The Joy of Six 1011

"History at Oxford and Cambridge will be fine. The risk is that its study will be focused in institutions which are more commonly the preserve of the middle-class student. That its questions and challenges are less accessible to those on the wrong side of History’s tracks." Sir Keith Burnett explains why universities need the humanities as well as sciences.

James Butler looks at Dominic Cummings' appearance in front of the Commons inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic: "The fantasy of the philosopher-king – or in this case, the scientist-king – is the oldest expression of oligarchical resentment at democracy there is; Parliament has already accorded to the government extensive powers to regulate all social life during the pandemic with minimal scrutiny, powers which are even then often exceeded and unequally applied by the police."

By the late 1980s almost all mature specimens of  Britain's once-iconic elm tree had died as a result of Dutch elm disease. Mark Rowe investigates attempts to reintroduce them.

Did Margaret Thatcher help invent soft-serve ice cream? No, says Daniel Fromson.

"In English villages, vats only exist for drowning people—in beer, in pickling brine, in whiskey, in jam. This is doubly true if the vat was built by 14th century monks." Maureen Johnson offers a guide to not getting murdered in a quaint English village.

Richard Foster reads Pat Nevin's autobiography The Accidental Footballer.