The Joy of Six 1257

Elon Musk is not posturing as a deluded conspiracy theorist, argues Jeremiah Johnson, he really is one: "He essentially never posted about trans people or the gender wars five years ago. But one of his children came out as trans a few years back, got into left politics, completely cut contact with Musk and even changed her last name. And mysteriously, right around that time, Musk began to obsess about how progressive schools were turning kids trans."

Joe Lepper reports a University of Glasgow study that suggests child mortality and the number of  looked-after children could be slashed by around a third over the next decade if measures were put in place by the government to tackle child poverty.

"It is no longer possible to continue there without feeling like an under siege resistance fighter, trying to preserve humour, conversation, raising matters of personal and public interest, and frankly keeping self-respect, in the face of what has become a brittle, facile, deceitful, stupidly anger-driven culture that won’t leave you alone." Giles Peaker explains why he's leaving Twitter.

Janice Heppenstall on Robert Blincoe, 'the real Oliver Twist': "Throughout his fourteen years’ servitude he tried several times to escape and to alert the authorities to the sadistic torture and working conditions endured by the children.  Often, this resulted in even worse treatment for himself, yet he continued."

Martin Banks backs the campaign to restore Eurostar services to Ashford International and Ebbsfleet.

"For me, what has been lost with the digital age is the ‘magic’: the sense of wonder associated with the early history of photography, the physicality of the process and the relationship of maker to that which is made. I do not reject digital practices - on the contrary they are very much part of how I work. But I have chosen a dual path where analogue and digital work to each other’s strengths to achieve outstanding results." Katayoun Dowlatshahi shares the pleasures of analogue photography and the lost art of the darkroom.