Quote of the day

"This is a complete stunt which distracts attention from the welfare reforms which are much more important and which I have been working hard to get done. I have been unemployed twice in my life so I have already done this. I know what it is like to live on the breadline."

A clearly riled Iain Duncan Smith belittles the petition calling for him to spend time living on £53 a week, which has now been signed by nearly 350,000 people. Typically weasel words from a politician desperately trying to wriggle out of a corner that he's painted himself into.

Meanwhile, true to his socialist roots, Ricky Tomlinson has taken a pop at the welfare cuts and the story has been meat and drink to satirical sites the Daily Mash and Newsthump - the former presenting a spoof diary imagining what IDS's experience on the breadline might be like and the latter suggesting his claim was all a misunderstanding and he thought the reference was to 53 pounds of pheasant...