The Joy of Six 1476

Chris Dillow argues that if government wants to foster economic growth, it will have to fight for it: "Right now, the social transformation needed to raise growth requires the government to face down the powerful interests of, if not capital in general, then at least the more regressive elements of it such as rentiers, monopolists and media barons."

Virginia Heffernan investigates Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon, Edge. She finds that it infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science.

"'Free School Meals' and 'Free School Clothing' were an absolute lifeline for us ... That support meant I could walk through the school gates looking like everyone else, focusing on my education rather than the clothes on my back. It taught me that while education is a right, the cost of accessing it can be a barrier we must actively dismantle." Shaffaq Mohammed on the importance of the Lib Dem amendment, passed by the Lords, that will put a price cap on school uniforms.

Lauren Leek crunches the numbers to see why so many pubs have closed: "So here’s the political economy of pub closures. It is not: people stopped going. It is: pubs became collateral in leveraged buyouts, debt costs were passed down as higher rents and lower investment, and the pubs that couldn’t sustain the extraction closed, while the ones that could were reshaped into higher-margin branded concepts serving a wealthier clientele."

Did climate change lead to greater persecution of witches? York Historian weighs the evidence.

"Whenever a performer had a Muppet on their hand, they never broke character. So all the time in between takes, Gonzo would still be Gonzo and I was still talking to Gonzo, not Dave Goelz, who is the performer of Gonzo. I believed that Gonzo and Rizzo were my friends, and we were on an adventure together. Rizzo in particular, Steve Whitmire, was so funny. We would just play all day long." Kevin Bishop shares his memories of playing Jim Hawkins in Muppet Treasure Island with Brian VanHooker.

The Joy of Six 1472

"The fallout from the latest revelations has again put survivors secondary to the actions of powerful men. Mandelson, who maintained a friendship with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, initially declined to apologise to Epstein’s victims and distance himself from any knowledge of the financier’s sex crimes." Victims have told us the worst of Epstein’s crimes for decades – and  but they are still being ignored, says Lindsey Blumell.

Stephanie Burt on the organised opposition to ICE in Minnesota: "In January a horde of masked thugs arrived in the Twin Cities as part of Donald Trump’s Operation Metro Surge to brutalise, kidnap and deport undocumented residents. The goons soon found themselves outnumbered, as well as watched, followed, tracked and sometimes stymied by rapidly organised networks of civilians, who use text chains, plastic whistles, car horns and in one case a trombone to discomfit the would-be kidnappers and warn their potential victims."

Anna Fazackerley and Tam Patachako travel to Southend to see what happens to a city when its university closes.

"The 'laissez-faire' of free trade was ... less an ideological commitment to the free market or a desire to give free rein to rich capitalists as it was an effort to feed the poor, foster world peace and cosmopolitan friendship, and erode the baleful and unjustly got power of land-owning aristocrats." Paul Crider speaks up for Manchester Liberalism.

"She may have been a child of Victorian Wales but she saw nudity as natural." Jonathan Jones goes to see the Gwen John exhibition at the National Museum, Cardiff.

Cavan Scott encounters Charles Dickens and Winnie the Pooh in New York.

The Joy of Six 1468

"By-elections follow their own logic, not Westminster narratives, and Gorton and Denton has all the makings of a classic contest - a divided seat, polarising candidates and four different parties with a credible local claim. ... Gorton and Denton is a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, formed ahead of the last general election when remnants of the abolished Manchester Gorton seat were stitched onto a chunk of the also abolished Denton and Reddish seat ... with Burnage ward, formerly in Manchester Withington, chucked on at the South West edge for good measure." Rob Ford marks your card for the coming by-election.

Mental Health Cop is not impressed by the new white paper on police reform: "It’s rather spectacular in all the wrong kinds of way because it misses rather a lot of important points, it plays undergraduate essay games with what policing actually is and what the public want it to be, and yes: it touches upon mental health as it’s primary example of the police doing non-police things which need to be cleared out of the way so they can 'fight crime and catch criminals'."

