Titbits – DSS discrimination by landlords, democratic deficits and DripApp

■ Hackney MP Meg Hillier sticks up for renters who rely on housing benefit, saying private landlords who refuse to rent to them are discriminatory. Ms Hillier owns a property in London that yields rental income of over £10,000 a year. No doubt she’s DSS friendly.

■ We knew Ms Hillier’s fellow MP Diane Abbott skipped a local “Keep our NHS Public” meeting in 2012 to jet to Venezuela as an “election observer” for the not-very-democratic re-election of Hugo Chavez. What we didn’t know until The Sun scoured her register of interests was that she received £3,000 in travel expenses from the Venezuelan National Electoral Council!

■ UKIP’s Alan Craig posted a picture of a burst zit on his blog, writing: “There is only one way democratically to lance the boil of Homerton-style prejudice and wipe the seeping discharge of politically correct pus out of our public life.” Of 25 portraits on display as part of an exhibition inside Homerton Hospital, none, he complained, were of “white British residents.” His conclusion? “Vote UKIP.”

■ New day, new app. DripApp lets users pre-pay for coffees in Hackney and elsewhere, with price plans extending up to £89 per month for “unlimited” hot drinks. In grammatically suspect fashion, DripApp’s website proclaims: “Everything happens into your phone.” Ok, but must all life’s experiences now be mediated through the prism of smartphones?