John White

In the unlikely event of my ever being invited on to Desert Island Discs, The Rotters' Club is the book that I would take. The whole trilogy if Lauren Laverne would let me.

How do others view the oath of allegiance to the sovereign and their successors required of C of E ministers? Does that preclude us from advocating the abolition of the monarchy? And does the oath still apply after we have left licensed ministry? #CofEPeeps

They may want to keep that title ready for his elder brother.

I know this is petty and unkind, but the fact that today is A M-W's birthday only adds to the Schadenfreude.

Meanwhile...

I am all for scrapping VAR, but the corollary of that is you need at least semi-competent officials on the pitch. Which, sadly, seems not to be the case at Villa Park today.

VAR is ruining football and it's great to see FA Cup games without it. On the other hand, with VAR Newcastle would be winning this game and Villa would be down to nine men. So it's swings and roundabouts. #AVLNEW

But has it? I suppose it depends how you define better, but I know I would rather hear a sermon written and preached by an actual human than one from what is essentially an automised plagiariser, even if the latter appears technically more accomplished.

time to rejoin the EU

That would be quite the "Daddy, my daddy!" moment.

Not convinced reconciliation will happen in @churchofengland.org. Each time it moves towards inclusivity, conservatives threaten to withhold money and to take legal action. Equality gets kicked into the long grass and #LGBT+ people continue to suffer and hurt. Why stay in a church like that? #synod

Likewise, Phil. Many thanks for your comments and engagement. All the best.

That is perfectly reasonable - I would also want certain kinds of electoral reform, although not the one called for in this petition. Requiring by-elections for reasons other than serious misconduct undermines an important principle that MPs are representatives, not delegates.

Just because many people don't understand electoral law doesn't change the reality. It is the individual candidate who is elected, regardless of the reasons why different people may vote for them. I get why people may want to change that law, and that I am in a minority in supporting the status quo.

Careful now. Trump will have a strop and threaten to invade Old Trafford unless the award goes to him

I am sure that Linehan and Rowling et al weren't always like this. Transphobia appears akin to a parasitic infection. However innocuous it appears at first, it worms its way into the brain, where it feeds on the residual goodness, until the host is thoroughly corrupted and consumed, mind and soul.

The value of this is that it then gives MPs the freedom to exercise their judgement in the interests of all their constituents, to whom they will be accountable at the next General Election. If voters don't approve of someone changing party allegiance they can vote them out at the next election.

Hence the Returning Officer does not declare which party has won, but the name of the person who has been duly elected as a representative for that constituency. They then represent the whole constituency, and not just the supporters of the party under whose banner they may or may not have stood.

I understand that case, and under a different parliamentary system it would be valid. My point is that it is not a constitutional fiction that we vote for the person not the party, but a legal fact, regardless of the motivation which leads someone to cast their vote for any particular candidate.

After Sir Jim Radcliffe's comments about the UK being colonised by immigrants, I look forward to him announcing that Manchester United will be selling all their players who were not born in Britain.

The value of the current system is that an elected MP has the freedom to act according to their conscience, knowing that they are answerable to their constituents at the next General Election, and not to their party whips.

I am saying that the logical conclusion of claiming that the vote is for the party not the person, then a constituency should continue to be represented by that party even if the individual changes. But that is not how it works.

By that reckoning, if an MP died while in office, that person's party would be entitled to nominate a successor with no need for a by-election. Is that what we want?

Whatever people's motives in voting may be, this is not a constitutional fiction, but a fact. The ballot paper may have a party name in brackets, but that is purely advisory. It guarantees the independence of MPs over party machines and we lose that at our peril.

On balance, I think Keir Starmer is right to stay on, but his "Every fight I've been in, I've won" line sounds dangerously similar to Ange Postocoglou's "I always win a trophy in my second season."

'Detectorists' was the finest sitcom of the 21st century, so I was a bit worried that 'Small Prophets' wouldn't live up to expectations. On the basis of that first episode I needn't have worried. Thank you and congratulations to Mackenzie Crook for another gem.

The Highbrow/Lowbrow round being on Richard Osman's House of Games. That, and time spent reading a good book with a cat on my lap. #TinyJoys

Hurray! I do believe I've got it. (Better wait till 6pm to find out for sure).

It is a really interesting take, and you may well be right. I just wonder whether a sword wielded as an instrument of justice would be described as "piercing".

That CS Lewis argument is massively flawed. The Gospel writers believed that (in some sense) Jesus was Son of God. That is a long way from showing that Jesus himself believed or claimed such a thing.