Six of the Best 739

Jonathan Cooper celebrates the 50th anniversary of David Steel's Abortion Act: "1967 was the year that changed so much. Before then the state criminalized desire. If you were a woman or teenage girl and had sex the chances of pregnancy were high. Once pregnant your real options were non-existent."

"Since the crisis household debt in Britain has been bumping along at about 140% of income, and it has been trending up in the last two years. But people’s capacity to repay debt is weakening." Matthew Green believes household debt is "the slowly developing crisis of capitalism".

Richard Kemp says it is time to end the Coca-Cola van's Christmas tour.

"But there’s so much to love in Zappaland, not least because he wrote complex and experimental music with a pop ear. Anyone can create bad avant garde noise, but he managed to create avant garde noise which was catchy." Mike Scott has been listening to the complete works of Frank Zappa.

Bobby Seal on Terence Davies's Liverpool trilogy.

Great news from The World of Ivor Wood: the original puppets from The Herbs television series have been found.