The Joy of Six 1053

"This sense that they are stuck with Johnson, whose personal approval ratings have been sinking since the start of the scandal last year, is freaking out Conservatives. They worry that Johnson has done irreversible damage to his own image in the eyes of most voters, who have finally seen 'what he's really like,' as one senior Conservative put it. The only thing left is for his reputation to now tarnish the rest of the party - something that opinion polls and recent election results suggest has started already." Luke McGee explains British politics for CNN.

The civil service needs to act in response to Sue Gray's Partygate report too, argues Jill Rutter.

Hugh Ellis is critical of the government's Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill: "The reality of the Bill is that communities will have no control over important strategic decisions or site specific design requirements.  They may have new and exciting opportunities to be digitally informed about these new documents, but they will have no meaningful way of testing the quality or content because they have no right of access to the key decision making forum of the examination."

Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards find that the practice in Illinois of involving the police in minor school disciplinary matters has had disastrous consequences: "Susan McCoy's son took one of Nichols’ deals to pay $350.50 in fines and fees for consumption of alcohol. The 17-year-old later said school workers had questioned him after he threw up at the bus stop, and he admitted that he'd drunk whiskey at home during the night."

The Black Death gave rise to British pub culture, or so Richard Collett claims.

Little Peak District Moments looks at the rescue and restoration of a ruuned lock-keeper’s cottage on the Cromford Canal.