Small screen hits and misses

This year's TV output has ranged from the excellent (Bleak House) to the diabolic (Rome), the witty (Weeds) and the downright mean (More 4's opening shot at David Blunkett's messy love life).

Thanks to my Sky Plus; I've watched every episode of Bleak House and it is as good as it could be. I hadn't read the book, but from the moment the opening credits rolled, I was hooked on the drama.

Charles Dance's Tulkinghorn embodies both evil and something even more frightening – the law itself. Gillian Anderson gives a brilliant performance as the damaged and desperate Lady Dedlock.

Even Esther, whose goodness one could easily learn to despise, walks the tightrope and stays with the angels. The lesser characters all work to perfection, captured in short, pithy scenes where every element pulls magically together to convey so much more than the individual parts.

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I agree Bleak House was excellent – apart from the last episode which ruined it for me. With its "happy ever after" ending and hackneyed chocolate box images it was sickly sweet and seemed to be written and directed by someone from another planet to the team who made the brilliantly dark and intriguing preceding episodes. Charles Dance as Tulkinghorn was superb and Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock a revelation but once she was dead the whole thing seemed to unravel. Shame.
Jonathan Langley

Surely the best thing that the BBC put out in 2005 was the hugely popular and hugely acclaimed Doctor Who?
Richard Barnes, Wellington, New Zealand

To Andrew Walker: No, you're not the only one to think Little Britain isn't funny. I'm ashamed to belong to the same race as those who voted Little Britain as Best Comedy. It is juvenile, unoriginal, and repetitive. However, I'm also one who thinks Rome is great fun, a lot closer to Hollywood history than reality, but its great escapism.
Dennis Fisher, Scotland

I loved Tales from the Green Valley, the series about the 16th Century farm. It was a wonderful way to realise social history with such clear explanations and to see how it could have been to live then. It was superb entertainment as well as being informative.
Mavis Greenhalgh, Newbury

As an avid fan of anything involving swords and sandals, I was positively foaming at the mouth with anticipation when I heard about the imminent arrival of Rome to our screens. Unfortunately, it turned out to be utter drivel. I can contend with the blatant historical accuracies, the dodgy acting and the rubbish battle scenes but what really turned me off was how slow and boring it was.
Andrew Beadnell, London

I love both Rome and Bleak House. And even if Rosie didn't like it, the fact that most of the money was put up by HBO has nothing to do with it. HBO Showtime has produced some great drama in recent years. And no mention of Lost? Or the superb Doctor Who? Typical highbrow view from a Newsnight Review contributor I'm afraid.
Daniel Platt, Bracknell

I know everyone else seems to have gone mad for Bleak House, but as the weeks went by, I found it increasingly disappointing. It was both interminable and curiously empty and repetitive – the plot that drives the novel seemed to have been whittled away to nothing. With the decision taken to stuff it with well-known actors, it was inevitable that a number would be badly miscast. And, as always with Andrew Davies, there were the usual anachronisms and reductions to make you suck your teeth in dismay.
Ian Brown, Birmingham,

I am shocked that the new HBO/BBC series Rome can be labelled diabolic! It took a few episodes to get going but it is another fantastic collaboration of HBO and BBC (as was Band of Brothers). The actors, costumes and storylines are very entertaining. It is not in the same league as the Sopranos but is excellent drama none the less.
Steve Taylor, Thatcham

Watching it has reminded me of being glued to the box for Charles Sturridge's adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and, even further back, the Forsythe Saga in the 1960s. Every week this autumn I have looked forward to watching the next episode, something that, sadly, is a rare event.

Rome

I set my Sky Plus to catch the first episode of Rome and settled down to watch. The hype had been enormous, far bigger than for Bleak House and I expected to find the same brilliance again.

It was hard to believe that this rubbish had come from the same stable. The plot was chaotic, the sex ludicrous, the costumes hammy and the violence both crude and insistent.

Robert Harris, author of Pompeii, condemned the series as being as historically accurate as depicting Clemmie Churchill having sex with Ribbentrop and poisoning Chamberlain before the Second World War.

It seems to me that it is no excuse to blame some of Rome's excesses on the fact that it was a £60 million co-production with HBO, to which the BBC contributed a mere 9 million.

Something went horribly wrong and the fact that the BBC only contributed one sixth of the overall costs is no excuse for broadcasting such a disaster. I don't know what the overall budget was for Bleak House, but £9 million must have been a very decent chunk of it.

I hope someone is losing a little sleep about squandering the public dosh so badly.

Weeds

Weeds, screened on Sky One this autumn was a terrific follow on to the gap left in my viewing life by the end of the first series of Desperate Housewives.

Like Housewives, Weeds concerned a white middle class community with problems.

The heroine of Weeds has suddenly been widowed and her late husband's insurance policies don't cover the costs of running her home and her children. To make ends meet she starts dealing grass to her friends in the neighbourhood and there the fun starts.

The characters in Weeds make the inhabitants of Wisteria Lane look tame and some of the conversations made me gasp. (Mother to daughter: "Perhaps I should have had an abortion, you're such a pain). But it was slick and fast, with racy dialogue and genuinely risqué moments.

