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In case you missed it . . .

Loaded magazine called her "an anarchist in a barrister's wig", and The Dastards penned a song called Shami Chakrabarti in her honour. Since becoming director of the civil liberties campaign group Liberty in 2003, Shami Chakrabarti has become something of a household name -- in many ways, she's now the face of human rights in the UK. Shami is my guest tonight on William Crawley Meets ... at 11.05 on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Northern Ireland. We'll be talking about the meaning of "freedom" in the post-911 world.

I look forward each month to the arrival of magazine and when I set it down my mind is usually teaming with new ideas and new slants on old ideas. Now, the magazine has an excellent new blog from Tom King on the French presidential election. If, like me, you are an election buff, this is worth adding to your favourites.

I'm off to a wake tonight. Well, not quite. Our new TV documentary, Sorry For Your Trouble -- a journey into death and dying -- is broadcast tonight at 10.35 on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Northern Ireland. To mark the occasion, Michael Beattie, who produced the programme for the ´óÏó´«Ã½, is hosting a "tranmission party" at his home: guests will enjoy dinner and drinks then watch the documentary as it goes out. But no one will be dressed in black, I assure you; we're very proud of the final product.

Michael's a dab hand at the harmonica and I may be persuaded to strum some chords on the guitar; if anyone sings, that would definitely qualify as a wake, wouldn't it? Jane Veitch, the assistant producer, will be there, and she plays piano, so this could still be forming a band tonight. Unfortunately, David Barker, our cameraman, is on another shoot in England and will miss the party. That's a long way to go to avoid having to sing. We'll miss you DB.

WIth three out of four of our team in the room, what a great way to end a project that crisscrossed much of Northern Ireland and both the Atlantic and the Irish Sea to produce an hour-long exploration of the most mysterious subject we could ever hope to examine. There were quite a few laughs along the way too, as you'll see tonight (10.35, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI).

Tony Blair on the Today programme this morning defended his record on Iraq -- and refused to use the word "inconceivable" in respect of military action in Iran. Though he offered John Humphreys with these carefully chosen words:

Sitting here now, talking to you ... there is, as far as I know, no planning going on [in the White House] to make an attack on Iran.

Which rather assumes that the Bush administration shares that kind of strategic information with Tony Blair, right?

Katherine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, briefing some New York church officials on Friday about the Primates' Meeting in Tanzania, said the of the meeting was when one primate compared homosexuality to paedophilia and another questioned whether the church even needed to study homosexuality "if it doesn't need to study murder".

On today's Sunday Sequence, I asked the new Archbishop of Armagh, Alan Harper, if that was the low point of the meeting for him too. He replied, "It wasn't one of the high points", then remarked that those views were not shared by many other primates at the meeting. When I suggested that the comments were "disgraceful comparisons", he repeated the claim that they weren't widely shared in the meeting.

I had the impression that Archbishop Harper was surprised that I was able to quote comments made in a private session. Frankly, I'm a little surprised myself; but our source was also in the room. Perhaps Bishop Jefferts Schori will now face some criticism for speaking in public about conversations that took place in confidence.

Alan Harper wouldn't identify the primates making these comments, but the extreme views expressed would not be out of step with the public stance of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. The Nigerian government is planning to . They propose a prison sentence of up to five years for open displays of same-sex affection; and their plan is being supported by the Christian Association of Nigeria. I know there is some debate abroad about the definition of homophobia, but presumably few would deny that legislation removing a gay couple's freedom to express affection for one another is as clear an example of homophobia as one could hope to find.

Northern Ireland decriminalised homosexuality twenty-five years ago. It will be interesting to see how many Irish churches take the trouble, in this anniversary year, to add their voice to the many others now being raised in opposition to the Nigerian government's proposal. Might we even expect the Archbishop of Canterbury to assert his moral authority and call on his Nigerian brother bishops to prophetically challenge their government's plans rather than offering the state religious support for an abuse of human rights?

If you haven't found Dave Walker's yet, now is a great time to discover it.

In a live interview this morning, I asked Ruth Gledhill of The Times to defend her paper's front page headline on Monday: "". How can the substance of the leaked document in question add up to that headline when its final paragraph reads as follows:

This present context, which adds to existing differences between our two communions, is not the appropriate time to enter the new formal stage of relationship envisaged by the bishops at Mississauga.

Clearly, Ruth Gledhill didn't write the headline -- that was the work of an overly-zealous sub-editor (though Ruth stands by the wording) -- but I am still unpersuaded that the document makes "radical proposals" for structural unity. Ruth prefers the term "organic unity", which emphasises a gradual coming together. We've seen churches working more closely together at various levels for decades; but there's a world of difference between that and a process towards unity under the authority of the Pope.

On tomorrow's programme, we'll have a segment looking at the future of cremation. Apparently, Belfast has just eight years of burial space left and we're all going to have to seriously consider cremations when our ticket's up.

