In 1724, Englishman Captain Charles Johnson published an instant classic. A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates was a primer of life on the high seas and it set in stone what anyone who claimed to live it should look like. You know the type. Black flag, big hat, even bigger beard, eyes and voice of thunder. Much of it, of course, was made up. And yet, it’s still in print. Right now, you can buy a luxe copy for £44.95, a cheap one for under a fiver – or a first edition for £15,000.

The staying power of this book might be affirmed by how often 21st-century pop culture (Black Sails on Netflix; the fourth Assassin’s Creed game, the band Black Flag) continues to reference it. But, as maritime historian Richard Blakemore buoyantly notes, this enduring obsession with nautical treachery somewhat obscures what Captain Johnson really set out to do: skewer the British body politic with an indelible satire.

As the country gears up for July 4’s general election, a devolution scholar asks what can be learned from the recent mayoral races and how much of a role mayors, both new and re-elected, have to play in what comes next.

An election on the horizon reminds us all just how important it is to have informed, evidence-based analysis about politics. Sign up for our new, weekly politics newsletter to have just that delivered to your inbox every Friday.

And in fictional Britain, meanwhile, the Weatherfield Co-op on the long-running northern soap Coronation Street is being replaced by a Sainsbury’s. Two marketing experts weigh in.

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