One of the best documentaries I saw this year was Storyville's Sir, No Sir. I had had no idea just how extensive and powerful the anti-Vietnam war movement had been among the GIs themselves.

Sir, No Sir took us on their journey of understanding as first tens, then thousands, saw that they were fighting an unjust war. It was brave of young Americans to refuse the draft, but even braver I think to go there and then rebel.

There was brilliant footage from the war and from Stateside protests as well as clips from Jane Fonda's concerts that she put on for pacifist troops.

All these references to Sky look like product placement particularly from someone who claims never to have read Bleak House. I enjoy Rome. It is very thrilling. It shows you what Bodies or The Thick of It would be like if people were less civilised, but there is a certain resonance in the way inconvenient people get despatched. I look forward to Rome every week. Congratulations to the people who produced it.
James Williams, Nottingham

I think Rome is doing OK overall as season two has already been commissioned. Shakespeare it is not, but Up Pompeii style antics it is. Great fun.
Neil Higgins, Birmingham

TV highlight of the year? The Rotters' Club. Yes, it occasionally allowed itself to wallow in a nostalgia-fest, but the young cast were a delight, the script was sharp and funny, and the depiction of 1970's Britain was terrific. Now for an adaptation of The Closed Circle.
Ken Kimber, Swindon

Bleak House has been great, although I've missed a couple on Fridays, because, like the excellent The West Wing, early Friday is bad for my memory. Rome has been what I expected it to be, a 21st Century Borgias entertaining & amusing at the same time.

Am I the only one to think that Little Britain series 3, isn't funny? Worst Week of My Life gets better & could run & run. My children enjoyed Shoe Box Zoo & watch Strictly Come Dancing. My 8-year-old daughter also loves Third Rock From The Sun on ITV 3, which shows the incredible John Lithgow at his best.

I have caught the odd Larry Saunders repeat which is still brilliant, Peep Show, darkly disturbing & have watched all the Brideshead repeats. Overall, the new programmes on terrestrial have been better than the last few years. However, I like the Freeview channels, because they seem to show the best old stuff – including The Sopranos.

Can Paul Abbott do another political thriller in 2006?
Andrew Walker, Altrincham

I agree with Roy from Portsmouth both programmes have been entertaining and to some degree enlightening. A real breath of fresh air on the box. By the way what's all this advertising SKY PLUS?
Barry Tebbs, Leeds

I am not surprised Rosie would not like Rome as it is most definitely a male orientated action series whereupon Bleak House (which I also like) is a female orientated series. They are both a breath of fresh air instead of the usual fodder or soaps et al.
Roy Cole, Portsmouth

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Newsnight Review is broadcast on BBC Two at 2300 GMT on Friday's – immediately after Newsnight.

The final programme of the year will be shown on Friday, 16 December, 2005.

Smoking, my lost love

Peppermints. Nicotine patches. Mini cigars. All were tried – to little success – in a quest to ditch what at its peak was an 80 a day habit. So what finally worked?

At my age, achievements become few and small. One enters the era of tiny triumphs.

The other morning, as I walked along slowly beside the Thames on my way to my favourite coffee bar – walking slowly because I was deliberately minimising my impact on the environment – I reflected, in the style of one of those old essayists who were always reflecting on narrow areas of experience that turned out to have a wide area of implication, I reflected, as I walked slowly upstream beside the south bank of the Thames and turned up the spanking new glass-lined avenue that calls itself More London, I reflected that the now virtually complete restrictions on smoking would have driven me to violence if I still smoked. But I don't, so they haven't.

I did it. I finally quit. Two and a half years ago I smoked my last tin of cigarillos, and although I still dream of taking them up again on my death bed – more of that later – I am now at one with the non-smoking world. I almost pity, instead of envy, those who are still caught up in it.

Outside the entrance halls to the tall glass buildings of More London – what a name, so exactly conveying that it has less of everything – there were groups of people smoking at each other. Occasionally they talked to each other as well, but you could tell they were talking about smoking. Some of them were arriving late for work and were having a quick one before they went inside. Some of them had arrived for work earlier and had come back outside for the first smoking break of the day, or perhaps the second.

Cigarette butts surrounded each group in a sort of fairy ring. Already these fairy rings seem to be moving further away from doorways, and one foresees the day when the fairy rings disappear altogether.

In California it was already happening 10 years ago when it was decreed that you not only couldn't smoke in the outside section of the restaurant, you couldn't smoke within 50 yards of the entrance. When the entrances were less than 50 yards apart, smokers in Bel Air had to walk to Hollywood Boulevard before they could light up.

Now it's happening in Britain. It's already happened in Scotland, where any space with three walls is designated a non-smoking zone. After that law came in, you could see otherwise sane-looking people counting walls and you knew that they were smokers.

Cough yourself inside out

I was just such a smoker from my early teens until my early 30s, quickly working up from a 20 a day habit to the dizzy 80 a day peak that some so-called experts declare impossible because you would have to wake up in the night.

