The Joy of Six 1091

"The UK government is acting like it is running a developing market economy in the late 1990s, the kind with an immature financial system and untrusted currency, ordered by the Washington institutions to tighten both monetary and fiscal policy at once." Freethinking Economist spells out the scale of the Conservative government's failure.

Danny Shaw examines the crisis in our prisons: "The prison population has increased by about 2,500 in the past 12 months and is continuing to go up - 81,423 this week - but at the same time there has been a drop in the number of frontline staff."

Chris Stokel-Walker on what we may lose: "Twitter has become integral to civilization today. It’s a place where people document war crimes, discuss key issues, and break and report on news."

A disagreement about blogging! In 2022! Democracy Coma is not impressed by Lib Dem Voice's editorial policy.

Conrad Brunstrom wants promises to lose their central place in politics: "Governments around the world make iron-clad promises all the time, break those promises, ignore the fact that they've broken those promises, and still get re-elected. Yet the rhetoric of '“iron-clad' commitments persists perhaps because there remains a market for it."

"Visitors will also get to see some of the lesser known stories of treason, including that of Richard Roose, sentenced to death by a most unusual means in 1531, and Wolfe Tone, whose oration at his trial by court martial in 1798 is considered one of the foundational moments of Irish history." Mark Valladares has been to the Treason: People, Power and Plot exhibition at the National Archives. (Don't google Roose unless you're made of stern stuff.)