The Joy of Six 1183

"I am a Liberal Democrat because of my belief in liberty and social justice, and I expect those who lead the party to be expounding the distinctive and radical messages associated with that philosophy at every opportunity. Instead we have settled for a sort of bland mediocrity, a quest for the vanilla centre ground that is neither distinctive nor radical." Peter Black says he would have happily signed that letter to Ed Davey.

Imran Mulla and Peter Oborne ask if David Cameron has revived the Tory Arabist tradition.

"Despite this still being a trial we have recruited into 13 notoriously hard to fill roles and expect to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds less this year on agency staff than predicted. Our performance has held up across the board and has improved in places. We are getting significantly more and higher calibre applicants for every job than in the past." Bridget Smith champions South Cambridgeshire's trial of a four-day working week.

Cat Gillen is our guide to a philosophical question: do electrons really exist and does the answer matter?

Catherine Croft takes us to 10 shops that showcase the stylistic diversity of British retail architecture.

"I thought I could write a play which was about myself as I imagined my life might have been from the age of eight. And then I would find out whether I was brave enough to be a dissenter, or just somebody who would keep his head down and his nose clean. And I have a terrible feeling that it would have been the latter." Tom Stoppard talks to Claire Armitstead.