Six of the Best 11

1. David Hare's radio play Murder in Samarkand was broadcast earlier today. Its hero, Craig Murray, reminds us that it will be available on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.


2. The Red Rag reports that "Greater Manchester Police ... set up checkpoints throughout the city forcing people through airport style metal detectors". The BBC story, taken directly from the police press release, referred to them as "safety arches".


3. The government has refused to assess the suitability of Dungeness for new renewable energy projects. Nick Perry is annoyed.


4. Stumbling and Mumbling notes that James Purnell is "leaving Parliament at an age when in the (perhaps mythical) past, people were just arriving in it" and asks if politics is now a young person's game.


5. On a visit to Banbury, English Buildings considers the role of mechanics’ institutes in the 19th century.


6. The Daily Mash celebrates the life of Barbara Windsor: "Despite friends and family warning her he was a wrongun, Barbara weds childhood sweetheard Jack the Ripper in August 1888."