The former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, has been hanged for crimes against humanity.

Do you think this was just punishment for the man the Telegraph described in its obituary as " as murderous a tyrant as any yet witnessed by history"?

By executing Saddam, did the current Iraqi authorities ensure that justice had been done? Or did they - and their US and British allies - stoop to Saddam's own level?

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Posted at: 16:30 | Permalink | Comments 175

Working mothers are harming their children’s long-term development by sending them to nursery from an early age, a leading author has claimed, reigniting the debate over childcare.

Michael Morpurgo, the former children’s laureate, claimed it was “utterly extraordinary” that half of mothers with children under five were employed outside the home.

Do you agree with the author’s views that the lack of contact between children and their parents is directly to blame for problems including poor mental health, sleeping disorders and anorexia?

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Posted at: 16:30 | Permalink | Comments 54

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has criticised the Government's Iraq policy, claiming the war there is "morally flawed."

It is not the first time that Dr Williams has spoken out on political matters. Last week, he claimed the war was putting Christian communities in the Middle East at risk and lambasted the government for the "ignorance" and "short-sightedness" of its war planning.

Is Dr Williams right to voice his concerns? What role, if any, should religious leaders play in the shaping of foreign policy?

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Posted at: 11:01 | Permalink | Comments 79

British motorists could be pursued for offences committed abroad under new laws which will give foreign authorities the right to obtain information from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

Motoring groups are concerned that Britons could unwittingly commit offences by, for example, using cruise control in Belgium, overtaking a stationary school bus while it lets off children in Germany or driving without dipped headlights in Austria.

What do you think about this legislation? Should drivers who commit offences abroad be punished at home?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 82

An overhaul of the Top 40 for the download generation could finally allow some of the most popular songs of all time their place in the charts.

Cult hits which were never released as singles – including Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen – are expected to profit from the shake-up, which could spell the end of the traditional, physical single.

What do you think is the best song never to have been released as a single?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 37

The brightest 800,000 pupils in England are to be given vouchers to spend on extra lessons as part of a national talent search.

Every secondary and primary school will be told to supply the names of 10 per cent of their pupils who best meet the new criteria for the "gifted and talented programme". The pupils will be able to exchange their vouchers for places on a range of courses, including summer schools at universities.

Do you approve of this attempt to stretch our most intelligent pupils? Or do you feel the resources could be better spent on helping children who are struggling with their classes?

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Posted at: 12:15 | Permalink | Comments 48

This year, a record number of unwanted, unloved and in many cases unpleasant, presents are up for sale on the online auction site eBay.

Yesterday, bargain hunters could pick up a fondue set, a cat-themed biscuit jar and at least four copies of the Noel Edmonds Deal or No Deal DVD game, to name but a few of the items on sale.

Will you be auctioning off any of your Christmas presents this year? What was the worst gift you received?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 18

Hunt supporters have proclaimed the Boxing Day turnout the biggest ever despite the sport of hunting with dogs being illegal in England and Wales for almost two years.

The 2004 Act made hunting with dogs a criminal offence, although exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are all still legal.

Loopholes in the law, such as the exemption which allows the hunting of dogs with a bird of prey, are continually being exploited by hunters to the outrage of anti-hunt campaigners.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 274

What are your New Year's resolutions?

How do you plan to overhaul your life in 2007? Will you change the way you work or what you do in your free time? How you eat or how much exercise you do? Or have you made any vows of a more offbeat nature?

Are New Year's resolutions inevtiably doomed to failure by the third week of January? Has a resolution ever motivated you to successfully change a part of your life?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 23

The Queen will this year make her Christmas Day message available as a podcast for the first time, in an apparent bid to appeal to a younger audience.

Do you think the Queen needs to go to such lengths in order to appear modern and relevant? Does the royal family have a duty to market itself to a young audience, or does such an idea cheapen the concept of royalty?

Is the podcast plan just a gimmick? Would you prefer to enjoy the speech in its more traditional, televised format?" Are there any other aspects of the internet era that you think the monarchy should embrace?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 84

Plans to impose pay as you drive road-pricing on Britain's motorists have run into fierce opposition, with more than 57,000 people signing a Downing Street online petition calling for the scheme to be scrapped.

The proposal, which could make drivers pay as much as £1.28 a mile, has generated a far greater response than any other on the Downing Street website.