Miranda Sheild Johansson on how abolishing its wealth tax changed Sweden for the worse.

"Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, MOOCs (“Massive Open Online Courses”) were the exciting new technology that would revolutionize education – and perhaps even kill off the university as we knew it. With a MOOC, a single star lecturer would give the definitive course on topic X, and students everywhere would learn from the MOOC. Why replicate thousands of near-identical versions of Biology 101, each taught by a local lesser light, when students could all tune in to a masterpiece by the best instructor in the world?" Stephen Heard asks what happened to MOOCs.

James Kenney examines a favourite film in depth: "Breaking Away – a film that runs well under two hours and yet feels fuller than most contemporary movies – doesn’t linger, nor does it inflate moments to announce their importance. Themes aren’t announced in heavy-handed speeches. It moves generously and with grace through characters in motion and leaves them alive in our minds long after it ends."

"The chancel glows in green and gold, its walls painted with stylised flowers and leaves. The decoration, if overwhelming, also does an excellent job of defining the chancel as the most sacred space." Philip Wilkinson visit Wilmcote and its 19th-century Gothic Revival church. 

For Central Bylines: The discovery of Richard III enriched Leicester in every way

I've written another article for Central Bylines. This one celebrates the discovery of Richard III beneath Leicester's most famous car park, and also defends the city against Yorkists and archaeology against Steve Coogan:

Having lived in both cities, I know that, in terms of pub and street names, Richard has always had a greater presence in Leicester than York. You will even find a King Richard III Infant and Nursery School in Leicester – Ofsted rates it as “Good”, but would you send your nephews there?

The Joy of Six 1460

"Governments and taxpayers fund universities not because they are efficient 'businesses', but because they are essential public institutions. They generate research that underpins economic growth and cultural life. They educate professionals on whom society depends. They are meant to be spaces where difficult questions can be asked and discussed. They are fundamental institutions in a democratic society." Monica Franco-Santos fears that in trying to 'fix' universities, we are quietly unmaking them. 

Emma John reminds us that England has ruthlessly privatised cricket, while Australia still embraces it with constant public displays of affection: "In the parks and pubs, cricket remains the dominant summer pastime and subject of conversation. In the Grampians of western Victoria, whose peaks are better known for their world-class climbing, I constantly witnessed pick-up games in the backyards and paddocks of the cafes and restaurants, or mums and dads tossing up hit-mes to tiny toddlers holding miniature bats."

Lee Elliot Major on a Cambridge college's plans to target elite private schools in its student recruitment: "Alumni LinkedIn feeds and social media threads quickly filled with outrage, as many Cambridge graduates interpreted the move as class prejudice rearing its ugly head once again. One angry fellow at the college said it amounted to a 'slap in the face' for their state-educated undergraduates."

"I first watched the film this year, on moving to the West Midlands, but I’ve been haunted by screenshots of the production circulating on social media for a decade: a burnt severed hand looming over the Worcestershire countryside, a terrifying claymation-style succubus sitting on a bed, an androgynous William Blake-inspired golden angel reflected in a lake." Samuel McIlhagga discusses the enduring influence of David Rudkin's 1974 television play Penda’s Fen.

"Three women are being released from Holloway Prison on the same morning. They come from vastly different backgrounds and each has plans for what they want to do on their first day of freedom, but they have all agreed to meet for dinner that evening. This simple story, told with warmth and empathy, follows the lives of these women during the span of that one day and the touching and tragic events that take place before and after this dinner." Silver Scenes finds Turn the Key Softly (1953) is an underrated British gem.

Steve Parissien charts the rise and fall of Babycham.

The Joy of Six 1411

"I’m more interested in what the stratospheric rise of a person like Charlie Kirk says about the state of political discourse. He was in many ways representative of a type that has come to dominate the internet’s ‘infotainment’ ecosystem in recent years. His purported renown among a section of the youth probably explains the urge among certain mainstream newscasters to conjure away the nasty bits. They too desperately want to be down with the kids." James Bloodworth on the meaning of Charlie Kirk.

