The Joy of Six 1267

John Harris says the government needs to start giving people hope and quickly: "Among all the numbers, there is a huge story here about the everyday reality of people’s lives. What I would call ambient austerity – litter everywhere, overgrown grass verges, potholed roads, rusty slides and swings – is now deeply ingrained. It sits at the heart of the cynicism towards politics and politicians that is intensified by social media. It has also been a sizeable part of most of the political ruptures of the past 14 years, not least Brexit – and, at the election, the way that Reform UK seized on so many resentments in traditional Labour heartlands that it often finished second."

Continued austerity is a danger to national security, warns Tom Woolmore.

John Stewart on the history of the feeding of schoolchildren by the state: "Local activists revealed that recipients might be subject to deliberately humiliating treatment or be given sub-standard food.  Frank Field ... was thus moved to write reports with titles such as The Stigma of Free School Meals (1974) and Free School Meals: The Humiliation Continues (1977)."

Paul Salveson remembers Britain's biggest mass trespass in support of the right to roam, which was held at Winter Hill in 1996.

"As a star of numerous revues and sketch shows, she played just about every conceivable kind of female character, and made each one of them sound distinctive, amusing and, in their own peculiar way, believable. Her sheer range, and comic craft, were truly remarkable." Graham McCann celebrates the career of Betty Marsden.

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD." But what is a cockatrice? Seana Graham finds out.