On air: Was it right to release the Lockerbie bomber?

He’s going home. The man convicted of killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing of a Pam Am flight over the Scottish town in Lockerbie, has been released from prison on compassionate grounds. Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi is already on his way home to Libya, where it is believed he will die of prostate cancer within three months.

Do serious criminals deserve compassion?

If you have committed a serious crime – say murder, rape, paedophilia – do you deserve any compassion from the criminal justice system?

Do we need civil liberties groups anymore?

Here’s the good news. Women are doing better than ever in the workforce. And here’s some more good news – ethnic minorities are also thriving. So what’s the point of pouring millions of dollars into promoting and maintaining civil liberties groups? Isn’t it “job done” for such bodies?

Lots of discussion here in the UK about the role and relevance of Britain’s Equalities Commission. This piece feels that such groups are outdated and that it’s wrong to assume that all minorities share the same view.

On air: Should the families of victims of conflict receive compensation?

There’s been angry scenes and protests in Belfast in Northern Ireland today. A government-sponsored commission has recommended that the families of all of the 3,700 people who died in the three decades long Troubles, should receive a one-off payment of $17,000 as ‘recognition’ of their loss. The idea has been slammed by many politicians and victims’ relatives. Read one of their stories here.

On air: Is direct action the only way for young people to get noticed?

On Christmas day we’re handing WHYS over to a panel of young listeners from Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Canada, Zimbabwe, Greece and the US.  We gave them the chance to set the agenda and this is what they want to ask you:

How should young voices be heard . .. .and taken seriously?

Talking Points for 6 June

Thanks very much to Steve for being our night editor: lots of new ideas in there, including a discussion of secularism and the headscarf in Turkey, and whether PDAs (public displays of affection) by lesbians should be allowed.

Meanwhile our debate on vegetarianism is still raging, and it looks likely that we’ll dive in today and talk about it on air.

Talking Points for 11 April

Good morning, Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has met with South African president, Thabo Mbeki ahead of an emergency summit on Zimbabwe this weekend. But what does he expect him to do and is he strong enough to do it?

Is local justice better than international justice?

Hi, I’m Philip in Uganda. I want to talk to you about the International Criminal Court, and if we Ugandans are finding a better way of delivering justice.

How do you recover from a violent loss?

It’s hard enough to lose a loved one, but does knowing that they died in a senseless, violent way make it harder for those left behind.  A number of you have been responding to Lubna, since she wrote to us about her neighbour Ali being killed by a bomb. It followed her almost being killed herself, by a roadside bomb a few days earlier. Some of you have written about how you’ve dealt with extreme trauma, and we’d like to pick up on this.

Stories for Monday 10 March

Hi there from a rainy and wind swept London.. A number of things have caught our eye today.  Do Americans have the rights to keep out people they consider a threat; do we have a right to happiness; more doom and gloom from Iraq and an old British comedy about France under Nazi occupattion is to be screened on German TV.