i Editor's Letter: Welcome back Nigella, defying the haters

I was cheered to hear that Nigella Lawson is returning to our screens, her first solo cooking show here since the agonisingly public breakdown of her marriage to Charles Saatchi – and the drug revelations used to try to trash her character. All for the crime of being grabbed by the throat, remember.

Unnervingly, this series won’t be Nigella as we know her, with a lascivious disregard for calorie counting. It’s billed as back-to-basics, “pared down” cooking, focused on healthy eating. But she will be welcomed back – we like a survivor. Nigella rode out the public shaming over her (limited) cocaine use with strength and dignity. When detractors queued outside her kitchen with pitchforks and faux-moralising, she maintained her silence. Only when questioned in court did she explain: “I am not proud of the fact I have taken drugs but that does not make me a drug addict or a habitual drug user. I would rather be honest and ashamed – [not] bullied with lies.”

We, the British public, aren’t rattled at the thought of a TV personality stuffing some gak up her nostrils. (Probably best to add here that I’m stupefyingly dull and nothing stronger than a mint tea powers me through the afternoon.) Nigella may, though, have to put up with a few jokes about flour substitutes for her sponge cake.

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We’ve nearly scored a full house for you. After Nicola Sturgeon, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Leanne Wood, today i interviews Ed Miliband about his ambitions to lead Britain. Tomorrow it’s Natalie Bennett of the Greens. We have requests in with Nigel Farage and the DUP’s Peter Robinson. And if you want a progressive take on this rainbow politics, turn to i’s election columnist Armando Iannucci .

i@independent.co.uk

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