Cometh the hour, cometh the quote

EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove says state schools should admit two-year-olds and stay open 10 hours a day. To what end? Schools already have our children for at least 12 years and yet a fifth of school leavers are illiterate, innumerate or both. When it comes to teaching time, the issue is not quantity but quality.

YOU are heir to the throne. Dabbling in politics is forbidden. So what do you say when you feel strongly about an issue but must not get too involved? Simple. You use the wonderful line from the 1989 TV drama House of Cards, as delivered by the villainous chief whip Francis Urquart, brilliantly played by Ian Richardson. I bet those 10 little words had been echoing around Prince Charles's head for the past 25 years, simply aching for a suitable moment. It came this week as HRH toured the flooded Somerset Levels. A reporter asked whether the Environment Agency had not done enough. Quick as a flash and word-perfect, Charles replied: " You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment." Cometh the hour, cometh the quote.

ALARM bells should ring at this week's suggestion by an international legal firm that schools where pupils were abused by teachers many years ago should pay huge, American-style damages of up to £1 million to victims. How many perfectly good schools would be driven into bankruptcy and how many kids' educations would be shattered, for sins which happened before today's pupils, staff and governors were even born? There is a fine line between justice and pointless, destructive vengeance.

FRIDGE broken, new cooker broken, new carpets need deep-cleaning, and all in the space of six months. What sort of people have such bad luck with appliances and are so rough with carpets? The answer is, tenants. A long-suffering landlord asks me: "Why is it that landlords are always portrayed as the villains?"

HEADLINE this week: "Ukip is a threat to peace in Europe, says Germany." Well, they should know.

THE story behind the above headline was a comment by Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He claims that the rise of Eurosceptic parties like Ukip hampers the cooperation that has kept the continent at peace for decades. He declares: "History before the First World War was a history of not talking to each other, of nationalisms which could no longer be (tamed) by reason. These dangers have to be forever banned." What a strange view. Surely history before the First World War was the rise of unaccountable dictators, the Tsar, the Kaiser and the Emperor. Peace finally came when the nations of Europe rid themselves of dictators and embraced democracy. As a rule, democracies do not invade each other. But democracy depends on the people genuinely believing they have the power to make a difference. And the sad, shameful story of the EU has been the rise of unelected officials, diktats passed without debate, the steady loss of local control and the concentration of power in Brussels. We witness the rise of a new generation of dictators in Europe and we don't like what we see.

EMPLOYMENT up, growth up, exports up. And now, a survey of UK business confidence by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has recorded its highest reading yet. From this column, October 2012: "I suspect Cameron and Osborne are planning the Tory Economic Miracle (all smoke and mirrors but it will look good), beginning in the autumn of 2014 and coinciding with the end of the war in Afghanistan." My timing was out by some months but I stand by the rest.

THE demure lilac sweater, neatly cropped hair and hint of lip gloss for this week's charm offensive on American TV were well chosen. Amanda Knox: guilty until proven pretty.