Six of the Best 254

"We don’t discuss the content of Prime Minister’s Questions any more, we discuss who ‘won’, and every new initiative is discussed in terms of how it well affect the polls, or what it might do for someone’s standing in the Cabinet. Let’s not discuss the nuance of whether it’s right that Greggs can claim hot food isn’t hot to stop paying VAT, let’s turn it into a contest as to which party leader can show the most enthusiasm in wolfing down a pasty." Nick Barlow at What You Can Get Away With has a thoughtful post examining why so many people are disenchanted with politics.

Living on Words Alone gets it right: "Good news - 300,000 fewer children are living in poverty than last year! The fact that this is down to the recession and a fall in average incomes shows the ludicrous nature of the concept of defining poverty as a percentage of average income."

Alexander Ann faces up to 11 years in an Indonesian prison for blasphemy and inciting religious hatred because he voiced his scepticism about Islam on Facebook, reports AlterNet.

"In the decade between 1932 and 1942 some eleven million people in the Soviet Union starved to death, first as a result of Soviet policy, then as a result of German policy." Timothy Snyder has a chilling article in the New York Review of Books.

Auden and Larkin each wrote powerful lines about love and then had grave doubts about them. Ron Rosenbaum examines the reasons why on Slate.

Peter Cook on Shadowlocked looks at the matte painter's art - one of the lost skills of film making.