This week, I have been mostly reading:

• New Labour’s Irrational Adoration of Thatcher — Craig Murray: When Michael Crick embarrassed Theresa May by quizzing her on her non-existent opposition to apartheid as she visited Mandela’s old cell, the response of New Labour was to defend May by claiming the Tories had opposed apartheid all along. Progress and Labour Friends of Israel rushed immediately to the defence of the person they truly adore, who sits higher still in their Pantheon than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They rushed to defend the memory of Margaret Thatcher.
• 'I leave the car at home': how free buses are revolutionising one French city — Kim Willsher in Dunkirk for the Guardian: “Before, when they paid, it was a service and they were customers. They may have been only contributing 10% of the cost of running the service but they thought it was theirs. Now it’s a public service they look at it differently. They say ‘bonjour’ to the driver, they talk to each other. We are changing perceptions and transforming the city with more vivre ensemble. We are reinventing the public space. Before the bus was for those who had no choice: the young, the old, the poor who don’t have cars. Now it’s for everyone.”
• Battery drain — The Oatmeal: