The World That's Coming

You discover, later, that you’re not good enough, or not lucky enough, or not present enough, and you made too many important decisions on the fly because you were too busy or too scattered or too tired, and that you’re never going to be that person who writes one of those inspirational blog posts about success. You’re in your 40s and you’re still standing on the shore, keeping a wary eye on the riptide, because you know that all the small things you’ve built could be swept away overnight.

They are credited with reviving rock’n’roll, setting the template for modern pop songwriting, and inviting a generation to turn on, tune in and drop out by embracing psychedelia. But a study questions quite how influential the Beatles were – claiming they were merely following musical trends already set in motion.

Research by a group of London academics focuses on musical patterns in the US pop charts from 1960 to 2010, using data analysis to pinpoint the year in which trends appeared in the charts and measure their duration.

The study’s findings may come as a shock to fans of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, as its authors believe there is no musical evidence to suggest that the “British invasion” of the early 60s caused a revolution in the US charts at all. Rather, the music style those bands displayed – measured by properties such as chord changes and tone – was already established in the US charts before they arrived.

Farage is the new one who looks like Fozzie Bear trying to sneak into Parliament by putting Kermit on his shoulders, poking out the top of a stolen suit.

Clegg – I’ve got a trick for remembering which one he is: I think of which one I can’t remember and that’s him.

Cameron is the one who was born to rule, but they keep having elections instead, which you can see gets right on his wick.

Sturgeon is the one who looks like an auntie who’s come to pick one of the others up.

Miliband reminds me of when I was in Aldi and found this squashy CBeebies thing on the floor that a baby had dropped. Everyone had trod its face to bits, but it still had this big smile, maybe because it knew somebody loved it.

That’s why it’s so crucial that a film like “Wonder Woman” does well. We’ve confirmed that it will be the first woman-directed live action feature with a budget over $100 million. If “Wonder Woman” bombs (which we don’t think it will), its failure will be offered as damning evidence proving that big budget films by and about women shouldn’t get made. As Diablo Cody recently told LA Weekly, “If a movie starring or written by or directed by a man flops, people don’t blame the gender of the creator. It’s just kind of weird how the blame is always immediately placed on female directors.”

Richard was part of an army of hundreds of volunteers around Los Angeles who were sent out to change people’s minds. And a study by researchers at UCLA and Columbia University found that a year later, not only did these voters stay convinced, they also convinced others in their own households to switch. Apparently neither of those things ever happens.

Ukip has paid for a double-page ad in the Daily Telegraph on the same day the paper’s front page claimed that voting for the party was like writing a ‘suicide note’ for Britain.