The Joy of Six 1097

"When a prime minister appoints the son of a former KGB agent, his own brother and a major Tory donor, all against the decision of the Lords Appointments Committee, the system is quite clearly broken." George Foulkes says that, when it comes to reforming the House of Lords, we should look to Europe for inspiration.

Toby James give six reasons why the Tories' impending voter ID law is a bad idea.

Jay Joseph looks back on "a century of failure and hype" in the search for a genetic basis for schizophrenia.

"One example of an early public walk is the New Walk in Leicester which was opened in the late eighteenth century as a promenade and is now Grade II listed." Clare Hickman looks at at what the 18th-ccntury concept of the "public walk" can teach us about health, urbanisation and access to the countryside.

Patrick Barkham meets the man defending a forgotten London river. "Then my walk with Paul Powlesland on the banks of the River Roding collides with contemporary Britain. There is a tributary, sending a steady trickle of sewage into the main channel. A flashy new block of riverside flats, failing to provide residents with any greenery or way to access the river. Further along, heaps of fly-tipped rubbish and the recent relics of camps created by desperate people without homes."

"As the scientists explore the chamber, they hear footsteps and screams. Jill (Jane Asher), a sensitive computer programmer, sees a vision of a young maid running up the stairs, as if hounded by some unseen force, and falling from the top to her death. Peter (Michael Bryant), the team’s headstrong leader, is sure that the stone itself is their new recording medium." Sean McGeady marks the 50th anniversary of Nigel Kneale's television ghost story The Stone Tape.