Have your say

That bastion of free speech (so long as it's in line with government dictats), the BBC, promotes a forum for readers of its news website to express their opinion on all sorts of matters. This form goes by the name Have your say and users can submit their views on a whole host of subjects that are currently gripping the nation. People can even suggest topics of discussion.

Some of the best debates have been around:

• Should the church allow gay priests?
• Is Tony Blair a lying bastard? This is obviously a rhetorical question
• Should gay people be allowed to marry?
• Should Charles and Camilla marry?
• Should anybody be allowed to marry?
• Are children a bunch of ungrateful, unruly, horrible brats and should we blame the parents, the teachers or Tony Blair?
• Should stupid people be sterilised?
• Should IVF be free on the NHS?
• Asylum/immigration/Europe - go on, dare you to be honest without somebody calling you a racist, xenophobic NIMBY!
• Welfare State spongers: is there any use for these scum, or can we swap them for some immigrants/asylum seekers?

Of course, many debates provoke comments that usually include words and phrases such as: racist; xenophobe; homophobe; queer; God said to stone women and poofs; it's clearly written in the Bible; blame the teachers, etc etc. I'm quite sure the whole idea of the Have your say debate is to provide readers (and the editorial team) with some excellent material for having a laugh in the office.

Here are some contributions from today's discussion on: "Do you suffer from asthma?" (I ask you, asthma!?)

I have reduced my intake of medication by 75% by not behaving like a person with a disability, taking regular exercise such as hill walking, yoga and meditation. Also why do diabetics receive free prescriptions, and yet asthmatics don't? My charges total £156 per annum, which I struggle to afford.
Julie Simpson, Nottingham

When my doctor initially diagnosed my allergic asthma, he told me it was likely food-related and that I should go away and 'experiment' with not eating different foods. Six months on and I can now longer eat bread, and my fear is that there are other dangers lurking in my diet that my doctor is not interested in.
Megann, London

Exercise was the last thing I tried after seeing a GP and alternative therapists when my asthma returned after almost 30 years. It turned out to be a miracle cure for me, with symptoms disappearing after two days. I have always felt the time of the exercise was important: a brusque walk with the dogs at the start of the day did the trick for me but I never felt exercising after work had the same benefit.
Chris, Reading, UK

So, from those three representative examples, people who suffer from asthma not only whinge alot, but can have their symptons alleviated if they breathe properly and eat the right food. Try having a good old cough when you get up too. And no, I'm not being nasty to people who suffer from very serious asthma attacks, I know it's a killer and is very a distressing and life threatening disease. It's just that I'm sure some people claim to have asthma just because they get short of breath when moving about because they're too fucking fat (and they probably claim loads of disability benefits, fucking scumbag slobber dobbers)!

Finally another gem from the BBC News Magazine quote of the day: