A painting by 19th-century social chronicler Honore Daumier reveals the synthetic outrage and hypocrisy of Bob Crow et al over the third-class-carriage proposals

The second-most frequently reprinted book in the English language is a 350-year-old fishing manual set in a bucolic Tottenham. Haringey never looked so good

Is it ever worth the trouble reading journalism whose politics you fundamentally disagree with?

Do you fancy the Chancellor?

'To go without beer for a day is a small inconvenience which adds a suitable solemnity to the business of democracy'

'The current talk of deflation refutes the claims of the quantitative easing alarmists. They were wrong'

'Since my return from Bali, I have experimented with an accommodative tranquillity on a bicycle that makes my journey not only more pleasant but probably safer'

'How hospitable will Germans be now that travel restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians have been lifted?'

'Thanks to sanctions, the West was winning the race against a nuclear Iran. There is a good chance now that Iran will be the victor'

'Although Mandela is an incomparably more important figure than Princess Diana, the process by which the real person is replaced by a fantasy is no more edifying this time'