Currently, Northern Ireland has only one crematorium, at Roselawn, and cremation accounts for only 20 per cent of our funerals each year (in England, the figure is 80 per cent). But is cremation as environmentally-friendly as so many seem to think? Why do we continue to embalm in almost every case of death in Northern Ireland? And why do some religious groups (including the Free Presbyterian Church) oppose cremation on theological grounds? These and other questions are explored in our discussion tomorrow.

This is just a taste of things to come on Monday night when I present "Sorry for your Trouble", a new documentary on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI which examines our changing attitude to death and dying. It's produced by Michael Beattie, who wrote about his experience of making the documentary in for the Belfast Telegraph this week.

It's an hour-long programme (Monday, 10.35 pm, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI) which includes our visit to Roselawn -- the first time a film crew has been permitted behind the scenes. While there, we discovered that some families really do request the song "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" at services. I can't find the original version from the 1933 musical Roberta, so here's the 1959 version by . Take it away . . .

p.s., I'm with whoever it was who said, "When my ticket's up, I want a new ticket."

It's the , not mine, but it describes the quality of the thinkers we're exploring in this series of William Crawley Meets. The next programme, on Tuesday at 11.05 pm, features Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights campaign group Liberty.

No, not in person; just in anthemic form. The Ireland - England match just kicked off at Croke Park. Mary McAleese, the Irish president, has just welcomed the players to the pitch; then came the national anthems. As expected, the atmosphere inside Croke Park is terrific: a real sense of history in the making. I've just seen Nicky Brennan, the GAA president, in the stands. He'll be live on Sunday Sequence tomorrow talking about the culture change the GAA is undergoing. Back to the game ...

The Beeb is the remaining cast members of the 1947 film Odd Man Out, which starred James Mason and was set in Belfast. If you can help, get in touch by texting the letters OMO and your message to 81771, by emailing bbcnewsline@bbc.co.uk, or by calling 0870 4111630.

Foy Vance was one of the acts who played at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster's new schedule launch party last night in the beautifully restored Meter Room in the Belfast Gasworks. He is an extraordinary live performer -- and a genuinely original songwriter. Originally from Bangor, he's been living in London for a year or so. If there's any justice in the musical universe, he should soar very high in the next year. Foy writes about our ´óÏó´«Ã½ gig on his . Here he is singing his first single, Gabriel and the Vagabond, which was released this past December.

I spent the morning at a Radio Ulster away-day focused on the commissioning process -- that's journey a programme idea takes from concept to selection by the radio commissioners.

There are only so many slots in the schedule for programmes and the commissioners are clearly keen to offer listeners a wide range of listening opportunities, from sport and music entertainment programmes to factual documentaries, comedy, interview strands and much more. Devising the output of a whole station for the year to come is as much an art as it is a science.

Susan Lovell, the Head of Radio Ulster, chaired the day, and briefed the gathering on themes and formats the station is particularly interested in developing in the next round. Then Frank Ash, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s creativity training manager, walked us through various exercises and brainstorms which not only through light on the commissioning process but also generated hundreds of new programme ideas.

Richard Dawkins is my next guest in the current series of William Crawley Meets ... tonight on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI at 11.05. We talk about his often aggressive opposition to religious faith, his claim that belief in God is a delusion comparable to mental illness, his personal experience of religion and his defence of Darwinian evolution.

I travelled to Oxford with our regular team -- producer Stephen Douds, assistant producer Siobhan Savage and cameraman Gary Carville -- and we taped the interview in the chapel of St Peter's College, Oxford. Richard Dawkins is a fellow of New College, which has a glorious chapel but which didn't meet some of our technical needs (lighting, etc.), so the production team opted for St Peter's instead -- an understated location which looks more like a traditional parish church than an Oxford chapel. Dawkins arrived on his bike and was the personification of charm from the outset.

I've interviewed Dawkins a few times on live radio, but this was the first time we'd met in person. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him, not least because he was obviously listening and talking; he was prepared to risk thinking on his feet in front of the camera, unpacking ideas, considering objections and, where appropriate, retracting earlier comments in the light of further reflection. That's an unusual quality in an interviewee, and I consider it a sign of great intelligence when I encounter it.

What emerges in the interview? I think it becomes clear that his philosophical case against religious belief is a work in progress rather than a knock-down-drag-out rhetorical victory. It's also clear, I'd say, that Dawkins's antipathy to religious belief can permit some unbalanced conclusions here and there -- for example, his apparent belief that schoolteachers in Northern Ireland are encouraging the children in their care to "hate" other children because of their religious background. Let me know what you make of his arguments when you've seen tonight's programme (11.05 pm, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI).