European Powell claims that Labour’s "reckless data-centre dash" will gut the planet, fleece the public –and leave only noise, heat and hollow promises.

"As so often in higher education policy, it seems as though the context and focus of these comments is the industrial value of the sciences (engineering departments are mentioned). Yet the wider implication is worrying: much of what is published in humanities departments is 'unfunded' research in the sense that there is no designated external grant money attached to it." Jeremy Noel-Tod is concerned by the president of Universities UK's condemnation of "hobbyist research that's unfunded".

Sandra Laville reports on the disappearance of bus services in Shropshire: "The city of Birmingham lies just over 40 miles north-east of Ludlow, but to the 10,000 residents of the quiet Shropshire town, it may as well be on the moon."

Yasmin van der Poel introduces us to the Red Vicar of Thaxted: "Conrad Noel, a Christian Socialist, was appointed vicar of Thaxted in 1910. He fused Anglo-Catholic ritual with radical politics, transforming his parish into a sanctuary of spirit-inspired rebellion. His sermons, described in a question in Parliament as ‘sedition’, championed Irish independence, workers’ rights, and land reform."

"I know the NHS is under strain and imperfect, and I’m aware that it was my good luck to find myself at St Thomas’s. But while I was waiting to be sent home on Sunday, the doctor in charge of intensive care at the hospital walked past on his rounds. I told him that while it had been in most respects the worst week of my life, it had also been among the richest. I’d been given an unexpected opportunity to experience and be grateful for human relationships in public service – comradeship among workers, empathy for strangers – at their best. Something I’ll never forget." Richard Williams experiences a sudden health crisis and thinks about the NHS and rhythm.

The Joy of Six 1407

"The puzzle for me is what drives Labour politicians (and some others) around the ID card loop? What is the enduring appeal of ID cards that always survives facts and logic? Paul Krugman talks about ‘zombie ideas’, ideas that keeping coming back to life no matter how many times they are apparently killed off by reason and experience, such as the idea that the path to national prosperity is taxing the rich less. For New Labour, with Tony Blair still out ahead, ID cards are a beloved zombie." David Howarth on Labour's fixation with the idea of a national identity card.

Tim Leunig argues that Angela Rayner's problems with Stamp Duty shows that our taxation system is too complex: "When Angela Rayner bought her flat in Hove she owned no other house, in full or in part. It seems to me that the government’s own website is clear that Rayner was not liable for the higher rate of stamp duty. None of the further information on that page suggests anything different."

"A student can easily feed a PDF of the assigned book chapter to their AI application of choice and pass off the bot’s lukewarm analysis as their own; construct a study guide by uploading their notes to an AI tool marketed on LinkedIn by their peers; and even generate plausible rebuttals to arguments posed in discussion sections – all without arousing any suspicion from their overworked teaching assistants." Maria Gomberg on AI in American universities.

Marc Morris asks if William I's "Harrowing of the North" should be regarded as genocide.

"The best comedy does not 'feed prejudice and fear' but rather makes them 'clearer to see' he tells his students. But this view is challenged by talent scout Challenor, a smarmy agent up from London who takes a very different line. Comics are 'servants to the audience', not ‘missionaries’ but ‘suppliers of laughter’.  And in those two opposing views, we have the central tension of the play." Gerard Clough marks the 50th anniversary of Trevor Griffiths' play Comedians.

Gardens, Heritage and Planning visits the lost village of Imber on Salisbury Plain.

King Charles III once appeared in a Joe Orton play

Embed from Getty Images

I knew that Prince Charles, as he then was, acted in revues when he was a student at Cambridge, but I discovered only recently he also appeared in a Joe Orton play.

Over to the Trinity College website and a page about his acting career there:

Dr Parry also cast the Prince as the padre in Joe Orton’s play [The] Erpingham Camp, originally written for television in 1966 and set in a holiday camp where the campers rebel over the strictures of the manager.

