We work very hard to make sure we keep WHYS as a safe and courteous forum for people to explore their ideas and opinions - and have them challenged.

Throughout the "Arab Spring" we've sought to keep that going but last night's programme (1800 B) fell a bit short- through, it has to be said, no fault of ours.

Here are a few of your comments :

"Cut the interrupters mics. This is ridiculous. It sounds like a fox news program."

and :

What are the ages of these guys arguing? Twelve? It is cringeworthy to listen to.

Strange as it may seem to some of our critics , we prepare our contributors thoroughtly- they are respectfully reminded of the rules - no speeches, no heckling , no interrupting, and above all, remember it's a CONVERSATION. (sorry for shouty capitals, maybe it's catching).

Sometimes - and this may shock you- people SAY (there i go again) they'll play the game and then don't. Sometimes it's because they feel passionately, sometimes they are trying it on, sometimes they actually want to inhibit debate.

A mix of all those things happened last night, and despite Nuala reminding them of the rules, we listened to you - and pulled the plug on the "debate" after half an hour.

I'm sorry - we'll keep trying to reflect the debates, we'll keep trying to bring you all sides of an argument but in a way that you can actually hear.

It's an old-fashioned idea, this courtesy thing, but we quite like it.

This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 14 Feb 2011.  Listen to the programme.

The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's oldest (founded in 1928) and largest Islamist organisation.

During the demonstrations which led to the fall of President Mubarak, there were a good few articles and blog posts expressing "fears" that the political vacuum would be filled by the Muslim Brotherhood.Robert Fisk, writing in the Independent, gave these "fears" short shrift..

This commentator suggests their political future may lay at the centre of politics, not the fringes :

I don't believe there is a compelling reason why the Muslim Brotherhood cannot continue to evolve in the years to come to become the Egyptian equivalents of Germany's Christian Democrats

On today's WHYS we will be speaking to a leader of the Brotherhood- or rather you will. What questions would you like to ask him ?

In the interests of transparency i should say that Bill worked in various roles in BBC News from 1973 to 2008, including the World Service and was once my boss at 5 Live. Here's his piece...

Worried....

This is not a thesis, a forecast or a warning - more of an anxiety.

Sitting at a computer screen in the UK this week, there are threads emerging from the way "social media" is being used that worry me.

The "old" politicians are still trying to get to grips with these new forms of communication, after Barack Obama's embracing of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in his presidential campaign. He still has 6m followers, though nowadays the tweets have the feel of a White House machine, rather than the genuine Obama fingers.

What I'm worried about is an increasing sense that online campaigns and individuals outside our parliamentary system feel they have now a "democratic" position above and beyond the paper processes that produce elected governments and their trappings.

The entangled threads of the past week have seen WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange taken into custody in London; the WikiLeaks site apparently forced off various servers; Mastercard and Visa blocking online payments to Wikileaks "pending further investigation into the nature of its business"; and then web-co-ordinated attacks on the two credit card giants hitting their transactions worldwide.

This was followed by concerted action, by who-knows-how-many people, to tie up websites for PayPal and Sarah Palin.

In all this, it would seem only one Judge has been involved - Judge Howard Riddle, the British judge who denied Assange bail.

There are, as yet, no charges pending against Assange in the States, though Sarah Palin believes there should be.

On 29 November, she posted on Facebook thus: "He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?".

In the new world of social media "democracy", 9,580 people "liked" the post. 2.5m "like" Sarah Palin.

In the UK, we're in the middle of an annual period of television "instant democracy".

Telephone votes have seen Essex singer/mother Stacey Solomon crowned Queen of the Jungle in the mock-survival-reality show I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here; Ann Widdecombe, former Conservative minister and Privy Counsellor has (finally) been voted off the ballroom contest for non-professional dancers, Strictly Come Dancing; and the nation awaits a decision on the winner of the pop singer talent show The X-Factor, in a series which always produces allegations that the telephone voting is somehow manipulated - allegations that are always vehemently denied. I wonder if you've ever voted in any shows like this?

In more important decisions, Members of Parliament voted on the Coalition's Government's plan to let English universities charge up to £9,000 a year to students, effectively removing most direct government subsidies from the system, and trebling the size of loan many students will have to repay.

The vote was not electronic - the tradition is that the Speaker first calls for support or opposition to a motion to be indicated by shouts of Aye or No.

Then comes the order to "clear the lobbies", and a "division" takes place, with MPs physically leaving the debating chamber through "Aye" or "No" lobbies to be counted by clerks and tellers.

This process must seem more than bizarre to a generation growing up with smart phones, online games consoles, phone and text votes, who are accustomed to expressing their opinions or endorsing others' at the touch of a keypad, sometimes on an hourly basis. In the end, the Government's core proposal was approved by a majority of just 21.

But whose opinion matters most on this issue?

Is it David Cameron, returned as an MP by 33,973 voters in Witney at the General Election in 2010; elected as Conservative leader by 134,446 postal votes from party members; and emerging as Prime Minister only after persuading Nick Clegg and 56 other Libdem MPs to join the Coalition?

Or is it Sarah Brown, wife of former Prime Minister Gordon, who tweeted her husband's thoughts to 1.2m followers thus on Tuesday "I'm in favour of the widest possible access to university, not because I'm against excellence but because I'm in favour of it. Gordon Brown"?

Or is it actor and comedian Alan Davies, followed by 190,000, who on Thursday wrote "I'm watching a riot live on TV...articulate middle class students who have been bashed up by plod telling the tale. Top protesting".

Or is it former Daily Mirror Editor Piers Morgan, the man set to replace Larry King at CNN in the New Year, who tweeted "Remember every Lib Dem who now breaks their election promise not to increase student fees, and kick them out out at next election" to 73,000 followers?

Or perhaps it's the National Union of Students, liked on Facebook by more than 10,000, organisers of Lobby 2010, which saw fires burning in Parliament Square as MPs voted?

On the other side of the coin, the Conservatives can still point to a popular vote of 10.7m in the General Election - not an "official" mandate, but one which trumps most social media stats.

And, in the UK, active use of social media is mainly the province of youth and and what we used to call the chattering classes - thus probably carrying an inherent left-wing bias.

The continuing WikiLeaks saga has the old political establishment very worried about an open web; some equate it with anarchy, and one senses more politicians than Sarah Palin are muttering "something must be done".

However, governments also like the savings in costs that can be made by having citizens online and connected via the web. It's easier and cheaper to collect (and change) taxes, sort out benefits, and much more.

In Europe, they're vying with each other to drive new levels of broadband penetration in international league tables.

The risk inherent in this drive is to the democracies we currently value. We may be someway from online elections, but we are very few clicks away from having online electorates - electorates that might not always like their opinions and views being mediated by elected representatives, chosen on paper every few years.

And citizens that can be led into taking action online, in ways that make me worried there'll be no time for reasoned discussion and debate - until it's too late

What we care about - education, our kids growing up safe, having a job, somewhere to call home, living long, and being healthy - are things in which we share many common goals and aspirations.

And yet it is these very things which can bring us the most joy and the most anguish. If these basics in life aren't there and aren't secure, then it is these that can affect any of us.

We are calling it Extreme World: in it, we try to go to the furthest points on the compass when looking at issues of corruption, education, old age, crime, business and religion.

Here's the website

But part of the thought behind it is trying to work out - where do I or you - stand in relation to those on the edge. Does that make us feel better off of worse off? Happy, angry, indifferent or sad?

Tomorrow, World Have Your Say will discuss this issue on TV at 1530 GMT and, as always on the radio, presented by Ros in Freetown, at 1800 GMT.

The Wikileaks documents have thrown up another interesting development - the relationship between North Korea and China may not be as cosy as some people think.

Moreover, a unified Korea - under Seoul's control - wouldn't be out of the question for the Beijing regime.

And this dispatch reveals Mr He had downplayed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's trip to Pyongyang, telling the US Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinberg: "We may not like them... [but] they are a neighbour."

But what about wind's of change on the peninsula? Can the two become one, so to speak?

We've already seen it on the sporting field. At the Sydney Games in 2000, north and south Korean athletes marched together at the opening ceremony behind a “unification flag” for the first time in the Olympics.