My interview with Gene Robinson is the front page story in this week's .

another new blog created to provide commentary on the Northern Ireland Assembly election. It describes itself as a blog "facilitated" by Evangelical Alliance NI, CARE in NI, The Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland and IFES Ireland. The self-description continues:

This blog represents an attempt to encourage Christians in Northern Ireland to talk/think/dream about political engagement. We've invited a range of Christian leaders to offer their thoughts in two short posts over the period leading up to the election on 7th March 2007

All the groups involved are evangelical in their theology. I wonder why they haven't invited other traditions within contemporary Christianity -- such as Catholic groups -- to join their blog-collective. If the conversation's worth having, wouldn't it make sense to invite a variety of voices to take part?

While you're pondering that, let's see if we can coin a new name for an evangelical blogger. Evangeliblogger? Blogogelical?

That appalling pun is in honour of Mark Devenport, our Northern ireland political editor, who has just begun a new blog covering the Assembly Election. Welcome to the blogosphere. Mark.

No, that's not an existential plea. I've been writing a script for a TV series we start filming in mid-March. When I say "I", I mean "we". Natalie Maynes is the series producer and she and I are currently writing and re-writing each other's words, and I'm now starting to dream the lines. Which is a sure sign that we need to finish this draft today.

Sometimes when viewers watch a television programme, they imagine that the presenter wrote, produced, filmed, recorded, edited and then marketed the production. It's true that some presenters would like the public to think this, but in fact television production is essentially (in the fullest sense) a collaborative endeavour.

A comment by Tim Gardam of the Guardian, reviewing Jeremy Isaacs's book, Look Me in the Eye: A Life in Television, sums up this dynamic very neatly:

Look Me in the Eye is not a book to read from cover to cover; sometimes it is too much a name check of those Isaacs has worked with. But this in itself reveals something of the man. For Isaacs, unlike most of today's TV chief executives, knows how to make a programme. Programmes are never one person's inspiration but the collective will of passionate, stubborn individual intelligences somehow bonding for a moment to create something more than any one of them alone could have imagined.

That quotation was e-mailed to me this week by Stephen Douds, the producer of our new television interview series. How's that for collaboration.

Right, back to this script ...

What's going on with the blog? I haven't been able to post a comment for days? Is there a problem? Other ´óÏó´«Ã½ blogs seem to be taking comments, but yours is still rejecting everything I write or damning it to a spam folder ...

It's been a turbulent few days for the blog. Apparently, the problems are spam-related, and I'm told that the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Blog High Command is working hard to fix the software as soon as possible. One regular blogger suggested that I encourage you to keep posting your comments in the usual manner, then, he went on, "we'll get through this difficult phase together." Which makes it sound like we're in need of therapy. So, in addition to posting comments, please let's keep a sense of perspective here too!

I'm keen to publish a few contrasting responses to the Gene Robinson interview. What did you make of him? Did he impress you? Did his comments frustrate you? What impact did the interview have (if any) on your views on homosexuality and the debate within Anglicanism? If you'd like to add a paragraph with you comments, e-mail me at william.crawley@bbc.co.uk (use the subject heading: Gene Robinson) and I'll post your contribution on the main page. Also: please indicate in the e-mail if you'd prefer to remain anonymous, use a pseudonym, or have your name appended.

Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop to be consecrated in the history of the church, is my guest tonight at 11.05 on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Northern Ireland. This is the first in a new series of William Crawley Meets -- interviews with controversial and influential thinkers and activists on both sides of the Atlantic -- and it's Gene Robinson's first extended interview on UK television.

In tonight's programme, he talks very candidly about his sexuality, life as a gay man in the church, the controversy surrounding his election as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, Robin Eames and the Windsor Report, and his commitment to be present at next year's Lambeth Conference.

One the even of the meeting in Tanzania of the 38 primates of the Anglican Communion, it's worth noting a couple of things from tonight's interview. First, Bishop Robinson makes it very clear that, if invited, he plans to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference. When I ask him if there would be a crisis within Anglicanism if he was not invited by Rowan Williams, he pauses and says that would be an unfortunate break with the tradition of inviting every bishop within the Communion to Lambeth. But he doesn't suggest there would be a crisis. Second, I ask Bishop Robinson about the Windsor Report. When I put it to him that he would not have been consecrated a bishop had the Report been published prior to 2003, he says, "I don't think we know that" then raises questions about the constitutional authority of the Report as it stands. In other words, Bishop Robinson is not convinced that the Report written to try to resolve this dispute would have delayed his own consecration. This will leave some traditionalist commentators scratching their heads; more liberal voices will say it merely acknowledges the reality of the situation we are in.

You can read some of my reflections on meeting Bishop Robinson and Richard Dawkins, the subject of our second programme, below. This article was published in today's Belfast Telegraph.

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Has it really been 20 years? Hats off to the best political interrogator on radio.