The performance was well reviewed. Student-turned theatre critic Valerie Grosvenor Myer wrote of a "pleasantly poised portrayal" by the Prince in The Guardian:

"His voice is not strong, but it is very clear, and is face is mobile: his look of shrinking pain when one of the characters used a four-letter word was extremely funny. 

"And there was a certain piquancy in the future supreme head of the Church of England taking part in a ritual where this institution is shown as pretty effete … it’s not every festival which offers the spectacle of the heir to the throne getting a custard pie full in his face."

There's a Wikipedia page on The Erpingham Camp, which was broadcast on ITV in June 1966.

Leicestershire Reform's cabinet member for children and families is a full-time student

Photo by Grant Davies on Unsplash

Leicestershire. Northamptonshire. Nottinghamshire.

The carousel of stories about East Midland Reform-run councils goes round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down.

So it's back to Leicestershire and a reminder from the Leicester Mercury that Reform UK's cabinet member for children's and families' services, Charles Pugsley, is about to start the second year of a computer science degree at the University of Nottingham.

Does Pugsley, who was 19 when he was appointed in May, have the time for both these roles? His Conservative predecessor in his cabinet position, Deborah Taylor, has her doubts:

"I know how demanding being lead member for Children Services is. I did the role for five years.

"It was full-time and more, and you need to show up for our children and be there. It is not a role you can do at arms length. You either fully commit or you don't do the role.

"There is nothing worse than not showing up and not caring for our vulnerable children. They need stability, a familiar face, and be their trusted adult for them to turn to whenever you are needed."

Pugsley's reply, quoted by the Mercury: is:

"I am fully committed to children’s services and will continue to undertake this role and give it the attention and time it requires alongside continuing into the second year of my degree."

The second year of a degree course tends to have fewer exam pressures than the first of third, but we shall see if this proves possible.

The Joy of Six 1400

"Most of the older children have been sent to so-called re-education camps scattered throughout Russia, where they are subjected to relentless propaganda aimed at erasing their Ukrainian identity. Younger children have been placed with Russian families, renamed, stripped of their language, and put on a path toward permanent adoption. These acts are not only morally reprehensible but also flagrant violations of international law." Irwin Redlener says Russia must return the children it has abducted from Ukraine.

Peter Sagar reports that universities in the North of England are missing out on government funding to designed to help attract leading researchers to the UK.

Michael Vazquez and Michael Prinzing on their research, which shows that philosophy graduates rank higher than those who studied any other subject on verbal and logical reasoning. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues, such as curiosity and open-mindedness. (At this point I shall look modest and say nothing.)

"There’s an expectation that if you’ve done well, in entertainment particularly, you know… 'which college did you go to?' – meaning which college in Oxford. I've had that a few times. I enjoy saying ;Woodham Comprehensive School'." Mark Gatiss talks to The Bee about his childhood, family and work, his advice for writers, Bookish – and the life-changing phenomenon that was Terrance Dicks; Doctor Who novels.

Rhakotis Magazine reviews the reopened Jewry Wall Museum in Leicester: "The architectural refurb has sensitively brought the 70s stylings back to life, adding much needed light and improving access. ... Although [it is] on a much smaller scale, I would place it in the same rank as London’s Southbank Centre or Barbican."

"So why am I worried about her? Because for reasons I cannot fathom, her literary reputation seems to be lagging behind those of her English contemporaries, namely Muriel Spark and Anita Brookner." Jessica Francis Kane champions the work of Penelope Fitzgerald.

The Joy of Six 1368

"The answer was a two-pronged attack. The first was a wholesale culture war against 'social justice', which presented BLM, climate, feminist and migrant rights activists as a fifth column determined to bring the country to a halt. The second was passing new and draconian legislation to tackle this so-called left-wing 'threat'." Open Democracy researches the tactics used by the last Conservative government to ban protest.

Mic Wright looks at the way the 'no English food on my holiday' woman was stitched up by the local and national press.

Chris Taylor pulls no punches on the crisis at De Montfort University: "At the heart of the DMU crisis is an executive clique led by the VC, with enormous power and infused with a business ethos of detachment. They live different lives, speak a different language and have different priorities from the people they manage. For them, the profit imperative comes above any duty to people or place and justifies them taking money from Leicester to speculate in richer cities."

