Six of the Best 240

Liberal Youth has a new policy on internships, reports Callum Morton: "Not only does it call for those on internships or work experience to be paid £2.60 per hour, but it also calls for politicians to be the first to clear up their act." Quite right too.

Nick Pickles, the director of Big Brother Watch, responds to Theresa May and Ken Clarke's letter to MPs regarding new surveillance powers and closed-door courts on Conservative Home: "Let me also ask a simple question – if this is so essential, why has it not been put in place before the Olympics? If Parliamentary time was the issue, perhaps we should have waited with the Health and Social Care Bill and fixed this problem first?"

The Coalition is supposed to favour localism reforms are thought to be aligned with a preference for decentralisation amongst the general public, but Joan Costa Font argues on the British Politics and Policy at LSE blog that the new arrangements for health and education funding point towards greater centralisation and less local accountability.

Stumbling and Mumbling argues that we live in an anti-meritocracy.

The number of Twitter followers you have and the exact wording matter less than you think, says Jared Keller in the Atlantic. What makes a difference is having the right message for the right people.

Another Nickel in the Machine looks at the heyday of Mary Quant, the mini skirt and the Chelsea Palace on the King’s Road: "Another very popular show that came from Granada’s King’s Road studio was the variety show called Chelsea at Nine. It ran for three series and purposely took advantage of the studio’s location in the capital to feature artists that were appearing in town. This meant that sometimes you would get one of the finest jazz musicians on earth playing after a comedian that would struggle to get on the end of a bill in Skegness."