our story down.

20/05/2024: Lord continued to threaten legal action.

20/05/2024: We found further evidence that the application was misleading.

22/05/2024: The Arts Council announced a review of Primary Event Solution’s application, and the GMCA announced a fact-finding mission.

24/05/2024: Lord withdrew his legal threat.

14/06/2024: We found the assessor of the application was Karen Boardman, who sits on other nightlife committees with Andy Burnham.

28/09/2024: We requested the original assessment document of Primary’s application, and found that the Arts Council had taken the most easily falsifiable claims at face value.

29/01/2025: The Arts Council withdrew the grant and began proceedings to recover the £401,928, and Lord resigned.

31/01/2025: We dug into the questions left behind.

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Tweets by the world's richest man have ignited a furious controversy about CSE. Joshi Herrmann, the founder of The Mill, has been reporting on this story for years now. He talks to the journalist Darryl Morris about the background to the story - and why official inquiries and police investigations have yet to support the theories of an online campaigner called Raja Miah.

To read the long read we discuss, click here.

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In this week's episode, the whole Mill team join the podcast to talk about the ever-divisive Christmas Markets. Are they a boon to the city's economy or eyesores tailored to tourists? Jack Walton and Ophira Gottlieb - who recently wrote opposing essays on the subject - expand on their points, with Jack Dulhanty and Mollie Simpson coming in with data and more neutral insight.

Thanks to this episode's sponsor, Manchester Baroque. For special two-for-one tickets to their performance at Manchester Cathedral on November 30, hit the link below:

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/949847347987/?discount=MillTwoForOne

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