I've been leaning towards The Independent since my childhood sweetheart defected to the Liberal Democrats at the election: It was The Guardian wot won it! And I hope they are ashamed of themselves.

Today comes I, a Reader's Digest version of The Indie. And we quite like it.

It's a sort of paper version of what we tend to do with on-line issues. Flip through headlines, pause over an article, and occasionally check back for some more facts.

Jill likes it because it has the Soduku and crossword laid out neatly on a single page which is unadulterated by that awful Palace Script they introduced at the last make-over.

I'm not sure it has a niche - even at 20p. But I do think that the comparison with USA Today was stretching things a little, Evan. It's a lot better - hell, almost anything is better than USA Today.

I bought I today. And I'll buy it tomorrow, too. However enthusiastic I am about web-based news (and I am very enthusiastic indeed), it's good to see a proper newspaper addressing the needs of short-attention-span readers.

Today's listening: Phil & Friends with Trey Anastasio), 2006-02-12, Beacon Theatre NYC. Great stuff.

As an Englishman whose heart (and, to declare an interest, some property) lies over the channel, I am following the events in France with interest and some relish. Not least because the contrast between the response to the cuts in England and the pension proposals in France is so marked.

Whereas we merely complain in the language of the playground that the cuts are 'not fair', the French do something about it. They don't sit wringing their hands. They don't write to MPs or The Guardian. The French mobilise. They take to the streets.

As always, the established parties are apprehensive. The Socialist Party is arguing that the protesters should wait until the Presidential elections in 2012; the PCF is, as always, frightened of mass mobilisation.

But that's the so-called leadership. The people are ignoring them. They don't want votes in parliament or a referendum, because they know that parliamentary democracy is a sham.

So should we after seeing the appalling triumphalism of the Tories at the end of Osborne's O level Chicago School speech and hearing Clegg and Cable renege on their pledges and reverse their stated policies in order to maintain their precarious positions of power.

I know this is what has happened with successive governments of every persuasion. So we shouldn't be surprised.

But we should be angry. La lutte continue ...

Today's listening: Paul Kantner + Jefferson Starship, Blows Against the Empire. Played loudly.

Apparently, 20 members of the cabinet are millionaires.

I learned this from Channel 4's Dispatches programme last night, and it surprised me.

I thought the figure was a great deal higher.

Because the really worrying aspect of the stat is that you'd struggle to identify which ones aren't millionaires. They all look and act the same.

I'm not just talking about Ant and Dec, our joint leaders, and the egregious Osborne. Even the Hammonds and Mitchells of this world have been cobbled from the same last.

This is one reason why we had the significant difference of opinion over employment (or rather, unemployment) prospects between the spokesman for small businesses and "thirty five of the UK's leading businessmen". Most of the latter group could easily be in the Cabinet, except it doesn't pay well enough and they probably think Cameron's a bit of a pinko.

Small businesses are not widely known for their leftist leanings. But they do understand that these cuts are not going to hit tax-avoiding cabinet members nor thirty five of the UK's leading businessmen.

They're going to hit below the belt; and below the salt.

Today's listening: Bob, Witmark Demos, Bootleg Series #9. Trying to establish how this is different from the recording we've all had for years.

I'm reading The Weekend, the new (or newly translated and published) novel by Bernhard Schlink, "the bestselling author of The Reader". My overwhelming reaction is one of relief. Let me explain.

I didn't share the universal enthusiasm for The Reader. And I probably wouldn't have paid any attention to this new work had it not been for Andrew Marr starting the week from the Cheltenham Literary Festival with the good professor as a guest. As I listened, it appeared that Schlink was writing - no, worse still, had written - a novel addressing the same issues and with similar subject matter to a work-in-not-very-much-progress by Max Smith.

Ignore it? Or go out immediately and buy it? Of course, I bought it and started reading with some apprehension.

It's not bad at all, actually; though the characters are little more than spokespersons for particular points of view. They've been created to represent specific ideas rather than as credible people with opinions.

And the story itself, you will be as relieved as am I to learn, is completely different from the magnum opus which currently resides, incomplete, on my hard drive. Phew.

Today's listening: Grateful Dead, 1970-06-24, Port Chester NY - the late show. With NRPS. A wonderfully exhilarating show from before they got too good.

The value of your investment may go down as well as up.

Especially when you behave like complete idiots and load a great club with insane amounts of debt before sneaking into some cowboy court in Texas to claim $1.6 billion in damages as your reward for almost bringing Liverpool FC to its knees.

The real issue, however, is not merely the behaviour of Hicks and Gillet. They saw what was happening in English football on a smaller scale - crooks in the boardroom and cheats on the pitch - and reckoned there was easy money to be made. Probably would have been, too - if they hadn't taken greed to new levels.

I am not a supporter of Liverpool FC. My football allegiance (and paltry shareholding) resides in the lower divisions. And, as a Sox fan, I am apprehensive about the implications of divided loyalties and priorities amongst the Sox ownership if NESV takes over at Anfield.

But in this first post, I want to express my solidarity with my mates from the red side of Liverpool. All football fans, and especially those who have seen their clubs diminished by the unacceptable faces of capitalism, are with you.

Today's listening: Spider John Koerner, Ash Grove LA, 1967-02-01. Friend of Bob's - 'nuff said.