Mon 12 Dec 2005

Animal testing, Dave's Dolls, shopping for thrills and plain English

David Mitchell's guests are Prof Steve Jones, Mark Stephens and Natalie Haynes.

The first issue on the agenda tonight: animal testing. Natalie Haynes vehemently defended her anti-animal testing views, and Professor Steve Jones gave the medical side...

Watch the clip
[4 mins]

Other stories discussed:

Dave's Dolls

Having just been elected as leader, David Cameron has declared that the Tory party needs fewer people like him; white, middle-class men. He plans to encourage local Conservative Associations to select more women and people from ethnic minorities as candidates.

We ask: is positive discrimination, whether enforced, or unconscious, ever really fair? If we take the concept to its logical conclusion, that Parliaments composition should realistically reflect society, wouldnt it be full of idiots, bigots and drunks, as well as women and people from ethnic minorities?

Shopping for Thrills

Shopping addiction is a well-established phenomenon, but now scientists have revealed that one of the rewards of a shopping spree is the Shoppers' High  a dopamine rush during the act of buying, which falls away sharply after the transaction, leaving a feeling of Buyers' Remorse.

We ask: is our economy driven by nation of dopamine junkies? And does our shopaholism and its inherent brief high signify that most of us are unhappy?

Plain English

Tomorrow is Plain English Day, and awards will be given for the clearest and least clear documents published this year. The Plain English Organisation, set up in 1979, defines plain English as something that the intended audience can read, understand and act upon the first time they read it, which takes into account design and layout as well as language.

We ask: although public information should be expressed as clearly as possible, isn't it true that some things are just complicated? Should we concentrate on making people more literate, rather than making complicated or specialist documents less complex?