Rawlsian fail?

I initially assumed this was an April Fool, but it doesn't seem to have been retracted:

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Duncan Smith was challenged on whether he could live on £7.57 a day, which was said to be the lowest rate of jobseeker's allowance given to adults under 25. In fact the current rate is £56.25 a week.

"If I had to I would," he replied. Duncan Smith, who has headed up the coalition's welfare changes, said the government's reforms were intended to get welfare "back into order".

Maybe IDS could live on 56 quid a week but there's a world of difference between doing it for short period to prove a point, safe in the knowledge that you've got a comfy income to go back to once the stunt ends, and living on it full time.

A Bach marathon

John Eliot Gardiner is on a bit of role. The Guardian ran an In praise of... piece on him on on Friday, Saturday's Review carried Gardiner's own article on Bach, and today saw him overseeing a Bach marathon at the Albert Hall as part of R3's Baroque Spring event. Not a bad way to mark a significant birthday...