The Joy of Six 1090

Stumbling & Mumbling looks into the supposed fiscal "black hole": "The Tories, aided by much of the media, are trying to pull a con trick. They want to present spending cuts as a technocratic necessity when they are in fact a political choice."

"Children living in bad housing are more likely to have respiratory problems like coughing and asthmatic wheezing, to be at risk of infections, and to have mental health problems. And by increasing the likelihood of missing regular school, these health problems, in turn, had a detrimental impact on their education." Taj Ali lays bare the lethal consequences of Britain’s slum housing.

"As usual, rape survivors are being treated as suspects rather than victims, when it’s the perpetrators’ lives who should be placed under the microscope." Lydia Spencer-Elliott on the revelation that rape victims' therapy notes from pre-trial counselling can be handed to police and the accused's legal teams during investigations.

Jonathan Haide says the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid and explains why.

"The architectural roots of the Victoria Centre are firmly embedded in the modern movement of the mid-1950s and its ambitions for the urban renewal of British cities. The development was however ultimately a product of opportunism and a misplaced belief in the capacity of a private developer to successfully achieve such renewal without a high degree of publicly-led planning and oversight." Municipal Dreams visits Nottingham as one major development reaches its 50th year.

Amanda Petrusich celebrates the boundless energy of the Spice Girls as their film Spiceworld enjoys a 25th-birthday reissue.