The Joy of Six 1416

"Gill and Farage remained close. When the latter quit UKIP in December 2018, Gill followed him two days later. In the following February Farage announced his new Brexit Party. Gill was one of six former UKIP MEPs to join immediately." Angus Young traces the journey of Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform UK in Wales, from Hull to Moscow.

Jo Elvin writes about her experience of applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain: "It took the Home Office four weeks to come back to me and tell my application had been rejected. I was informed of this in a short, cold letter stating that they were not satisfied that our marriage was genuine. The last sentence of the letter told me I had four weeks to get my affairs in order and vacate the country for good."

Owen Sennett finds that YouTubers are earning up to £20,000 a month by making provocative videos that have targeted a Norfolk hotel used to house asylum seekers.

"In 1981, the tide turned for Lethbridge when she was able to return to the bar. 'It seemed like the end of a nightmare – it had been 20 years in which I couldn’t work in the profession I loved. It turned out a lot had changed while I’d been away. I was astonished: there were black faces, and women, in chambers. I couldn’t believe it – it was wonderful.'" Joanna Moorhead talks to the magnificent Nemone Lethbridge.

"Edge-of seat perils, Bond-style gadgetry, a dash of espionage, a villain both hissable and hilarious, and Tracy Island: the coolest playground in the world with its movable swimming pool and lift-and-slide rocket entries. What kid didn't love all that?" Mark Braxton on his lifelong engagement with Thunderbirds.

lachlansimages visits Ludlow on market day.

The railway from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh in 1974

Another gem from BBC Archive, which is well worth subscribing to on YouTube. 

Derek Cooper and his wonderful BBC voice travel the 63 miles from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh by train. Cooper meets some of the people who live and work along the route.

This is a clip from a programme screened in 1974, when the future of the line was in doubt. Happily, it's still open today.

I've taken the train to Mallaig and to Wick and Thurso, but not yet been on this line.

Six of the Best 860

Eli Zaretsky examines the mass psychology of Brexit: "The best description I know of this mentality, Fintan O’Toole’s Heroic Failure, characterises it as 'the transformation of a screw-up into a demonstration of character'. Examples include the Charge of the Light Brigade, Sir John Franklin’s doomed attempt to find the Northwest Passage in the 1840s, and Dunkirk. In each case, the British character is seen to rise above self-inflicted disaster through studied indifference, and thereby to manifest its inner superiority."

Mark Bergen on how YouTube executives ignored warnings and allowed toxic videos to run rampant.

The novels of J.G. Farrell seems suddenly topical again, argues Simon Matthews, echoing Eli Zaretsky and Fintan O'Toole.

It’s time to rescue Latin from the Jacob Rees-Moggs of this world, says Charlotte Higgins.

Adrienne Lafrance shows how the bicycle paved the way for women's rights.

"Terry Gilliam‘s third feature is a hard slap to a child’s imagination. Packed with a lot of the same mythological story beats found in George Lucas’ sci-fi fable but layered with a nasty reality that promises death as much as it does adventure." Film School Rejects watches Time Bandits again.