Six of the Best 488

Confessions of a Skeptic looks at the terms of reference for the government's historical child abuse inquiry: "There are one or two good points in the Terms of Reference, but the overall impression is that it is a half-thought through mess. It is self-contradictory concerning the range of information the inquiry can access, there are redundant phrases within it, there are phrases whose meaning is very unclear. It has the air of having been hurriedly scribbled on the back of an envelope in response to a 30-minute deadline."

Making choice work for the poorest families does not undermine good schools, argues Emran Mian.

"Bleak House does not merely embody the vast scope of his vision of contemporary London, but offers unparalleled richness in every aspect of his art – from the slums of Tom-All-Alone's to the 'houses of high connection' in the fashionable world; from comedy to psychological drama to social commentary and pure storytelling." Lynn Shepherd celebrates Charles Dickens' greatest novel.

Mark Cole watches Ronnie O'Sullivan make snooker history.

"Ye olde" is fake Old English and we don't even pronounce it properly, explains Lauren Davis.

Unofficial Britain visits Cleethorpes and Southport on a quest to find what Sooty and Sweep are doing now.