Being super famous seems to be far too much like hard work

One of the biggest mysteries in Westminster is the inability of politicians of all parties to apologise.

- John Crace

Monday For anything. Most of us go through life saying sorry on a regular basis. And, by and large, an apology does the trick. The person we have let down feels heard and all is forgiven.

But politicians would rather die than apologise. Take the winter fuel payment U-turn. Almost the first thing that the new Labour government did was to cut the payment for almost every pensioner. It was Rachel Reeves's way of showing the financial markets that she could be trusted to take the tough decisions in the interests of fiscal responsibility. Only it turned out that most people didn't think the government should be forcing some of the most vulnerable members of society to choose between heating and eating.

Cue the reverse ferret from Keir Starmer at prime minister's questions a few weeks ago.

What we didn't get was an apology. Instead ministers tried to claim the change of plan had been driven entirely by an improvement in the economy.

A suggestion that just made them look stupid because no one believed it. Saying sorry would have saved the Treasury all the embarrassment. Most people would have accepted the mistake and moved on. An apology is the first step to restoring trust in politics.

Tuesday For those of you who enjoy blue-on-blue Tory infighting, How Not to be a Political Wife will be this summer's must read. But having now finished the memoir, I can only conclude that Sarah Vine is a very complicated woman.

At times the former wife of Michael Gove is ruthlessly self-revealing and at others seemingly hopelessly unself-aware. Almost as if she had no control over herself and the book she was writing. As a Daily Mail feature writer and columnist she has plenty of form for writing snarky pieces about other women in the public eye, but she seems to demand that she be made an exception.