But of course I woke up in the night. It was an expensive habit but I never subsequently thought of suing the manufacturers to get my money back. Revenge on the tobacco companies was always a branch of the compensation culture that I thought especially ungracious, like suing a host for having served you champagne before you fell into his swimming pool.

At the age of 11 it was already clear to me that inhaling cigarette smoke was likely to do to my lungs the same thing that it had done to my Uncle Harold's.

Coughing himself inside out, Uncle Harold would reach for the next cigarette. By the time I quit, I was doing the same. Impressed by the news that if I stopped cold before I was 35 it would probably undo any damage I had already caused, I didn't have another drag for 13 years. But I missed it every day, so how, you might be asking – and if you're trying to quit you'll certainly be asking – how did I manage it?

I used the off-set method, i.e. I spent the money on something else, something that I could see accumulate instead of burn away. The same amount of money I would have spent a week on cigarettes, I spent on recordings of classical music. They were all on vinyl in those days and eventually I built up a collection weighing a couple of tons, almost as much as the pyramid of the butts of all the cigarettes I had ever smoked would have weighed if they had been swept together in the one place, which would have had to be as big as Trafalgar Square.

As I sat there listening to, say, the Mozart String Quintet K 516, I could reflect that its limitless sublimities almost outranked the pleasure of sucking on the 50th filter tip of the day.

But there was the catch. I was still thinking of that pleasure, and eventually I took up smoking again, but this time with new hopes of smoking in moderation. I had been impressed by the way Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns chewed a cigarillo instead of saying anything.

Taciturnity had always been among those dreams for myself I knew to be hopeless, but I correctly assessed that he smoked far fewer cigarillos than he would have smoked cigarettes. Alas, the same was not true for me, and within a year I was chain-smoking the little cigars, often carrying a third tin of 10 for when the first two ran out.

Smoke on high

So it went on for a further 20 years on and off, and usually more on than off, while the final whistle was blowing for smokers in the Western world. The cigarettes which had been the only stable European currency in 1945 gradually but inexorably became branded as evidence of the lethal conspiracy of big business against populations helpless to choose their own fate, and the freedom to choose death was rolled back under the imperative to lead a healthier life.

Eventually even I was convinced, and I gave up again, partly because of my job. Flying all over the world to make films for television, I was sometimes faced with 13 hours in the air without a smoke. The 13 hours might as well have been 13 years. After most of the airlines turned on the non-smoking signs for keeps, a smoker who wanted to keep his fires burning had to plot a circuitous route across the globe, and often he would have to fly with an airline that allowed not only cigarettes in the cabin, but live chickens.

There was also the matter of a cough that became harder to conceal from my family. The smoking I could conceal, or thought I could, by going out into the garden for a quick dozen drags before always burying the butt in the soil of the same pot-plant and sticking a peppermint in my mouth. Why a man thinks the sweet stench of peppermints from his mouth will off-set the foul reek of smoke in his clothes is a question that has so far puzzled science. Anyway, it soon transpired that only I was fooled.

So I would give up for another year, off-setting the money this time with a plan to spend the same amount on health food in order to halve my weight. Having doubled it, I would hit the cigarillos yet again.

Lost love

Finally it was the Australia run that spelled the end of my smoking career. After 13 hours we arrived at Bangkok airport and I raced for the smoking room. Smoking room was a big name for a small Perspex cubicle that was opaque from the outside because of the grey pressure of the fumes within.

I opened the door, saw all the other smokers sitting there face to face in two tight rows, and I realised that I would have to smoke in the standing position. Then I realised I didn't have to light up. All I had to do was breathe in. It was the moment of truth.

But then, I had always known the truth. The truth is that I love smoking. Hence the failure of all my attempts to give it up, because every method I used was predicated on the assumption that a desire could be eliminated once it was seen to be absurd.

I tried nicotine patches and kept sticking them on until they joined up at the edges. I looked like the flesh-pink version of the jade warrior. There is a book out now which teaches that every cigarette you have from your second cigarette onwards does nothing for you except raise your nicotine level up to what it was. Possibly so, but in my case it also satisfied a deep longing, the memory of which lingers like lost love.

So how did I finally quit? I learned to smoke the memory. When the longing hits you, don't try to repress it. Savour it. The actual thing wouldn't be any better. In fact it wouldn't be as good, because it would last only as long as the cigarette or the cigarillo, whereas the memory lasts as long as you like.

Reflect on the frivolity of your desires all you wish, but you will never conquer them unless you first admit their urgency. And since I'm being positive in this series, let me record that I feel better. I still quite like the idea of taking a crate of cigarillos with me when I go into the nursing home, but that day will be further off now than it would have been if I hadn't stopped lighting a fire in the lower half of my face every few minutes. I would have been in the same condition as the pot plant. The pot plant died.

Below is a selection of your comments.

