Six of the Best 715

"In 2197 when the aliens invade but allow humanity to have an election on whether they should be enslaved or not. The Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell will implore people to reject enslavement and embrace freedom but the hard left will go, 'well you lied about tuition fees so I can’t trust you, now where do we sign up for a stint at the sulphur mines on Rigel IV?'" Neil Monnery on the rabid inflation of tuition fees as a political issue.

Isaac Chotiner says Venezuela is collapsing and asks if a civil war could be next.

Hazel Gaynor looks at the Cottingley Fairies hoax. "When the photographs subsequently came to the attention of novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the story - like all good fairy tales - grew wings."

The service between Sheffield and Cleethorpes via Gainsborough Central and Brigg has been a nominal one operating on Saturdays only since October 1993. Spatialsynergydave takes the train from Brigg to Gainsborough and back.

Inigo Thomas celebrates the art of the peerless cricket photographer Patrick Eagar.

"Today, for the first time in more than thirty years, it became possible to buy a legitimate new copy of one of the greatest, and most important, albums of all time, Bright Phoebus." Andrew Hickey hails he reissue of the Watersons' album.