Judging by this interview with Philip Win, the redevelopment of Nottingham's Broad Marsh is going to be less innovative than many hoped.

Dinah Birch on the very uncosy crime novelist P.D. James: "She once told me, disconcertingly, that her experience in the Home Office had persuaded her that murders are more common than people think, and that with level-headed planning they could remain undetected with relative ease."

"Despite its imposing beauty, the space was purposefully designed to look like a larger chapel than it actually is through the trickery of decoration. Its decoration is beautiful though and in the words of Oscar Wilde, this chapel is 'the most delightful private chapel in London'." Voyager of History visits the chapel at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The Joy of Six 1357

Gary Younge says the heroism of soldiers from India, Africa and the Caribbean is often airbrushed out of the history of the second world war: "About 2.5 million personnel from the Indian subcontinent, more than 1 million African-Americans, 1 million people from Africa and tens of thousands of people from the Caribbean fought for the allies during the second world war. Among them were people of almost every religion."

Tim Leunig warns that curtailing international student migration will make Britain poorer:  "In recent work with my Public First colleagues we discovered that there are over 100 constituencies where the local university is one of the top three exporters. No other sector is in the top three in more than 100 constituencies."

"As the western world closed its doors to Russia after the 2022 invasion ... Moscow somehow managed to retain control over key chess institutions, shielding Russia from sporting sanctions and allowing its players to continue competing internationally. It even hosted lucrative tournaments in the occupied Ukrainian territories of Crimea and Donbas." Daria Meshcheriakova investigates the links between world chess and Russia's war machine.

"There are so many dog whistles in those paragraphs that an audio version would sound like a rowdy day at Crufts." Mic Wright takes aim at my old classmate Allison Pearson.

Timofei Gerber reads John Stuart Mill's unfinished Chapters on Socialism.

"The ’60s left Ricky Nelson behind. He tried to branch out into other styles, he tried to shake off the Teen Idol thing. But in the era of auteurist singer-songwriters, or bands like The Beach Boys … Nelson just couldn’t compete. People wanted him for only one thing. His 'persona' was set in stone by the time he was 17 years old. He couldn’t 'grow up'. Nobody would let him." Sheila O'Malley on the fate of a teen idol,

Running British universities as if they were businesses

Our universities used to be among the few British institutions that the rest of the world really did envy. But from 2010 the Coalition was determined they should be run more like businesses.

In recent weeks the collapse of this policy has been demonstrated by the wave of redundancies engulfing British universities. Looking for mainstream media coverage where I would expect to find it, it's hard even to locate the education coverage at all on the BBC or Guardian sites these days, but the story has been well covered on social media.

And the pithiest comment on it is to be found there too:

When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

[image or embed]

— Ross Carroll (@rosscarroll.bsky.social) 25 February 2025 at 22:24

This anecdote neatly encapsulates a lengthier observation by Stefan Colini in the London Review of Books in 2013:

Future historians, pondering changes in British society from the 1980s onwards, will struggle to account for the following curious fact. 

Although British business enterprises have an extremely mixed record (frequently posting gigantic losses, mostly failing to match overseas competitors, scarcely benefiting the weaker groups in society), and although such arm’s length public institutions as museums and galleries, the BBC and the universities have by and large a very good record (universally acknowledged creativity, streets ahead of most of their international peers, positive forces for human development and social cohesion), nonetheless over the past three decades politicians have repeatedly attempted to force the second set of institutions to change so that they more closely resemble the first.

 Some of those historians may even wonder why at the time there was so little concerted protest at this deeply implausible programme. But they will at least record that, alongside its many other achievements, the coalition government took the decisive steps in helping to turn some first-rate universities into third-rate companies. If you still think the time for criticism is over, perhaps you’d better think again.

And because this is Britain, these new business-like universities turned out to feature indifferent senior managers on grossly inflated salaries.