Six of the Best 122

It is time for the post-mortems on Oldham East & Saddleworth. Britain Votes crunches the numbers and finds: "Labour supporters will do well to notice that 'the coalition' still received more votes than they did and tactical voting against them is a new election dynamic that will need to address."

On Liberal Democrat Voice, Chairman Tim Farron supplies the party line: "So, the rumours of our death have indeed been exaggerated – we have proved that in Oldham. I for one am still extremely proud to be a member of the Liberal Democrats, who for the first time in over 65 years have the opportunity to make Government policy."

Jackie Pearcey looks at how the Labour-run Manchester City Council came to announce 2000 redundancies on the day of the by-election.

If not enough children from state schools are getting to top universities then the problem lies with the schools and not the universities, argues Ed Long - again on Lib Dem Voice.

Only in Leicester asks if turning off the traffic lights would save the city from pollution, gridlock and accidents.

"One of the real tragedies of Dickens dying when he did is that, had he lived only another seven years or so, we may have had a sound recording of him speaking, or even reading one of his novels at a public reading." The Victorianist writes about the 1865 railway crash that may have shortened the great man's life.