The Joy of Six 1351

"Years of historic underinvestment in favour of profit has run the business into the ground. It now finds itself on the brink of collapse despite a financial lifeline that it ought not to have been awarded, when a court last month allowed the company to take on another three billion pounds of debt." Thames Water is failing, Ofwat is toothless and the public is paying the price, says Luke Taylor.

Tim Bale explores the motives that led David Cameron to call the EU referendum and the subsequent impact Brexit has had on the Conservative Party.

Laura Laker asks why the BBC published 22 negative articles on a 300m bike lane in Somerset.

"Following the Second World War, considering where and how children could play was an intrinsic part of the narrative of rebuilding the country. 'Attitudes towards play fitted within the political and social context at the time,' she writes, 'representing the freedom societies had fought for and optimism for the future'." Julia Thrift reviews All to Play for by Dinah Bornat, which makes the case that child-friendly design creates housing that benefits everyone.

Philippe Auclair on the Premier League's closed circle of promotion and relegation and the illusion of competitiveness - it's in French, but your browser will translate if for you: "Ipswich est toujours assis dans l'antichambre, mais son entrée est imminente. Il suffira pour cela que les Tractor Boys perdent à Newcastle ce weekend, ce qui n'étonnerait pas grand monde, ou que West Ham ramène un point de Brighton."

"In Brazil there is no plot against Sam. On the contrary, he’s a well-connected man from a wealthy family; people in authority go out of their way to help him. The regime ends up targeting him because of a series of completely random mix-ups, starting with a fly getting caught in a typewriter and changing the subject of an arrest warrant from a 'Mr Tuttle' to a 'Mr Buttle'. Buttle gets tortured to death, Sam has to take his widow a check as an apology, at which point he runs into Jill - and things spiral from there." Noah Berlatsky argues that Terry Gilliam was more prescient than George Orwell.