The Joy of Six 1344

"At the turn of the 20th century, British protectionists waged a long and unsuccessful crusade against free trade. Like President Trump’s policies, their campaign for tariff reform expressed the anxieties of a global power in decline." Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri draws an enticing historical parallel.

Will Hutton talks to Yvonne Wancke at North East Bylines: "Capitalism ... does produce wealth, it does produce innovation…but it has a propensity to inequality, a propensity to monopoly, a propensity to oppress and exclude, it has phenomenal inbuilt instabilities that have to be pro-actively managed by public agencies, and that is elected governments."

"HS2's so-called bat tunnel has become a political scapegoat, used to justify rolling back environmental protections. But the real story is very different. The tunnel was not forced by conservationists or wildlife laws - it was a consequence of poor decisions made by HS2 Ltd and approved by parliament." Holy correction! It's the Bat Conversation Trust.

Mapping the Quartet follows the careers of four eminent women philosophers who began their careers at Oxford during the second world war: Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe and Mary Midgley.

Andrew Miller argues that the appointment of Harry Brook betrays the shocking tangle that England's once-formidable white-ball set-up has got itself into.

"What captivated Kubrick about Thackeray was his ability to expose the cruelty beneath the polished facade of aristocratic life. The rigid etiquette of the 18th century – a period described variously as an age of gentility, sensibility and enlightenment – demanded an emotional detachment that fascinated the director." Nathan Abrams believes that Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon deserves another viewing.