Will you be lending your support to the campaign? What do you think of the Government's attempts to combat congestion in general?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 130

With 2006 drawing to a close, the time has come to join our celebrity respondents, stare into the figurative crystal ball and speculate on what the coming year could hold in store.

Some readers have already disagreed over whether Tony Blair will resign, while others predicted Gordon Brown would manage a brief stint as Prime Minister before calling a general election. What do you think the New Year will bring for British politics?

On an international level, readers are split as to whether the United States will withdraw from Iraq or beef up its presence. Other predictions include "further catastrophic terrorist acts" and Israel making a nuclear strike on Iran. What do you see as the likely major developments on the world stage?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 158

What should John Lewis be like in the future? What makes a successful retail store?

A new boss will be heading John Lewis in the spring with the promise of "fresh ideas".

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Posted at: 09:01 | Permalink | Comments 94

The Government has partially backed down on plans to put details of patients' records on a national computer system, and agreed to proceed "with caution" with a limited list of medical information.

Although the Government insists patients will be able to opt out of having their details uploaded, critics have warned that the scheme is the thin end of the wedge and that once the information leaves GPs it could be used by other agencies.

What do you think of the scheme? Do you believe the Government really intends to scale back its efforts to create an electronic patient care record?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 129

The stinging attack on BP's corporate culture and leadership style by one of its own senior executives caps the end of an annus horribilis for the oil giant.

It comes on top of a criminal investigation into its maintenance record following an oil spillage in Alaska which led to the discovery that miles of pipeline were dangerously corroded. Plus BP's trading operations face criminal and civil investigations into whether the company has purposely manipulated the crude oil, petrol and propane markets.

Group chief executive Lord Browne has often been hailed as one of Britain's most successful businessmen. But is he the right man to sort these problems out?

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Posted at: 09:01 | Permalink | Comments 6

What's big, grey and wears glass slippers? Cinderelephant. What disease can you catch from putting up too many Christmas decorations? Tinsilitis.

Christmas dinner wouldn't be the same without a few terrible jokes from the Christmas crackers afterwards. Are all cracker jokes terrible? Are they so bad they're good? Or are there in fact a few gems tucked away in a cracker or two?

We'd like to find out. Send us your funniest Christmas cracker jokes using the comment box below.

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Posted at: 09:01 | Permalink | Comments 48

Congratulations. Beating out candidates including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, and James Baker, co-leader of the Iraq Study Group, “you” have been selected as Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2006.

Is this just a gimmick, or is it an apt choice?

The annual award, which identifies the person, or people, who most affect the news and people’s daily lives, for good or ill, this year goes to anyone who has used or created content on the internet.

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Posted at: 10:01 | Permalink | Comments 23

The murders of several prostitutes in Ipswich have underscored the dangers facing women who work on the streets, often as a desperate measure to feed their drug addictions.

An estimated 80,000 women earn a living as prostitutes in Britain, which, unlike other Western countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, has not introduced fully legal, regulated brothels.

Earlier this year the Government moved towards legalising ‘mini-brothels’ to allow two or three women to work together for their own safety. Is this a step in the right direction, an acknowledgement that "the world's oldest profession" will never die out, or a moral outrage?

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Posted at: 10:01 | Permalink | Comments 94

The English language dominates world commerce, the internet, the global media and the international travel industry. So why should we English-speakers bother to learn other languages? Shouldn't foreigners just try harder to master English instead?

Every British child should learn a foreign language at primary school to reverse the "severe" decline in French and German studies, a report by Lord Dearing concluded yesterday. Do you agree? If so, what languages should they learn and from what age?

Should we all be studying Chinese, Arabic and Russian instead of French, German and Spanish? What's the best way to learn a foreign language, apart from living in the country where it is spoken? Is to have a second language "to possess a second soul", as Charlemagne is supposed to have said?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 124

Today's report by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales is an attempt to lay to rest the conspiracy theories surrounding her death.

It is almost ten years since the crash in Paris that killed Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and claims of a cover-up have been rife ever since, led largely by Mohamed Fayed, Dodi's father.

Do you think Lord Stevens report will put an end to the conspiracy theories? Should Mr Fayed now end his campaign or is he right to continue putting his case?

