Six of the Best 706

"The important thing to understand about right-wing libertarianism is that it is a very eccentric viewpoint. It looks mainstream because it has a number of well-funded think-tanks pushing its agenda and its adherents are over-represented in politics and the media. The public, though, have never swallowed it." Flip Chart Fairy Tales says the dream of a shrunken state is over.

Helen Brown Coverdale asks why we are not concerned that prison doesn't work.

Community groups are organising to reverse the tide of pub closures, reports Rupert Jones.

Alison Chandra has some startling things to say on the cost of healthcare in the US and on the malevolence of online trolls: "The attacks became increasingly personal and increasingly violent. Strangers were telling me it would have been cheaper to make a new kid, as if anyone in the history of the world could ever replace this bright light of mine, the boy who loves animals and can’t keep himself from kissing babies and always wants to sleep with one arm wrapped around my neck."

Thom Hickey on the cultural significance of Skeeter Davis and The End of the World.

Having exhausted the works of M.R. James, A Podcast to the Curious has turned to the ghost-story writers he admired. This time they consider Charles Dickens' masterly The Signalman.