The Joy of Six 1060

Alex Massie is not impressed by Dominic Raab: "Why should champagne be reserved to those with the right credentials? Why, for that matter, is there something self-evidently ludicrous about a working-class person enjoying opera? Should she know her place and appreciate that somewhere such as Glyndebourne may never be her kind of place?"

In a very real sense, Dominic Minghella was at school with Steve Bray.

David Baddiel on acceptable and unacceptable Jewish Jokes: "There is a somewhat idiot notion abroad, in the endless commentary on comedy online, that jokes either punch up or punch down, and one is evil and the other is acceptable, but actually comedy is much more fluid than that."

The Labour/Plaid Cymru government in Wales is consulting on banning the sale of tea and coffee to under-16s. Peter Black is not impressed.

"What set Blackwell apart from other British music moguls was his passion for the Black music of Jamaica. He made his first living stocking Jamaican jukeboxes and became immersed in the Jamaican deejay scene, seeking out esoteric dance records to keep feet on the floor." Daniel de Visé reviews the memoirs of Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records.

Rick Glanvill looks at the reign of Ted Drake, who in 1954-5 became the first manager to make Chelsea champions of the top division.