And as bidders make their final case to host the football World Cup in 2022, the South Korea bid will push its case for winning. They're arguing that theirs is the bid of unification and peace, with the prospect of games also being played in the north.

Their slogan is "Passion that Unites".

The recent exchanges of fire across the border is even more reason to bring one of the biggest sporting events back to them, they say.

But leave sport to one side. And if you think politically, social, economically - can Korea change?

 "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct" was available through Amazon but has just been removed from sale following a controversy which saw some consumers threatening to boycott the site.

 Here's a great summary of what people are saying, from those who support free speech and who believe the book is harmless, to others who are concerned about the example Amazon is setting.

"Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions."

But that's not good enough for this editorial; doing business does not rid you of moral responsibility.

'That hands-off approach is generally admirable. Still, it's worth remembering that Amazon can impose any rules it chooses. It can refuse to distribute a book with instructions on how to make a bomb or assassinate an official. And it can refuse to carry a guidebook for pedophiles without damage to the 1st Amendment.'

Here's a blogger who's sickened by the book but defends Amazon's right to sell it.

This article talks about some of the other books Amazon has for sale including one called I Am the Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton, in Five Easy Lessons

Where do you draw the line - if at all? No-one forces anyone to buy a book, what's the problem? Here's one view against Amazon selling the book.

"It is ILLEGAL to molest children, and for Amazon to promote such is insane. I'm an abuse survivor, and am OUTRAGED Amazon would choose to promote this nonsense. I will not be purchasing anything from your website until this is removed"

The book's gone but the anger's still flaring. A Facebook group's been launched against the author and the call to boycott Amazon continues.

Anikeade04 in Nigeria tweets:

"Never did get any sleep, too fired up about Amazon. Boycott them!"

Amazinglyhealth in Ontario Canada posts:"

This is disgusting - boycott Amazon!"

So can you abhor paedophilia but still back the freedom of a company to sell the book?

See listeners' comments about this programme

Here's what the NUJ says and here's what the BBC DG Mark Thompson says.

There are further strikes scheduled for the 15th and 16th of November.

A straightforward enough story, routine even. But Gamu seems to have won the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people here after appearing on the X Factor.

The 18 year old was controversially voted off the show last week amid dark- and unproven- rumours that her impending deportation affected the decision.

Since then, this Facebook page "Gamu should have got through" has 220 thousand people signed up- and this one- campaigning against her deportation- has just started.

Should she be deported after 8 years in Scotland ? Isn't she exactly the kind of person who makes a contribution to the society they live in.?

Or has fame skewed the argument ? Just because she was on the television and can sing well, why should she be treated any differently when her visa runs out ?

He was Montserrat's favourite - and most famous- son and on Friday the island's 5 thousand population will swell by 20 per cent as people from all around the world arrive to pay their respects - and give thanks for the life of - the "Soca King".

And hopefully i'll be one of them if i can squeeze on to one of the extra ferries and flights being laid on by the island's tourist board.

I'll admit i fell in love with the place - it's beauty, the hospitable people and the atmosphere. I followed the island's fortunes through Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and then the eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano in 1997, which killed 19 people.

In the aftermath of that disaster, thousands left the island - visitors stopped coming and the future of Montserrat seemed uncertain.

But Arrow- the star who travelled around the world, who mixed with the world's music stars, he stayed. In a powerful signal he decided that Montserrat was " still home , still nice" and he wasn't going to give up on the place.

As if he wasn't already a hero, he became one after that.

It's why he is to Montserrat what Bob Marley is to Jamaica.

I had the privilege of meeting his many times over the years and apart from his being kind, courteous, un-starry and charming he was a very proud Montserratian. I'm sure his end-off will reflect what he meant to people but also the happiness and pleasure he brought to people - not just in the Caribbean.

I'm fortunate to be covering the event- which is what it is- for the BBC, and will keep you posted here.

The UK government has urged Libya not to celebrate the first anniversary of the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, the man who was freed on compassionate grounds as he was dying of cancer.

Reports from Tripoli suggest he could now live for another SEVEN years.