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Posted at: 09:43 | Permalink | Comments 89

Around 2,500 post offices are expected to close because of increasing losses and fewer people using the network, the Government has announced, defying protests from rural communities.

The Daily Telegraph has championed the cause of rural post offices and highlighted their importance for the elderly, isolated and for village life in general.

So have we won or lost this battle? Or are there further battles ahead? What impact do you think these closures will have on rural Britain? Are they justified? Or is this simply the Labour Party's revenge on a rural culture it has never understood?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 46

Video: Fur and loathing

Wearing real fur used to be taboo, particularly in politically correct London, but that seems to be changing.

The fur industry went into recession in the mid-1990s after a series of high profile campaigns and protests but the British Fur Trade Association says that sales of fur have increased by a third in the past two years, creating a market worth £500 million a year.

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Posted at: 09:30 | Permalink | Comments 118

The countdown to Christmas is intensifying and so too is criticism that the celebration has been irrevocably ruined by everything from rampant consumerism to political correctness.

Those who feel the Christian holiday has been hijacked by secularism include a Dorset vicar who banned a man wearing a Santa suit from his carol service.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, has also come under fire for sending out cards with the message “Seasons Greetings” despite criticising politically correct moves to make December 25 religiously neutral.

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Posted at: 14:01 | Permalink | Comments 96

What is the secret of staying young at heart and active even while the rest of one's body - and mind - is feeling its age?

Leo Abse, the 89-year-old former Labour MP married to a Polish woman 50 years his junior, clearly thinks he knows the answer.

"Anyone of my age who says he feels 21 is in denial," he told the Telegraph's Elizabeth Grice. "My physical incapacities are a constant reminder of my age and only my wife saves me from them."

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Posted at: 13:01 | Permalink | Comments 31

Almost one in 10 British citizens are now living abroad, according to new figures from a leading think tank. Are you one of them? If so, why? And what has been your experience of the move? Do you feel welcome in your new environment? Do you still regard Britain as home?

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) estimates that the total figure for British expatriates now stands at 5.5 million. These range from young workers seeking fortunes elsewhere to older people who have retired to sunnier destinations.

Spain is popular with the latter category but many young people are relocating to Asia, attracted by the economic boom in countries such as China, India or the United Arab Emirates.

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Posted at: 10:31 | Permalink | Comments 346

Airport operator BAA, owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, has enjoyed a monopoly on UK airline passengers for more than 20 years.

Charges may be regulated but critics say BAA is inefficient and fares, as a result, are higher than they should be. The OFT reckons it is time for a full competition probe and suggests a break-up would be good for customers.

In theory, competition between airports should lower fares. But, some argue, Heathrow enjoys such dominance that lighter-touch regulation could lead to price rises.

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Posted at: 10:01 | Permalink | Comments 7

Shell is reported to be under pressure to cede control of its £12bn Sakhalin-2 natural gas project to Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas giant.

Doing so will mean a massive transfer of wealth from Shell to the Kremlin as well as control of the politically sensitive Russian gas fields.

It is not the first time Western companies in Russia have been the subject of political interference. BP was forced to pay an unexpected $1.45bn back-tax bill and may face further demands.

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Posted at: 06:30 | Permalink | Comments 17

Fathers who fail to pay maintenance for their children will be "named and shamed" on the internet as part of a Government drive to make them honour their family responsibilities.

John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has said he is ready to "come down like a ton of bricks" on absentee parents who are "holding two fingers up to the rest of us by not paying".

Do you support this crackdown? Do you think it will work? Will aggressive tactics only make the problem worse?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 89

Tony Blair has told immigrants to Britain that, in his opinion, they have "the duty" to integrate with the country's mainsteam.

In a speech immediately interpreted as overturning decades of Labour support for multiculturalism, the Prime Minister explained what ethnic minorities should do if they want to call themselves British.

Among the qualities expected of them were: "equality of respect," especially for women, observing the rule of law and a command of English.

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Posted at: 00:08 | Permalink | Comments 232

The English are a nation of incorrigible couch potatoes, according to a survey which claims half of the population take no exercise whatsoever.

The study, billed as the largest of its kind, found just one in five people were managing 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least three days a week and 50.6 per cent were entirely indolent.

