The Joy of Six 1384

Ben de Pear and Ramita Navai tells the story of how the BBC repeatedly delayed and ultimately shelved a damning documentary on the destruction of Gaza's health service. Gaza: Under Attack was eventually screened by Channel 4.

“Resilience is critical to manage global heating: housing, food defences, water supplies, food supply, healthcare, finance and workplaces. Too often we are fighting last centuries’ wars by insulating homes from cold and failing to protect them from heat; hence, we install air to water heat pumps, where other countries are promoting air to air (which provides cooling in summer).” Simon Ferrigno asks if Britain is prepared for more heatwaves.

“The data doesn’t suggest that total demand on the criminal courts is unprecedentedly high. The number of cases coming into the system has increased in recent years, but remains below levels in the early 2010s. Indeed, the total amount of court time spent on jury trials has decreased by almost a quarter since 2016. The biggest problem facing the courts is the growing productivity gap – what we’re getting out compared to what we’re putting in.” Cassia Rowland is not convinced by Sir Brian Leveson's recommendation that we severely restrict the right to a tribal by jury.

Jacqui chooses 10 favourite London novels.

Susan McDonald discusses her love of the poetry of W.H. Auden: “In Tonight at Seven-Thirty, Auden says ‘the funniest mortals and the kindest are those who are most aware of the baffle of being’. I agree – that’s why I’ve read his poems for the past 30 years.”

“If horror film makers have nothing else they can always rely on a cheap mask to bring a sense of the uncanny, playing upon our deepest instinctive fear of The Other.” Ray Newman on the power of the mask.