Pick of the week’s Gossip

Nigel Farage may no longer be the UKIP leader, but at the party’s conference last week, his face was still emblazoned on its memorabilia – including condoms. The prophylactics, sold by UKIP’S youth wing Young Independence, feature on the packaging a close-up of Farage and the words: “For when you have a hard Brexit.” Although costly at £1 each, or £2 for four, they sold out – to the amusement of UKIP’S critics on social media. “I’ve met a few young kippers,” said one Twitter user. “£2 is very reasonable for a lifetime’s supply.” Jack Kerouac may have been a free spirit – but when travelling as a young man, he felt the pangs of homesickness, and was not above asking his mother for help. In a letter written in 1947, when he was on the trip across the US that informed On the Road, Kerouac (pictured), then 25, begs his mother to lend him $25 to help him get from Denver to California, and recounts some of his adventures: “Boy, it’s been a lot of fun... I had about ten girlfriends, went up to the mountains, saw an opera...” He tells her he misses her (“Gee, you can’t realise how much”) and signs off “Jacky”, with three kisses. The letter is on sale for $22,500.

Stella Creasy, the Labour moderate, was in defiant form at the party conference this week. Addressing the Jewish Labour Movement, she took a swipe at her leader, saying: “I was going to start with a joke about what it must feel like to be a Jew in the Labour Party. But somebody told me you guys don’t get irony.”