Six of the Best 300

Photo credit: Soccer.ru

Peter Black speculates on the possibility that the Conservatives will be able to get their boundary changes through in this parliament after all.

"With its first-rate tax avoidance system, strict libel laws, good living, and easy access to Moscow (the flight's just four hours long), London was always poised to serve as both a clearinghouse for Kremlin-connected billionaires and a propaganda mill for the attendant influencers who underwrite them." Foreign Policy dissects Conservative Friends of Russia.

Stumbling and Mumbling suspects we are expecting too much of Mark Carney as the new governor of the Bank of England: "I suspect the best precedent for Mr Osborne's decision is Fabio Capello's appointment as England manager. That experience taught us that when an impressive CV hits a dysfunctional structure, the structure stays in place. It also taught us that, when this happens, people find lots of ways of blaming the individual and thus avoid having to question their ideological faith in the importance of individuals rather than structural forces."

Giselle Cory on Huffington Post asks if underemployment is the new normal.

A New York Times editorial argues that arresting people for the possession of small amounts of cannabis wastes millions of dollars and unfairly puts people through the criminal system.

IanVisits rediscovers London's lost pneumatic railways.