Daily catch-up: east London in the 1930s and a tough quiz question

Plus some music and an idea for Halloween

Another image of old London. Here is Grove Hall Park in Bow, painted by Harold Steggles of the East London Group, probably in the 1930s. Thanks to the East London Group Twitter account for this and many other paintings.

• Six British monarchs who reigned for more than 50 years? No Googling. Tough pub quiz question from last weekend. The first correct answer on Twitter came from Jimmy Chen.

• I reviewed Prime Minister's Questions yesterday. I thought David Cameron looked like a man trying to look dignified on a bicycle going backwards.

• On not apologising for Iraq, Ben Bradshaw drew my attention to this, by Nigel Biggar, now liberated from the Times pay wall.

• I was transfixed by this video clip of Tom Strathclyde, Conservative leader in the House of Lords, talking to Adam Boulton on Sky News about why he broke the House of Lords conventions that he is now reviewing for the Prime Minister. Transfixed by Strathclyde's brass neck, obviously, but also by how he sounds exactly like Charles Falconer.

• The democracy of blogs and Spotify means we can all be on Desert Island Discs. I have put myself on it more than once since this, because the great flaw in the concept is that your eight favourite pieces of music change, unless you suffer from arrested development. Also, I wanted to see if I could embed a Spotify playlist on the Independent's new website. It turns out that I can. Enjoy.

• And finally, thanks to Moose Allain ‏for this Halloween tip:

"I've wired up my doorbell so that whenever someone presses it there's a blue flash and a scream."