A non-smoker can never understand the addiction that is nicotine, surely if it wasn't for all the tax cigarettes generate they would be banned as Class A drugs. I tried giving up many many times, without success. Eventually the thing that made me give up was when a smoker kissed my new born son, and I when I picked up my child I could smell the cigarettes on him. It takes something that significant to change you. The fact that I was killing myself was not enough of an incentive, but the thought that I could harm my children was the catalyst I needed. When I see parents who smoke now, I truly wonder at their selfishnous.
A, London, UK

Thanks for a true appraisal of your victory to stop the nicotine sticks . For me, it was the hardest time I ever had to stop cigarettes after smoking for 35 years. I went "cold turkey" told everyone I worked or lived with that I would act crazy(during nicotine withdrawal)and did so for about 3 months.i.e. light headed & cranky. One can do it as in my case a friend suffered from smoke related bladder cancer from cigs that alerted me to stop from his pain. It has been 12 years since the last time I smoked.
Michael Jack, New York,New York USA

Clive you are right. All things not only smoking, normally turn out to be more enjoyable as fantasies than in reality !!..I too, owned an 80 a-day habit, but kicked it by not putting a fag in my mouth – yet still dream of that initial puff every day….!! it never leaves you….
Rory, Croydon, Surrey

For as long as you think of cigarettes as a long lost love, you will crave to be reunited and sooner or later, you'll take it up again. The simple truth is that they have no redeeming features and we just kid ourselves that we get some value. Allan Carr's book is pure genius. 3 or so years and I've stopped counting because I don't miss them any more
Sean Rodden, Sydney, Australia

I gave up smoking after 30 odd years, just over 11 years ago. I still crave a little for a smoke. I just packed up one evening and that was it. I hate the smell of smoking now, and I am sure I will never start up again. Aren't I?
Frank, Banbury

With the right weather conditions 80 a day is not so unreasonable. The only way to successfully quit smoking is to quit smoking successfully. To do that, one must quit smoking. So, if you want to quit smoking, quit. I don't know what all the fuss is about. I smoked 30 a day for 5 years; then I quit and that was that. You doesn't need a good reason or a patch or will power … you will only end up smoking again because reasons change; because patches just keep you on the back-burner until you can cope with the guilt of lighting another cigarette; because will power is nothing but hot air (2nd law of thermodynamics will bring you right back to the ashtray). If you want to quit, quit.
Nao Yoshino, London

Yes, always a wistful sort of dreamy golden view back to when the ciggie was lit, before and after every significant, insignificant or imaginary event worthy of hastening the beginning of the end. See? When one does not smoke, one has more lung power to write impossibly long, meandering sentences and maybe even recite them out loud without passing out! Well written, quite smitten, and having been several hundred thousand times bitten by the keen nicotine dream as well, loved the article. I, too, look forward to that day, when learning I have some fatal disease (old age?) and that my time is near, will have my bed wheeled down to the local liquor store or gas station, there to finally once again light up, dreamy contentment on my face, as I inhale, exhale and expire…
Erkht, Fairfax, California

Ah, the Bangkok airport smoking rooms. They didn't cure me of smoking, but they did cure me of regular smoking and desperately seeking the smoking room wherever I land! The next one can wait…
simon ferrigno, herne bay

Environmental impact of tobacco production is rarely considered, as in this article!
Colin, Bournemouth UK

Last of the great steam trains

Monday 30 September 1957 was a sad day for people in Fermanagh and the border counties in the west of Ireland.

It was the day the last trains ran on the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) and the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway.

Many people can fondly recall the sights and sounds of steam, especially those who lost their livelihoods.

The last train to leave Enniskillen was driven by Arthur Darragh, and to mark the anniversary he has returned to the footplate for the first time in 50 years.

He was joined by former colleagues at the Downpatrick Railway Museum, who exchanged stories of a bygone age.

Despite the passing of the years, memories of his youth returned and there was a twinkle in his eye as he took the controls once again.

"I've enjoyed it. I wouldn't want to be back to it but it did bring back memories of hard days and good days and many laughs and many characters who were drivers."

It may have been a golden age of travel for passengers, but for those on the footplate it was hot, physical work.

Kevin Love was a fireman whose job was to make sure there was enough steam to keep the engine running.

And as he stoked the boiler once more he recalled one particular journey that involved shovelling a lot of coal.

"At Adelaide (Station in Belfast) we worked the 9.30 passenger express train from Belfast to Dublin and back. And on that journey one day I burned 10 tonne of coal – shovelled it.

When we came back to Belfast that night we had nothing left!"

Fry-up

But there were benefits too – like a breakfast cooked on your shovel in the firebox.

"We used to do that in Bundoran. We used to have a fry up – you couldn't have got very much in the north at that particular time and when you went down there you got plenty of sausages!"

Dessie Gorrell, who was a clerk in Enniskillen Station working in the ticket office recalled the darker side of Irish history.

"A lot of passengers in those days were young people coming from the west of Ireland going to London," he says.

"Single to Euston Station was 3 pound 8 shillings and 9 pence. That sticks in my memory."

After the railway closed he emigrated to England, following those he had once helped on their way.

The end of the line was the end of a way of life for many people but 50 years later their memories live on.

