My official anthropological opinion about tired Tory phrase "Broken Britain" is that the most interesting bit about it is what gets picked as an example of the happy days when Britain was whole/unbroken/fixed/virginal.  But this isn't an article about that: this is Deborah Orr on how come, if the Tories think Britain is broken, they think it'll help to cut benefits?  And how come, if Labour thinks Britain isn't broken, they think cutting benefits is the apocalypse? At any rate, Simon Jenkins reckons the Tories better get around to blaming someone else for their cuts. 

Baroness Warsi has addressed the bishops, promising that the government 'gets' G-d.  With quite a bite at the last government on that front.

Mervyn King ('e's governer of the Bank of England, 'e is), got up in front of the TUC.  At last report he is still alive, but banks, bailouts, and bonuses were discussed, so it's a wonder.  A slow clap to the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union crew, who ditched the speech to watch kids' telly instead.  

Also comedy gold: Simon Hoggart reimagines Harriet Harman and David Cameron as Lizzie and Darcy.  Incidentally, turns out Jane Austen was not hot on punctuation.  Duly noted by Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, I hope.

Also literary, the British Library has acquired a stash of Ted Hughes' letters.  This is him, in 1957, on being in the US: "luxury is stuffed down your throat, - a mass-produced luxury - till you feel you'd rather be rolling in the mud and eating that". 

In British history news, this is anniversary season for the Battle of Britain, which can be indulged in here , but it's also the anniversary of the Benares tragedy, a U-boat attack on a passenger ship which killed 81 evacuee children.