pap

Thatcher would have ditched the NHS if she could have done so. Cameron, someone who claims to follow her principles, is certainly having a go. This is why you're seeing so many negative news stories about the NHS right now. Private industry are all set to be the saviours, and they'll likely never leave. I'm going to assume that your question, while stupid, was not rhetorical. Attlee's government created the NHS. Thatcher's lot suffered it and closed a load of hospitals. I find it f**king amazing that this is even offered up as a legitimate question. We're left with:- Why did so many people leave Cuba? Why do so few people move to Bolivia? Before I answer, can I just enquire as to whether these are serious points?

In simpler times, Sour Mash's repetition would have been dealt with in one swift stroke.

Oxbridge education. Unable to spot a bit of trickery. It's probably a good job Boris' parents paid for a private education. Had he been educated in the state system, he wouldn't have had the intelligence to answer the questions as stupidly as he did. I can't say exactly how it would have gone down, but part of me has a mental image of BoJo mushing a handful of his own faeces into his hair.

Maybe you and Whitey G are the sort of people Boris was talking about when he spoke of those with low IQs. You're on the scrapheap, motherf*ckers. Boris said so.

Tell you what, KRG. I'll get Juvenile Unit #1 to vote for you as well. Now where's my grand?

Clement Attlee's post-war government is surely the brightest example of British socialism in action. The NHS was born in its time. You can argue the merits of what socialism is, exactly - but the NHS was created for socialist, not capitalist concerns. Similarly, you might look at New Deal America, in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt used socialist measures to get the people of the USA off their knees after their society had been smashed by the wrecking ball of capitalism. If you want to go the whole Marxist-Leninist route, you can look at Cuba over the long term. Access to education and healthcare all massively improved under "socialism". They are the most literate nation in Latin America and have a booming tourist industry developed after Soviet subsidies dried up in 1989. They are at #74 on the national debt list. They owe $1780 per person in national debt. Is it perfect? Nope, but it has endured the ongoing trade embargo with the US, the collapse of communism and despite whatever the West has to say about them, has fostered good relations with other Latin American countries in the region. Which brings me to the Bolivar movement in South America. Hugo Chavez improved the literacy and life chances of millions of Venezuelans ( #44 on the debt list - $1,906 owed per person ). Evo Morales, another socialist leader of an oil rich company, has presided over Bolivia's most successful economic period in its history. High prices of oil are undoubtedly a factor, but he has benefited his country by nationalising the industries. Bolivian oil benefiting the Bolivian people? There's an idea. It's probably no coincidence that this socialist country is at #106 in the external debt list. They only owe $275 per head. So, loads of different definitions of socialism covered. Much success to be had, and they generally owe a lot less money than we do, even those that aren't overburdened with essential resources like oil. Hopefully that'll be enough to get you out of "Mr One Question" mode.

Stop sticking up for Boris, Bear. He's had the best education the country can offer. Are you telling me that our finest educational institutions don't deal with trick questions, or teach their students how to deal with them? e.g. "We present the class of '85, future rulers of the world unless presented with a dastardly trick question"

Give me a grand and I will not only vote for you, but will also return your £500 deposit when you immediately retire from the political stage, disgraced after polling just 3 votes (you, me and your mum).

You don't know what is "outside the viewframe". Subject bear could be looking at a lady bear and have a massive bear-ner ( surely the official term for a bear boner? ).

Admit it. Your bumbling blonde bombshell has done himself up. Again.

Hehe. Wrong time to make this argument. City in capitalism's "capitol" declared bankrupt. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25203691 Incidentally, the US is technically bankrupt too. We'll have the next round of horse-trading so that the debt ceiling can be raised again on January 15th. Have a look at this list too. Nations in rank of external debt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt Hasn't capitalism served the UK well? We only owe $160K per person. Those successful capitalist countries, eh?

Bwa ha ha! Boris calls people thick, then Boris is unable to answer IQ questions. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-fails-to-give-any-correct-answers-when-ambushed-with-iq-test-live-on-air-8980365.html

It's a shame that both of the labels at the bottom of the packaging are different in size. I would suggest that the company changes "No added nonsense" to "No added nonce". This would make it a big seller in council estates and suchlike. We all hate nonces there. Ensuring that people are aware that they are not eating "nonce" is a big-money spinner, I reckon.

I didn't know it was a year old, tbh - KRG - although I have to say, I found it a bit familiar. Whatever. Leaving a nasty comment on the delectable Isabel Fay's Twitter feed is the last thing I'd do

Why bother with anything ever? Seriously. We're all going to die. No-one is going to remember anything you did long-term, even if you're someone massively famous. When the sun eventually gives up, all this crap will go with it. Maybe some fragment of humanity will preserve some of our Earth-bound history, but frankly, they're wasting their time too. When they evolve to transcendental beings of light and energy, they won't give a f**k about any of our corporeal monkey bound adventures. Why bother indeed?

Agreed. While I'd encourage all posters to be as articulate as Rasiak-9- in expressing a view, can't help thinking that "socialism" as defined here is little more than the "temporary" re-organisational dictatorships arranged by the likes of Lenin, Stalin and Mao. I'm a little disappointed that the Nazis weren't brought in for added effect. After all, they have "socialist" in their name. Thing is, you don't have to leave democracy behind to see examples of socialism. Such concepts are wheeled out whenever capitalism fails. FDRs post-depression New Deal? Socialist. The NHS? Socialist. Welfare systems around the world? Socialist. If capitalism worked so well, you wouldn't need socialism to sort it all out every time it fell apart.

Genius song and video. The definitive answer to internet trolls?

Tom Gayly is Day?* * heard at least two times in our house last night.

Mods: change the title please. Either set it to "build up", which it should be, or "bulb up", which it currently is.

Gotta wonder how soon that construction bubble will crash. Bank of England stopped pumping money into help to buy this week.

PS4 Worldwide Sales now at 2.1 million. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-12-03-ps4-sells-over-2-1-million-worldwide

This is interesting stuff, Big Bad Bob - but not something I'd be interested enough in pursuing. As you know, I still have some unfinished cases to deal with. Also, I have to tread carefully with Turkish. The suspect and I have a bit of previous, including an outstanding complaint from the PCC.

Russell Brand tweets Torrent links of his own DVD http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/russell-brand-directs-fans-to-the-pirate-bay-to-download-new-dvd/056910 He's walking the walk, gotta give him that.

The Wii U will be alright. Not going to make anything like the money of these two, but Nintendo will continue to make lots of money off their first-party titles. They're not even trying to compete on the same turf. Returning to the two consoles that are competing on the same turf, these are early, but important indicators. The real test will be in six months time, and how many units of each console are still going out of the door. Early adopters are one thing. It's the me-too crowd which often defines a generation. The volume of them hitting the market is really how winners are decided. With the last-gen, exclusives were usually decided as part of a commercial agreement. Console Maker X pays Software Developer Y amount of money Z so that they'll restrict the number of platforms their game hits. With this gen, there's a good chance that third party developers may look at installed bases and decide that the XBox One is not worth the effort. That's decision-making based on commercial consideration. It'll be interesting to see what the installed bases are like in a year's time.

Judging by these sales figures, looks like the PS4 trounced XBone sales over their respective opening weekends. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-12-02-playstation-4-uk-launch-sales-are-over-250k I think we have a new Betamax.