On tomorrow's Sunday Sequence we'll debate a question I raised here a few days ago: Is it time to remove the 26 bishops currently permitted to sit in the House of Lords in the context of a planned reform of the upper chamber? To discuss the question, we've invited the former Assembly Speaker, , the political journalist ANtony Howard and Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society. That segment begins just after the news at 9am.

Click to read the new report on the role of bishops in the House of Lords from the think tank THEOS.

Research just published, which seeks to provide a measurement of prejudice, concludes that Northern Ireland is the most bigotted place in the Western world. Not exactly a good news story for us. But how can we actually measure something like "prejudice" or "bigotry"? I'll be talking to one of the authors of that new story tomorrow on Sunday Sequence, and hearing from another specialist who has his doubts about this kind of research.

You can read the published study, co-authored by Professor Vani Borooah from the University of Ulster, . Professor John Brewer from Aberdeen University (formerly chair of the sociology department at Queen's University) has raised questions about the methodology underlying this new research. His response is published below.

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A shameless plug: the Irish News tomorrow will be running a feature on my new TV interview series, William Crawley Meets. I've been doing a few other interviews and articles to publicise the launch of the series on Tuesday (11.05, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI) with papers including the Belfast Telegraph (check out Tuesday's edition) and the News Letter (also tomorrow, I think). Actually, it feels a little postmodern to be interviewed about an interview series in which I am the interviewer.

I know many of you have been having trouble posting comments on my blog in the past few days. In fact I've been having trouble publishing new pieces myself. I've been in touch with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Online and they tell me there is indeed a problem impacting all our ´óÏó´«Ã½ blogs at the moment. They are working on it and I hope we're able to resume normal transmission very soon. For more details on the problem and how it's being addressed, here's a comment from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ executive in charge of blogging. I'm very grateful to our regular contributors for your patience in the past few days. Please continue to contribute: I enjoy reading your comments and views just as much as I enjoy writing the posts. Nil desperandum.

The trails are currently playing on television for William Crawley Meets . . . and the interview launching the series is with Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be consecrated a bishop in the history of the church. The programmes are broadcast on Tuesdays at 11.05 p.m. on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI.

I interviewed Gene Robinson in the library of General Theological Seminary in New York City, where he trained as an Anglican priest in the early 1970s. We chose this venue carefully: it was while he was a student at General Seminary that he both went into counselling to try to overcome his homosexual feelings and met and married his wife. His marriage ended in 1986 and he formed a relationship with his current partner, Mark Andrews, three years later.

I'll write a little more about my reaction to meeting Gene Robinson on Tuesday and after the TV interview is broadcast we'll be encouraging viewers to come to my blog to share their reactions. Look out for that -- it's the first substantial TV interview Gene Robinson has ever given on television this side of the Atlantic.

Now that is back on the agenda should parliament consider removing the of the Church of England who are entitled to sit in the House of Lords as "Lords Spiritual"? No other church denomination is granted this privilege. Supporters point out, quite rightly, that this is because the Church of England has a unique place within the British constitution -- and leading figures from other faith groups are often invited to join the upper house as life peers. This is indeed true. But it is surely possible to remove most or all the bishops from the Lords without disestablishing the Church of England. Has that time now come?

If complete removal is a step to far, why not a reduction of the number? The current 26 Lords Spiritual comprise the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester (all of whom take their places ex officio), and the 21 most senior diocesan bishops (determined by length of diocesan service). Lord Wakeham's Royal Commission report recommended a reduction to 16 Lords Spiritual. But why not retain only the five ex officio bishops, or even limit the number to the two archbishops (who would then represent the northern and southern provinces of the Church of England)?

How would you reform the House of Lords in respect of the Lords Spiritual -- if at all?

If you haven't paid a visit to our new Evanomics blog yet, you really should. I'm a great fan of Evan Davis, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s economics editor, and his new blog is an "attempt to understand the real world, using the tool kit of economics". He also manages to put his own image on a £20 note.

Wouldn't you love to see this of Saint Columba standing in the middle of River Foyle to welcome visitors to Derry? The artist, , has already given the city its most recognisable sculpture -- Hands Accross the Divide at the Craigavon Bridge -- and this new project, at 160ft, would easily become the city's cultural trademark. It would cost £15m. Money well spent? I'd say so. And not just in terms of the tourist potential. Think also of the impact a work of art such as this could have on Derry's sense of identity and its sense of pride. I'm all for it.

How would you characterise the "new morality" that believes Tony Blair is seeking to impose on the country? What is the "old morality"? And hasn't "morality" always been a matter of debate and disagreement within society? Or are there some moral principles that are "absolute", in the sense that they hold good in all times and places and cultures? We'll be trying to get to the bottom of the new morality debate on this week's Sunday Sequence programme with sociologist Elaine Storkey, legal philosopher Simon Lee, Lib Dem MP Evan Harris and Claire Fox from the Institute of Ideas.