This blogger says :

"Of course he doesn't deserve to be released back to his family, I'm not saying that, after what he did he certainly could never deserve that. Doesn't mean we shouldn't care about him and show him compassion though.

So is it true that if you commit a serious crime, you don't deserve compassion?

See listeners' comments about this programme

This year, Pakistan isn't alone in suffering an appalling natural disaster ;

• North Korea and China are suffering the worst floods in a decade.

• Haiti and Chile have suffered devastating earthquakes

• In Russia, Spain and Portugal a record heatwave saw widespread forest fires.

• How about a UN rapid response force as advocated here ? A kind of "Global 911"?

• Richer countries being "taxed" to pay for a better infrastructure in poorer countries?

• Disaster-prone countries being given specific targets about re-building , or moving populations out of danger zones - for example, places like Monserrat?

• Shared science to give a better chance of predicting disasters?

Is there anything we can do better to prepare - and therefore mitigate the affects of - natural disasters?

"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time... I mean we really have to think about these things as a society."

""we know roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are."

Some experts say his fears are "overstated" and Suw Charman-Anderson, a social media consultant , says the answer is in society itself..

"We are just going have to become a bit more forgiving of the follies of youth."

Are you worried that your past will catch up with you online ? Have you been tagged in a picture that isn't, shall we say, very flattering ? Have you had your internet profile "cleaned up" ? Do you regret putting some of your own information "out there" ?

Mr Blair's spokesman referred to a speech he made to the House of Commons on his last day in office :

"'I believe that they [the Armed Forces] are fighting for the security of this country and the wider world against people who would destroy our way of life. But whatever view people take of my decisions, I think that there is only one view to take of them: they are the bravest and the best.'"

And the Legion themselves seem happy :

"Mr Blair's generosity is much appreciated and will help us to make a real and lasting difference to the lives of hundreds of injured personnel."

So why the fuss ?

John Miller's son was killed in an ambush by an Iraqi mob in 2003 :

"Everybody knows this was blood money. He wants people to look at him in a better light.
It would have been much better if he had given it to the families who have lost their sons in Iraq or Afghanistan."

Carol Jones's son was killed in Iraq too :

"I think this donation is because of a very big guilty conscience for the 179 deaths in Iraq. He is not prime minister any more. Why can't he disappear off the face of the earth? Why does he keep coming back?"

Is this a genuinely charitable donation ? an act of contrition ? Does it demonstrate Mr Blair has a conscience ? or is it too hard to shake the "blood money" accusations ?

Does the man who helped the world get rid of Saddam Hussein have nothing to be apologetic about ?
If you were working for the British Legion would you think twice about taking the money ? Or does it simply not matter as long as wounded and injured soldiers get the very best treatment they can ?

"The army: the best days of my life".

Army officials prefer to call the snaps "shameful" and say they'll investigate.

Palestinian groups have called the images "humiliating " and revealed "the mentality of the occupier"

Twitter is alive with people angry at her photos and plenty in support too- most of them not printable here....and the woman at the centre of the story told Israeli radio today :

"I still don't understand what was wrong, It was solely to show the experience of military service,"

and she says she certainly wasn't making a politicval statement or demonstrating contempt for Palestinians.

She has since taken the pictures down but one of her friends posted :

"You are most sexy like that " and, referring to one of the prisoners, wrote : ""I wonder if he is on Facebook?! I must tag him in the photograph."

So is this yet another web stormin a tea cup ? or does it show that something else is going on ? Is "shameful" the right word to describe the photos or simply "thoughtless" ?

Plans are being made to celebrate the first anniversary of the Libyan bomber's release from a Scottish prison.

Relatives of his victims - 270 people were blown out of the sky on a Pan Am jet flying over Scotland in 1988- have called the party " a kick in the teeth " and " the craziest thing in the world ".

He received a hero's welcome on his return to Tripoli and since then there have been allegations of oil lobbying to get the release, the U.S has asked Scottish Ministers to appear before a hearing (they've refused) and now Megrahi is allegedly receiving life-extending drugs..

In the end though, isn't the anger about the fact he's still alive ? Given that predicting people's life expectancy is an imprecise science, shouldn't people just move on , knowing he'll die one day ?