What, if anything, can the Government do to force people off the couch and onto the treadmill? Are we doomed to follow in the heavy footsteps of our American cousins, more than half of whom are overweight?

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Posted at: 00:05 | Permalink | Comments 55

News: transcript of Sir Mike's Lecture

General Sir Mike Jackson, the recently retired head of the Army, has launched a stinging attack on the Government, accusing it of neglecting soldiers and "asking too much" of the Armed Forces.

Sir Mike lambasted the Ministry of Defence for failing to put the "soldier, sailor and airman and their families wholeheartedly to the forefront" and compared the "virtual world" defined by civil servants with the "real world" the military faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Posted at: 09:03 | Permalink | Comments 101

Angry commuters have begun a campaign against fellow passengers who play loud music on mobile phones on buses and trains. Could this be the start of a backlash against this ubiquitous tool of modern civilisation?

Within the past decade mobiles have evolved from being a relatively rare symbol of wealth to becoming central to the way we communicate, do business and live our lives.

But is the mobile phone, in your opinion, a blessing or a curse? What about a BlackBerry? Was your life better back in the mists of time - before such devices were invented?

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Posted at: 00:05 | Permalink | Comments 65

The green belt of countryside surrounding Britain's towns and cities could be under threat, after a Treasury report recommended a major overhaul of planning laws to free up more land and streamline planning applications.

Against a backdrop of rocketing house prices, the study claims local and regional authorities should conduct a review of green belt boundaries where these are too tightly drawn.

What do you make of this report? How should the Government balance the need to protect green belt land and provide affordable housing?

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Posted at: 00:05 | Permalink | Comments 51

Gordon Brown has put high spending on education and increased “green” taxes at the heart of his 10th and final pre-Budget report as Chancellor.

Rejecting the idea of tax cuts in favour of funnelling an extra £2 billion into the public coffers, Mr Brown ended the three-year freeze on fuel duty, doubled the tax for air travellers and raised fuel duty by 1.25p.

Though Mr Brown has presided over a period of uninterrupted economic growth in Britain, his detractors accuse him of strangling business with red tape, masking a sharp rise in living costs, eroding pension funds and abandoning his own rules of financial prudence.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 180

Tony Blair has declared that Britain must keep a fleet of nuclear submarines as a deterrent, defying critics who hoped the Government would now relinquish such Cold War-era weaponry.

The estimated cost of replacing the fleet, which carries Trident nuclear missiles, is £20 ($39.6) billion.

Does Britain still need a nuclear deterrent? Or do you agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who claims that the possession of Trident is “evil”? Is the cost of maintaining the fleet justifiable?

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 92

The Queen's English is becoming more common, according to scientists.

Jonathan Harrington, Professor of Phonetics at the University of Munich, and his team analysed all the Queen's Christmas broadcasts since 1952 and concluded that the Queen has "altered her way of speaking in line with her host community in south-east England".

What do you think? We have three videos of the Queen speaking so you can judge for yourself whether her accent has changed.

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Posted at: 16:10 | Permalink | Comments 24

News: Celebrities' Christmas wish lists

What would you like Santa - or your nearest and dearest - to give you for Christmas? And is there any "must have" toy that your children are demanding this year? (And would you secretly like to play with it too?)

Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? If you haven't, will you leave it till the last minute, or pace yourself over the next few weeks? And how do you do your Christmas shopping: in the shops, by mail order or online?

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Posted at: 10:01 | Permalink | Comments 64

The cost of living for many households in Britain is four times the Government’s published rate of inflation, according to research published in The Daily Telegraph.

Millions of middle class and struggling families are experiencing rates far in excess of the 2.4 per cent official rate, our research finds.

As so often is the case, it is the most vulnerable in society who are the worst affected, with pensioners facing inflation rates of almost 9 per cent as bills eat into their meagre budgets.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 120

Professor Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's most eminent scientists, has claimed that the human race should colonise distant planets to survive future threats, ranging from meteor strikes to nuclear war.

The Cambridge University cosmologist argued that rockets propelled by the kind of matter/antimatter annihilation technology popularised in Star Trek would be needed to help Homo sapiens settle hospitable planets orbiting alien stars.

Do you think Professor Hawking's vision could become reality? Or is space travel on this scale just his flight of fancy?

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Posted at: 00:03 | Permalink | Comments 130