The man who accidentally invented English democracy

Afternoon all, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were very much guilty men. In 1959 they wiped out a whole family in a robbery. The idea was to get rid of all witnesses. Only they were given bad information from a cell mate and there was no safe full of cash. And the cell mate… well, he was a witness they hadn’t thought about. So they were hanged, and their story became the subject of a famous book, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. When the country singer Steve Earle first heard their story - in the 1967 film adaptation - he says he was profoundly confused. No two characters were less sympathetic, and yet somehow he felt empathy. It was the start of a lifelong opposition to the death penalty. In Cold Blood - the book that changed me Simon de Montfort is the man who accidentally invented English democracy. He called the first British parliament of representatives 750 years ago, not through any deep-held principle, but because it served his purpose in challenging the king's power. Two people from every area came to London. Their travel expenses were even covered (an early version of MPs' expenses). He's chiefly remembered these days for giving his name to a university in Leicester, but in Washington DC, his face decorates the wall of the House of Representatives. They were taken by the idea of no taxation without representation. Simon de Montfort: The turning point for democracy that gets overlooked As far as we know, Bangladesh didn’t have its own version of pimp my ride. But if it did, we think we’ve found the person to do the paint work.

Mohammed Shahin Hossain is an artist who hand paints rickshaws. A Taj Mahal would set you back $200.

But some drivers prefer using the celebrity factor to attract customers.

And with this many rickshaws on the street, Mohammed’s got his work cut out.

Painting Bangladesh's colourful rickshaws

In case you missed it... ... here are some articles we published over the weekend: Why do some people dislike hearing foreign languages in the street? The team that has to cycle hundreds of miles to compete Toy trains from the past 200 years Shakespear of Arabia

Meanwhile... People are finding racist comments online and telling bosses to sack the commenters A man rejected from a women’s university is suing them after being rejected Oxfam study says the world’s 80 richest have the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion

That's it from us today.