Proof love at first sight exists

Love at first sight may not be just for old romantics, according to scientists.

People decide what kind of relationship they want within minutes of meeting, a study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships said.

Researchers at Ohio State University paired off 164 students, focusing on same-sex friendships – but said it could be applied to dating.

Report co-author Artemio Ramirez said it suggested speed dating had value as people did not want to waste time.

"It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. We make a prediction about what kind of relationship we could have with a person and that helps determine how much effort we are willing to put into developing a relationship.

"If I think we could become friends, I'll communicate more, tell you more about myself and do things that will help ensure a friendship does develop.

Future

"If I have a more negative prediction about a future relationship then I will restrict communication and make it harder to develop."

Professor Ramirez, who conducted the study with Michael Sunnafrank of the University of Minnesota, said it contradicted previous assumptions.

"Earlier research had assumed there was a cumulative effect that happens in the first days of meeting that helps determine how relationships will develop.

"But we're finding that it all happens much sooner than that – literally within a few minutes."

After the first meeting, which lasted between three, six and ten minutes, the students completed a questionnaire which asked them to predict how they envisaged a future relationship developing.

They also stated how much they had in common and how much they liked the person they had just met.

Relationship

Nine weeks later the participants were asked what kind of relationship had developed.

People who rated the potential relationship more positively tended to sit closer to their partner during class and talk more to that person.

After nine weeks, they were more likely to have developed a close relationship, the study found.

The results were the same for people who talked for three, six or ten minutes.

Prof Ramirez said: "That tells you things are happening very quickly. People are making snap judgements about what kind of relationship they want with the person they just met."

Moving school ‘lowers happiness’

Children's happiness drops when they move from primary to secondary school, damaging their curiosity about life, a study suggests.

Some 65% of primary pupils thought school was a "positive" experience, compared with 27% in secondary schools, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think tank found.

Meanwhile, the proportions who "strongly" felt they learned "a lot" in class were 71% and 12% respectively.

The NEF interviewed 1,000 children aged seven to 19 in Nottingham for its pilot study.

It stressed the connection between wellbeing and "curiosity" about life.

Interest

This quality – defined as a need to strive for more and learn more – was as important to happiness as feeling "satisfied" with academic results.

Researchers noted a marked drop in stimulation when pupils moved schools.

Of those in primaries, 65% strongly agreed that school was interesting, but just 12% in secondaries.

When it came to enjoyment of school activities, the figures were 65% and 18%.

'Run like factories'

Hetan Shah, NEF's programme director for wellbeing studies, said: "At primary school, there appears to be a good balance, looking at the needs of the whole person.

"But secondary school teachers I've spoken to say they are run more like factories.

"The high demands of league tables and targets must have some effect."

The study suggests there are "trade-offs" even in the top-performing primary schools between "academic success and promoting curiosity".

Previous research has shown that engaging in challenging and absorbing activities is important to people's ability to cope with life.

This, it is argued, has a knock-on effect on long-term health.

'Broader thinking'

The NEF is calling on the government to run a wider study looking at the transition from primary to secondary school.

Mr Shah said: "We are asking for broader thinking about what is taught in schools.

"We need to look not at just vocational teaching, in terms of achieving an end like employment or exam success. We have to ask what is school actually preparing people for."

The NEF study was carried out with Nottingham City Council.

The Local Government Act 2000 gave local authorities the power to "promote and improve well-being, either environmental, social or economic", within their area.

Davy Jones of the Audit Commission, which monitors public spending, said: "It [the study] will provide a valuable insight into life in the area, and be a strong basis for improving [the council's] work for the children and young people of Nottingham."

Blair ‘will listen’ to ID fears

Tony Blair has promised he will listen to concerns about plans for identity cards after seeing his Commons majority slashed from 67 to 31 on the issue.

Twenty Labour MPs rebelled against the plans on Tuesday night and senior MPs say changes will be needed to get the plans through Parliament.

At prime minister's questions, Mr Blair said: "We will have to listen to those concerns and respond to them."

But he urged critics to recognise the case for secure ID cards in the UK.

As well as helping to tackle organised crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, they could bring benefits to citizens, argued Mr Blair.

Much of the work towards the ID card system would be needed in any case for biometric passports being taken up by other countries.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said there was disquiet over many parts of the plans.

His party says the scheme could be Mr Blair's "poll tax".

The ID cards vote was the first proper test of a key policy area in the Commons since Labour was returned on a reduced majority.

Those who voted against the scheme included: ex-International Development Secretary Clare Short and former ministers Glenda Jackson, Kate Hoey and Mark Fisher, plus two new MPs Linda Riordan and Katy Clark.

The bill, which now faces a tough time in its committee stage, secured a second reading by 314 votes to 283.

John Denham, who was chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee in the last Parliament, warned further opposition lay ahead.

He told BBC News: "I think the government is going to have to make a number of changes to its approach to the bill to be sure of getting it through."

Greater controls needed

Mr Denham continued: "I think the scale of unhappiness is wider than the number of people who rebelled last night."

