Six of the Best 948

Ed Davey has pulled out of the Radical Association hustings because James Baillie was to chair it: "I hope sincerely that this conduct by Ed’s campaign has been a one-off which they will on reflection agree was not up to the standards to which they would wish to hold themselves, and is not representative of their wider attitude to my fellow party activists." Later. See this post for subsequent developments.

Chris Grey surveys the latest developments in the disaster that is Brexit: "Brexit has in effect declared culture war on Britain’s middle-class - or at least the most productive, active parts of it. It’s that which is leading skilled people to leave or to withdraw from public life. Yet at the same time it is they who are charged with actually dealing with Brexit since, of course, most of them are not in a position to emigrate or resign."

Rachel Lance explains the science of the Beirut explosion.

"Cardiff’s Chief Constable David Williams campaigned in 1918 to stop black men from playing cricket. He was concerned that 'white flannels are more revealing than corduroys and make black men more attractive to white girls'." Chris Sullivan on the extraordinary history of Tiger Bay.

Widening the A27 through Sussex would be 'billion-pound vandalism', says Norman Baker.

Harrow Online discovers the place of the Railway Hotel by Harrow and Wealdstone station in music history and in that of The Who in particular.