The Joy of Six 1178

Matthew Pennell says Arm Ukraine Now: "We've supported the country enough for it to avoid total defeat, but our lack of commitment has allowed Russia to become entrenched, now it believes it can make its territorial gains permanent, thanks to millions and millions of treaty-defying mines. Russia has been inept and predictable, it’s sustained huge losses, but Ukraine has never had the resource to drive Russia out and complete a total victory."

"As soon as parliament was back from the conference recess, the government started pumping out ministerial edicts, on acute areas of public interest, without any scrutiny, or assessment of the likely consequences, or thoughts for the basic operation of a democratic society. Big fat pivotal changes in law, passed without a bat squeak of scrutiny or accountability." Ian Dunt explains how the government makes new laws while bypassing parliament.

Katherine Denkinson reveals British evangelicals' ambitions to decide what is taught in British classrooms.

"The continued salience of Orwell undoubtedly has something to do with the fact that the three great twentieth-century questions of fascism, Stalinism and empire - the questions which Orwell was essentially right about - are still being played out, even if today they take on a slightly different configuration." James Bloodworth reviews D.J. Taylor's new biography of George Orwell.

Ian Christie on Michael Powell and the cinema of fantasy, including his unrealised plans to film Ursula Le Guin and Tolkien.

"The men were so wicked, that their spirits didn’t cross to the other side, and instead lingered in the area. It is said that if you go to Ippikin's rock, you may still hear the men’s pitiful screams and shouts, as well as seeing disembodied shapes moving in the distance." Amy Boucher warns us to beware the ghost of Ippikin, the ruthless bandit of Wenlock Edge.