He backed the bill, but said ministers had not properly explained to the public how the scheme would work.

He said the aims of the measures needed to be more clearly defined. There needed to be greater controls over access to the information by police and other authorities.

He also thought the commissioner overseeing the scheme needed more powers.

'No compulsion'

One of the 20 rebels, Labour's Bob Marshall Andrews, predicted that ministers would eventually drop their ID proposals.

In the debate, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said ID cards would help counter, not create, a "big brother society".

He tried to address fears that the cost of ID cards would prove prohibitive for citizens by offering a cap on the price – although he has not given the figure.

He said there would be no compulsion on anybody to show their ID card in the street and stressed that people would have the right to check data held on them.

Trust concerns

New passports including biometric data, such as iris scans, fingerprints and face scans, would cost £60-65 to produce, with the ID cards costing only about £30 extra, he said.

Mr Clarke branded a London School of Economics report which estimates a card would cost up to £300, "technically incompetent".

Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis said people were more likely to trust independent cost estimates than a government which had let previous computer projects overrun their budgets.

He said a future Tory government would scrap identity cards, adding that Labour's legacy would be "surveillance from cradle to grave".

Hain backs loyalist project grant

The government is to fund the first stage of a new conflict transformation initiative in loyalist areas, NI Secretary Peter Hain has announced.

The project was proposed by the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), which advises the illegal paramilitary Ulster Defence Association.

The initial stage of the project will last up to six months, and the £135,000 fund will employ project workers.

The SDLP said it would be closely monitoring how the money is spent.

Mr Hain said: "Setting communities free from criminality and the influence of paramilitaries will not just happen of its own accord or overnight.

"It needs to be worked for and those who have shown that they are committed to doing that, and have ideas about how it can be done, deserve support.

"That is why I have authorised this funding."

The secretary of state said he understood victims of loyalist violence may feel angry and bitter about his decision, but said it was his responsibility to encourage those who wanted "to turn their back on loyalism's murderous past".

The funding will be administered by Farset Community Enterprises, an organisation based in north-west Belfast.

Staff will work with community representatives and key stakeholders in loyalist areas to develop ways of ending the influence of paramilitaries and criminality.

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said he hoped the initiative would be "a further step along the road to definitive transformation".

"There are many within loyalism who want to break from the past – it is right that those who are genuinely engaged in efforts to move their organisations away from paramilitary activity and criminality should be supported in that work," he said.

The UPRG said it welcomed the announcement, which it said "recognises the need for a process involving loyalism and will assist them in working with other agencies, community groups and public bodies".

"The project would help loyalism "define the need for all to continue to examine ways of assisting loyalist paramilitaries to move beyond conflict and assist them in their search for an inclusive peace, which is sustainable and enduring".

SDLP assembly member Alban Maginness said although it was right to fund disadvantaged areas, he was opposed to any reward for people involved in crime.

"It is important that this money is used for the right reasons and over the course of this six-month project, the SDLP will be monitoring how it is used to better the lives of people living in deprived areas," he said.

Sinn Fein's equality spokeswoman Caitriona Ruane said she was concerned the NIO was investing "public money into certain loyalist communities at the expense of other areas where greater levels of actual need exist".

"If people are to have confidence in the administration of public money, then it is vital that the process of allocating such funds is transparent and driven by economic and social realities, not the whims of political expediency within the NIO system."

CBBC Newsround | Chat | Your Comments | Have you got a special Dad?

Sunday is Father's Day and Dads across the nation will be getting spoilt rotten (or should be!).

We want to know what makes your Dad special?

Does he help you with your homework or maybe cheer you up with his terrible jokes?

Maybe you don't see him as often as you'd like, but when you do he always makes a big effort.

Or perhaps you don't have a Dad in your life and there's someone else you'd like to mention?

E-mail and tell us your thoughts on Father's Day.

Unfortunately this topic is now closed but there are Comments pages on other subjects on the main Chat index.

Your comments

My dad is really good because he is a policeman and he helps loads of people.
Meg, 10, Dronfield

I love you dad – I wish you were here and not in Iraq. Miss you, I want you to come back.
Robyn, 11, Tidworth

My dad's a nutter – he listens to funk and blues music but he can always make me laugh and I love him loads.
Jasmine, 11, Walsall

I did not give my dad anything! I gave him a card last year and a present and he did not know where it was the next day! So I don't bother on Father's Day anymore!
Jobhan, 13, Birmingham

My dad is a bit crazy but he's so kind and always cheers me up even when he's upset too. I love him so much even though his singing can annoy me! YOU ROCK DAD!!!!!!
Hannah, 13, Rydal

My Dad's just the coolest! He's got the best jokes and he's a really good musician. He can always make me laugh no matter what mood I'm in!
Amelia, 14, Stratford

I don't have a dad so I celebrate it as another Mother's Day for my Mum!!! It's fun!!!
Lara, 12, Hertfordshire

My Dad died when I was seven but I'll never forget him. He used to take me fishing and to the zoo. I'll always have the best memories of him, I really, really love you Dad xxx
Rachel, 12, Leicestershire

