The Joy of Six 1362

"For centuries, this country has been synonymous with segregation - by class, education, manners, dress, accents, leisure habits and housing. Since the early 1980s, when Thatcherism began to erase the more integrated and equal postwar Britain, these ancient divisions have been compounded by a further polarisation in incomes and between regions." The least integrated part of British society isn’t immigrants but the elite, argues Andy Beckett.

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling finds that the whole of Trump's team hated Elon Musk: "'Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!' a typically mild-mannered Bessent was heard shouting after Musk as they charged down the halls of the West Wing."

Nick Hilton spends a day out at The Podcast Show.

"VAR was introduced with the promise of increased fairness and accuracy. What it has delivered instead, in the case of implementing the off-side rule at least, is an artificial sense of certainty. Football fans and officials have allowed themselves to believe that a line drawn on a screen - based on a particular video frame and assumptions about body positioning - can objectively implement the offside rule down to the millimetre." Kit Yates challenges the belief that technology can enforce football's laws in a way that is both definitive and fair.

A London Inheritance goes in search of the southern entrance to the Tower Subway: "When Tower Bridge opened on the 30th of June, 1894, use of the Tower Subway collapsed. With Tower Bridge, there were no shafts to descend and ascend, no damp, gas lit tunnel to walk through, and the new bridge was free."

"With more people monitoring swifts, we are learning that swifts are less faithful to each other than previously thought. If pairs should arrive back at similar times they may quickly reunite, but if they arrive days apart swifts may be more likely to look for new mates." Jonathan Pomroy watches a tentative courtship in his garden.