nivlark

Which is funny, because the EU Parliament is elected more democratically than MPs are in the UK's first past the post system.
It's true that the Commission (the EU's executive branch) is not elected by the public, but replacing it with a more democratic process (as many MEPs want to do) requires more power to be given to the Parliament, which UKIP opposes. So they don't present any solutions or workable debate.

Unfortunately we reap what we sow. That's tough for all those that didn't vote for the government, but that's democracy for you.

First year physics undergrad here (so in comparison, barely less of a layman than anyone else!), but I get asked this question quite often. As I understand it, it's somewhat meaningless to talk about 'before' the big bang as it not only created space, but time as well (as the single entity of spacetime). So without the existence of time, there isn't really a 'before' to consider.

--this may well be complete rubbish, it's just the way I've always understood it--

It does rise over time - senior doctors often earn £100k or more which would be considered a very good salary here.
£20-25k is what you'd expect to earn as a new graduate in any field, but medicine has the advantage of giving you much better chances of getting a job (the next best degrees are vet med and physics).
Our system for repaying student loans is also fairly kind - you only repay 9% of earnings over £21k, student loans are separate from other loans and don't affect your credit score, and after 30 years any remaining debt is wiped.

Not sure if intended as sarcasm or not.

It's a fairly niche hobby but I'd hardly call it jawdropping. It's not that uncommon in the UK where there's still lots of trains. When he was growing up the US was like that too.