My Dad helps me with my homework and cheers me up with his terrible jokes. I don't see him as often as I like but when I see him he always makes a big effort. I hope my friend Becky is having a nice time because her Dad is dead.
Rebecca, 12, London

My Dad is really special. I only see him once a week cause my parents don't live together. Plus, we have similar tastes in music and films.
Rebecca, 14, Essex

My Dad makes me laugh every time see him. He's 43 and still plays football!
Hanna, 10, Norwich

My dad is the greatest dad of all time!! He makes me laugh and comforts me when I'm down. He is cool and is real good fun! I LOVE YOU DAD!!
Laura, 13, Belfast

I love my dad! He's the best and I can't imagine life without him…he's in Turkey now but I wish him a huge Happy Father's Day!!
Razan, 14, London

My dad is extra special as he is really funny and hard working. I wish him the best Fathers Day and to enjoy his new job.
David, 12, Fife

My Dad's fab! He's very understanding when I'm upset and knows how to make me feel better. He's really funny, and he's not the stereotypical dad either, he helps out with looking after me and my sister and does more cleaning than my mum!
Cara, 11, London

I love my dad so much. He makes me laugh when I am feeling down and he always signs to me because I am deaf. He always supports me and he is the most wonderful dad in the world! He is always funny like Homer in the Simpsons. I love you, dad!
Sarah, 15, Sheffield

My dad has gone away for father's day but I love him and I think he's great and I'll be thinking of him even though I won't be with him!
Kay, 13, London

My dad is not special because he's a normal man with a job and divorced too. He forgets things really easy and doesn't help my mum with money and bills mind you she's got 4 kids as well.
Natalie, 13, Poole

My dad always makes me laugh when he says his really bad jokes! Love you loads Dad!
Annabel, 14, Hemel Hempstead

My dad moved to London before I was born and he has never come back to see me. I'm not that bothered though because as far as I'm concerned he's not worth knowing if he can't even make the effort to get in touch with me. Anyway, I don't need him coz the rest of my family are great!
Sophie, 14, Fife

My dad is really cool, he has really good taste in music and I love him to bits and he is different to your average father.
Alisha, 11, Tyldesley

My dad is 1 in a million he can be really embarrassing but he makes me laugh and he does a lot of things for me and puts me first before any 1 that's why he is the greatest! luv u dad!XX
Jodie, 11, Romford

My dad deserves the Greatest Dad award because he does all the housework for about 20 years! I love u!
Fara, 13, Oman

My dad is the best because he makes me laugh when I am upset and he helps me with my homework he plays football he listens to me he is the best dad in the world.
Hannah, 12, Birmingham

I think my Dad is perfect, even though I would like a bit more pocket money!
Caitlin, 12, Taunton

I only see my Dad at weekends but he always makes sure we do something cool like go-karting or mini-golf. The best thing about my Dad is he makes me laugh – even though his jokes are totally rubbish!
Rob, 14, Chester

I'm like Rob – I only see my dad at weekends. And at the moment he's gone away for three weeks which isn't so good! He's great though, he has a good sense of humour and is always joking around! Love you dad.
Maddi, 12, Lincs

My dad's brilliant at EVERYTHING! He has a big love of cars and is fearless of horror movies! I love you dad! Happy fathers day!!!!!!!!!
Helen, 13, Isle of Wight

I love my dad 'cause he's always there to make us laugh with his silly jokes. He's a real sportive guy.
Riya, 14

My dad is special coz he's always there for me and he helps me with my homework. He is also loads of fun to be with. That's why he's so special to me. I love you dad.
Hope, 12, Todmorden

I love my dad very much coz he is very funny and also he sings funny songs! HE IS THE BEST!!
Kelly, 12, Basildon

I love my dad and we go some places cool to birdwatch because that's what we do!
Vincent, 11, London

I don't have a father, he never comes to see me. My mother is a waste of space, she hardly comes to see me. I love my nanna… she has been looking after me since I was a baby… she deserves my love.
Edward, 13, Lincoln

I think the best thing about my dad is he's always ready for fun.
Yvonne, 9, Ely

My dad doesn't live with us but I see him most of the time. The best thing about my dad is he always gives me money whenever I want it and takes me any where I want to go.
Zoe, 11, Reading

I love my dad because he's so mad, and I wouldn't change him for the world!
Orla, 11, London

I love my dad. He's the best dad there is, and that's a fact. He sacrifices a lot of things for me and my brothers and mum and he is very patient and funny and loving. He likes to keep us amused by taking us to lots of different activities. He's got a great personality and is very loving, caring and sweet, even when he's mad at us (which is very rare). He's loving and caring and sweet. I love my dad..!
Hannan, 14, Newcastle

I only get to see my dad once a year, but when I do I have a great time, we always do loads of stuff.
Jackson, 13, Falmouth

My dad loves his technology and so do I! He loves me to bits and I love him to bits, he is quite literally the best dad in the world!
Ryan, 11, Torquay

My Dad is called Kenny and he's the coolest. We like the same music and we have the same sense of humour which is really annoying for me!!! I just want to say that even if I am a typical stroppy teen, I still love him deep down!!! Have a great father's day.
Caitlin, 14, Glasgow

Polygamy drama debuts on US TV

Polygamy drama Big Love, about a man with three wives, is the latest TV series to hit the headlines in the US.

The series, from the makers of Sex And The City and The Sopranos, stars Bill Paxton as DIY store owner Bill Henrickson and Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin, as his three wives.

Even before being aired, the show – set in Utah, home to the Mormon church – has succeeded in stirring up a spirited debate on the issue of polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife at the same time.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the official name of the Mormon church, abandoned the practice more than a century ago. It is also banned under the Utah constitution.

"The Church has long been concerned about the continued illegal practice of polygamy, and, in particular, about reports of child and wife abuse emanating from polygamous communities today," said the Church in a statement.

"It will be regrettable if this programme, by making polygamy the subject of entertainment, minimises the seriousness of the problem."

Big distinction

The statement continues: "Placing the series in Salt Lake City, the international headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is enough to blur the line between the modern Church and the programme's subject matter, and to reinforce old and long-outdated stereotypes.

"Big Love, like so much other television programming, is essentially lazy and indulgent entertainment that does nothing for our society and will never nourish great mind."

The show, produced by the Home Box Office (HBO) cable network, makes it clear, through a disclaimer at the end of the first episode, that the characters are not Mormon.

"I think what the show does very clearly is it makes a very big distinction between the mainline Church and the characters in the show," says Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO Entertainment.

"It is interesting how many people are ignorant about the Mormon church and think that the Morman church actually does condone polygamy.

"So in an odd way, the show is sort of beneficial in drawing that distinction."

'Human condition'

The series looks certain to divide viewers, with some provocative performances in the leading roles.

"It's kind of an interesting idea to take this kind of taboo thing, yet examine the human condition through it," says Twister star Paxton, 40.

"Really, in much of the way that James Gandolfini is in The Sopranos, I'm a guy, 40-something, who's struggling with his business and with his family life. It just happens to be … an unorthodox family with three wives."

According to David Kronke, a critic from the Los Angeles Daily News who has seen the first five episodes of the show, the viewer is left unsure whether to love or loathe the polygamous Bill Henrickson.

'Subtle animal'

"It's a quandary we find ourselves in, that I haven't really experienced watching television before," says Kronke.

"Some episodes are almost sitcom-like. Other scenes are far more subtle and sophisticated."

HBO is either sitting on the natural replacement for The Sopranos or a series that will prove too shocking, too unpalatable, for an American audience. Nonetheless, rights to the show have already been bought by the UK's channel Five.

"You can watch it and be interested in what is going on and find what they're saying about family life and family culture and the 21st Century interesting," says Mr Kronke.

"But it's not like an episode of 24 where at the end you want to see the next episode immediately."

"It is a more subtle animal than that, which is a good thing and may also be to its detriment."

Big Love premieres in the US on HBO on Sunday 12 March.

Animal lover’s £25,000 plane bill

An animal lover has paid more than £25,000 to fly 19 stray animals to her new home in Carmarthenshire from the United States.

Sylvia VanAtta, 47, decided to close her animal sanctuary in North Carolina, but could not face putting any of the animals down.

So she brought the 14 dogs, four cats and a horse back with her.

She said: "They were the unwanted of the unwanted, but I could not turn my back on them."

London-born Mrs VanAtta has spent her adult life saving animals after training as a dog psychologist.

She formed rescue centres in Kent and Israel before heading for America and opening the sanctuary in Richmond County.

"We had thousands of unwanted animals through our doors," she said.

"But I was always aware that the situation in Wales was pretty bad and for a long while I wanted to do something there."

Mrs VanAtta bought a small holding at Cefneithin, just outside Cross Hands, with four acres of land and set about rehousing the animals back in America.

"It went pretty well but I was left with 19 animals and there was no way I was going to see them killed.

"The only thing to do was to bring them with us," she added.

Rehoused

She and her husband Bill sold their American home and used some of the proceeds to finance the operation.

They first had to ship the dogs and cats 400 miles to Miami, Florida, to find an airline willing to fly them across the Atlantic.

Bandera, the stallion, proved even more difficult. He had to be taken by road to New York and then flown to Amsterdam, where he was collected and taken by road and ferry to Wales.

Before that, it took six months to satisfy British animal health regulations.

The VanAttas paid for a vet to test and register all the animals disease-free and then to repeat the tests six months later. Only then were they granted "pets' passports" that would get them into the UK.

"It was all very costly and no doubt people will think about all the good we could have done for other animals for the same amount of money.

"But when you have seen as much suffering as we have then sometimes you just have to say to yourself that you are going to do some good and to hell with the cost," said Mrs VanAtta, a mother-of-two.

Two of the American dogs have been rehoused in the UK but homes are still needed for the rest.

The couple are now developing facilities at their new Many Tears sanctuary to cater for abandoned pets.