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Political elites are always targeted by the populous press yet these papers owners are themselves part of the 1% who have grown very wealthy over the rest of us.

I would argue that the press typically targets political elites, rather than financial ones.

Monopolies don't require government enforcement. coercion and corruption of government power benefits a monopoly but its not required. That the mechanisms for preventing exploitive monopolies are subverted is to me, a clear argument for why those mechanisms were needed in the first place.

Of course, you can call public services a government monopoly if you want to be really obtuse. The free market would of course be much better, just like it has never been. As always the libertarian schtick is great at picking holes in the problems we're all aware of but the only alternative it offers is so profoundly naive and flawed it's almost not worth going into. All this hypothetical 'if I was prime minister under your system' vs 'if I was a private citizen' is purest sophistry. The two scenarios are of no relevance to each other. Let's not pretend that private citizens don't escape the consequences of their actions all the time; look at the bloke trying to win the biggest popularity contest of all at the moment.

1. Nigel Farage
2. Donald Trump
3. Vladmir Putin
4. Boris Johnson
5. Theresa May.

To start we will have Chicken a la Salmonella and maybe some lovely E.Coli Sundaes for dessert.

Pound drops to $1.24. Another trip to the US for expensive medical reasons for the wife in January. Guess we will be at 1:1 if we are lucky.

Pound is nearing less than a Euro as well by the way.

And astonishingly I am seeing many people wonder on the back of the UKIP punch-up if the EHIC health coverage will go in the future.

MDK?

Sorry to hear both. Good luck with all that is to follow.

Finally got around to watching Good Will Hunting. It's alright. Could never live up to the hype and was never convinced of Will Hunting's savant powers (He's maths genius but also literary and history and insightful - I mean I wouldn't mind but there are bits of the script that point out that he's not a true polymath), but it's pretty good. The best part was all the properly over the top Bostonian.

One of my mates picked Jesus, until it was pointed out that you wouldn't actually be able to understand the lingo. That and the modern world would probably scare him to death. (better than crucifixion I suppose...)

I mean, unless he's y'know, the son of god.

No ****.

On a less whimsical note, this is a good thing. I read Ms Marvel the other day after a friend raved about it (she is an african-muslim gal) and I thought about the whole Miles Moralez thing - and in short, I'm truly happy if more people can read comics and find their own heroes.

In terms of AV - it's both not that big a change and huge change at the same time. As someone who once run Students' Union elections that use AV, I can say from personal experience that it really is extremely rare that the person who is top on the first round doesn't ultimately win in the end. That has certainly been true of the London Mayoral Elections.

The Mayoral elections where despite clear guidance, lots of people didn't know how the system worked. The major argument to me is as simple as removing the idea that votes can be wasted. And once we've made the most minor improvement we might be able to get people more engaged with politics, when they don't just have to choose the best of two bad options - they can choose the best choice for them without effectively handing a vote to the worst option. And then we can maybe cross the bridge of getting politicians to grow up a bit and stop depending solely on the party whip.

Anything would be better than FPTP in terms of engaging people with politics. Your proposed system has a lot of benefits. I am dubious about electing a head of government directly but personality politics seem to be more important to most people than details or facts.

(And not to knock your point but Student Politics differ greatly in every way from a general or even local election for a lot of obvious reasons )

I guess I like the world of Invincible more than I ultimately enjoyed where the series went. Brit, Guardians of the Globe, all that.

1. Uwe de Witt - Rogue
2. Paul Moore Russel MacEwan - Quartz zone
3. Andy Lambert2 - Dreamweaver
4. Goaty1 - Create to Kill
5. james newell - Rogue

Should have posted it through Goaty, zapped some Thrillsuckers.

Read the book first or watch the film?

Afflecks is still there aye tho was looking a little quieter than I remember last time I checked. Not sure if it's still all alt rock like it was a decade ago.

OH another recommendation if you just want to rest your feet for a bit with unlimited coffee and tea; Ziferblatt, one of those 'pay for your time' places. £3.50 an hour and all the tea, coffee, cakes, cereal, etc etc you can have. Lovely place, was a bit dubious about the idea myself but checked it out recently and it's reet lush inside.