Maybe it seemed unkind for George Osborne to suggest that his cabinet colleague Iain Duncan Smith isn't quite up to the task of reforming the welfare system. But then the chancellor sees the things we don't see. And perhaps he had in mind the fiasco that has been the Universal Jobmatch website, which jobseekers are obliged to use or face sanction. It has been bedevilled by procurement problems and bogus job openings. And now, what might be fraud. For after much digging by Labour's Frank Field, we hear allegations that desperate job applicants were each relieved of £65 by an apparently bogus employer working through the government site. It is alleged that having been told they had jobs, they were obliged to part with funds to pay for criminal record checks. The specifics remain a matter for police, but we learn that the Department for Work and Pensions, eager to quell the storm, is already offering 11 complainants compensation. The site works well, says the DWP. Too little, too late perhaps. Field demands an Audit Office inquiry into the site itself.
So much happens at Westminster that it's hard to keep up. In the midst of the Maria Miller crisis, for example, No 10 announced that the relatively new peer and ex-Trafford council leader, Lady Susan Williams, had been made a government whip. This came as little surprise to many in the Lords as she had spent much time lobbing softball questions to her betters in a fashion that led other peers to dub her "Patsy Williams". A little later the same day, it became apparent that she was in fact replacing fellow Tory Lord Attlee, one of two grandsons of the former Labour PM. We can't say why this was. But we know it followed terse exchanges with government chief whip Lady Anelay after Attlee appeared to contradict a senior ministerial colleague during a debate on immigration. Attlee once admitted that he would have joined Labour had Tony Blair approached him. Might Ed Miliband's people keep an eye on this sort of thing?
It's never good to be excessively cynical, and thus one sees why Alastair Campbell quickly removed his blogpost suggesting that David Cameron was feigning impassioned adherence to the Christian faith. Those who saw the PM riding huskies in the Arctic or promoting the hugging of hoodies know he would never do such a thing. But one's faith is tested by his pronouncement on food banks, especially now that the public has shown that it values their work. During his Easter reception, Cameron praised "the provision of food banks" and those who run them. But if he really wants to help, he might think again about the matter raised here last month, when the European parliament voted on its fund to provide food aid, and our government opted out of the chance to benefit from a £3m pot so no one could say it was in hock to Europe. If folk become cynical about such as that, who can blame them?
The clearest sign of the public's regard for food banks has been the explosion in donations which followed that largely facile exposé in the Mail on Sunday. Perhaps that also explains a resurgence in the south-east of train stickers urging travellers to think more about those around them. "Please show consideration for fellow passengers by not reading or leaving copies of the Daily Mail newspaper in this coach," is the wording – devised by comedian Mark Thomas. Like smoking restrictions, they help clear the air.
The objective is communal civility, not just on trains in the south-east but throughout the country. Sometimes this comes naturally, sometimes the authorities feel moved to intervene. So it is in Yorkshire, where thanks to a training manual for volunteers who will work on the Tour de France, visitors can be assured they will never be addressed as "mate", "love" or "darling". As for locals, there's always that risk.
Finally, can it be true, as reported by the Times, that when Tories discussing their masterplan lose focus, their plain-speaking Australian strategist Lynton Crosby interjects with a cry of "Pass the beer nuts, mate"? Are these real nuts or imagined?
Twitter: @hugh_muir