Six of the Best 781

Ruth Bright find the Liberal Democrats still have a long way to go to achieve gender balance: "I was shocked by the ... balance of male and female Lib Dem councillors on the counties."

"Ferenc Takács is a retired professor of English in Budapest, witty, urbane and past-caring enough to go on the record. 'The worst feature is the general fear in the country,' he told me. 'People won’t express views on Facebook. Teachers are afraid to say critical things about their head teacher or the government.' Matthew Engel has been to Viktor Orbán's Hungary.

"How far will the West go in deserting the Syrian Kurds in their struggle against the Turkish Islamic Ogre?" asks Renaud Girard.

Lorraine Boissoneault on Ted Kennedy, Chappaquiddick and the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

A London Inheritance looks back to the Festival of Britain.

"The stories about the making of Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s Performance are almost as infamous as the movie itself," says Dangerous Minds.