James Kane

[James Kane @jameskkane]

You shouldn’t use a system designed for the urgent to deal with the merely important.

[James Kane @jameskkane]

No, but it does cause me constant problems when writing dates in figures.

[Nick Cohen @NickCohen4]

Are you also offended that September isn't the seventh month of the year and demanding that it swap places with July?

[Bev Craig @bevcraig]

The heartbreaking moment when you or your family member gets the devastating news of terminal illness, the last thing you need is to worry about money & bills.

So we are exempting people their families from council tax.

Thanks to @mariecurieuk for championing ending poverty.

[James Kane @jameskkane]

This job should definitely have been advertised as "Policy Officer – Rayguns". (https://t.co/EHMtdqcrr4 if interested…)

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@Mr_John_Oxley Which does raise the question of why everyone isn’t getting involved in local parties and standing for election – if you really believed there was that much money in politics, you’d surely be eager for even a small chance of getting some of it

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@Colin_P_A_Jones Maybe derived from Westminster practice, where “general election” always means lower house election? In UK and Canada that’s because the upper house is unelected, but Australia has an elected senate and it’s still the lower house election that gets the title “general”.

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@MauriceJCasey I suppose they've both got palatalised consonants!

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@jhallwood @davejohnlucas Who knew there were still Marcionites around?

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@davidtorrance @RoyalReporter Yes. I find what he says there rather puzzling – he seems to think it is practically unnecessary to give advice but constitutionally desirable (see the passage beginning "even when the course of action is clear"), and neither is explicit about what actually happens.

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@davidtorrance @RoyalReporter Rodney Brazier seemed to think that it was at least possible and probably desirable for a departing PM to give that advice *before* resigning, at least where there was some uncertainty about who to send for, but as you say the limited cast list makes it hard to know!

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@UKandEU @jillongovt I've often wondered whether we might return to the 19th century custom of a defeated government waiting to "meet Parliament" and lose a formal vote of no confidence before handing over power, both to give a bit of a break and to emphasise a government's basis in the Commons.

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@Mr_John_Oxley @philipjcowley Perhaps they should have asked separate questions about before or after the deadline for refunds.

[James Kane @jameskkane]

They should probably have thought of this back in 2021–22 when they were queuing up to restore the PM's power to dissolve Parliament.

[Nicholas Watt @nicholaswatt]

A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement

[James Kane @jameskkane]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

Some context: sickness absence is up post-pandemic (at 2.6% the highest since 2004) but don't overdo it - the share of us off sick each day is still way down on the 1990s (e.g 3.1% in 1995)

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@s8mb Drivers and employers don’t usually pay anywhere, though; their insurers do. I suppose under the NZ scheme you lose the deterrent of your premium going up, but a) it’s not totally gone because ACC doesn’t cover property damage and b) how much do people really think about that?

[James Kane @jameskkane]

You might think that the only intercity service in Britain not going to or from London would be a prime target for levelling up funding, but apparently not.

[Robert Ford @robfordmancs]

On my third weekend cross-country train between Stockport & Oxford in a matter of weeks. All three have been disaster zones - totally crammed, like a Tube at rush hour. I don’t take this route normally - is this the standard state of things now? Even worse than West Coast mainline, which is saying something!

[James Kane @jameskkane]

@jillongovt Also not sure “believ[ing] profoundly in reform” of the Garrick is entirely compatible with the argument that it’s purely a social club where nothing important gets done and so the sex bar is irrelevant

[Tom Sasse @tom_sasse]

Our leader on the lessons from HS2 for avoiding disastrous megaprojects:
https://t.co/KMgKUSvaVG

[Steve Akehurst @SteveAkehurst]

This morning’s other big winner: anyone working around politics and media who fancies a holiday in May…
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