Mutant 'super pigs' breeding at uncontrollable levels in nuclear fallout zone

Congratulations to the Daily Star. Thanks to a nomination from a Liberal England reader, it has won our Headline of the Day Award.

The Joy of Six 1492

"It’s a well-worn tactic: Say something obviously offensive and watch as the media debates whether you were right, actually. The result is that the state of general discourse moves further to the right, the ratchet effect in action." Don't fall into the Nick Timothy trap, warns Mic Wright.

Helen Maguire exposes planners' failure to consider women's safety: "Simple issues like lighting dictate who feels able to use public space after dark. Many women plan their routes based on lighting, avoiding dark shortcuts or taking longer paths home simply to stay on well-lit streets. Some pay for taxis to avoid walking along unlit roads altogether, a luxury that not everyone can afford."

"Quietly, our country is moving, state by state and executive order by executive order, towards policies that all but dismantle the rights of those deemed mentally ill. In the US, both Republican and Democratic legislators have applauded the trend toward seemingly humane policies that lower the threshold for involuntary psychiatric commitment and assertive, non-consensual treatment in the community." Nancy Burke on mental health and the assault on autonomy in Trump's America.

Georgina Brewis and Sam Blaxland consider the long history of student finance: "It is hard to see successive campaigns against repayable loans or fee increases as anything other than a series of failures. But it is also clear that many of the support systems students today take for granted arose out of such activism, from student discounts to subsidised canteens to union shops and hardship funds."

Emily Temple tells how J.R.R. Tolkien stopped W.H. Auden writing a book about him.

A run of Japanese films released around the millennium, and bracketed together as 'J-Horror', gave new life to the ghost story. In 2026, says Ray Newman, they’re still exciting.

Japanese town reeling from year of record bear encounters

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The judges, still in their special Christmas wigs, have given our Headline of the Day Award to the Guardian.

Liz Truss's drive for Stilton exports to Japan proved a flop

Reader's voice: Shall I say it?

Liberal England replies: Go on then.

Reader: That. Is. A. Disgrace.

Liberal England: Thank you.

Liz Truss flew to Tokyo to sign Britain’s first post-Brexit trade deal five years ago this week. She took with her a small jar of Stilton cheese.

The deal was largely a rollover of the one the European Union already had with Japan, but Truss had fought for better access for Stilton and cheddar.

And, as a token of her appreciation of the liberalising of the Japanese market, she presented the Japanese foreign secretary Motegi Toshimitsu with the Silton as they signed the deal on 22 October 2020.

But, says Graham Lanktree on Politico, there has been no Stilton boom in Japan. He quotes George Hyde, the Food and Drink Federation’s head of trade:

 "The story for cheese exports, unfortunately, shows a clear decline in recent years. UK cheese sales to Japan peaked at £2.2 million in 2019, but have fallen every year since, and were down two-thirds in 2024 despite tariff advantages."

 So she won't be offered the Freedom of Melton Mowbray any time soon.

Three men held over suitcases stuffed with hermit crabs

Thanks to a nomination from a Liberal England reader, BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The judges were relieved to find that the story below it is not about a novel form of torture.

The Joy of Six 1103

"The welfare state is not a safety net that catches us when we fall on difficult times; it’s a thin, measly sheet of the cheapest single-ply tissue which you plunge straight through before hitting the ground with a nasty thump." Amy Taylor on what happens in Britain today if you are suddenly unable to work.

Pam Jarvis reads Spare: "I didn’t predict that I would be left with such an aching sadness for Harry, his brother and his mother and to some extent his father; normal, flawed human beings trapped and tormented within a crumbling, cruelly dysfunctional gilded cage."

Robert Hutton says Simon Case and Lord Geidt failed in their duty to keep Boris Johnson in check and should go.

"Psychiatrists often won’t attribute a patient’s deterioration to drug effects but conclude the patient’s illness has worsened - although any mechanism for this 'illness' will likely be left mysterious. Perhaps the case will be deemed 'treatment-resistant'. Perversely, the inevitable response to such ‘resistance’ will be to administer heavier-duty drugs." Neil Broatch:argues that psychiatric medication can create a vicious circle.

Benjie Goodhart investigates mass sociogenic illness, which left 12,000 children in Japan needing a doctor.

"Bunyan’s inspiring story is one of courage and strength, demonstrating that living authentically is always the best decision you can make. Bunyan has inspired plenty of twenty-first-century artists since the rerelease of Just Another Diamond Day, a sublime record that still deserves to be heard by more listeners." Aimee Ferrier celebrates the renaissance of Vashti Bunyan.