Sir David Attenborough has accused the BBC of chasing ratings and overloading the schedules with too many makeover programmes and celebrity chefs.

Where, he asks, are the programmes about science for example like the long-defunct "Tomorrow's World?"

"Do we really require so many gardening programmes, makeover programmes or celebrity chefs," he asks. "Is it not a scandal in this day and age that there seems to be no place for continuing series of programmes about science, or serious music or thoughtful, in-depth interviews with people other than politicians?"

Attenborough joined the BBC in 1952 so he's been around the corporation a long time. Do you think he's right or has he had his day?

Foreign Secretary David Miliband says Pakistan has made democratic progress and should be re-admitted to the Commonwealth.

He has pointed to the extension of press freedoms and the re-establishment of constitutional rules. New Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani, a member of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), whose leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December, was sworn in last month.

He has promised to cut back on ministers' perks and re-establish student and trade unions.

Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth in November 2007 because of President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule. It had previously been suspended in 1999 as well, after Musharraf seized power in a coup.

Do you think the time is right for it to be re-admitted? Could it be that the organisation -- and much of the West in general -- has failed to appreciate the dangerous security reality in which the country lives, with large areas of its border regions sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda?

The Austrian city of Graz has become the first to ban the use of mobile phones on public transport.

The mayor of the country's second-largest city, Siegfried Nagl, has had it with the "I'm on the train" stuff and now demands mobiles be switched to silent, although it is not immediately clear how transgressors will be punished.

Some 68 percent of the people of Graz -- birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger -- approve of the idea but others say it's an erosion of civil liberty and that some people, believe it or not, actually might NEED to make phone calls on the bus.

What do you think of the idea? Blessed relief from annoying ringtones and drivelly conversations or a Luddite negation of technological reality?

Human rights activist Peter Tatchell is criticising Nelson Mandela for not speaking out against Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Here's what Tatchell, who has twice tried to make a citizen's arrest on Mugabe, says on his Web site. Do you agree with him?

"Nelson Mandela should publicly urge Robert Mugabe to stand down. He has a duty to support the Zimbabwean people's democratic will, and denounce the election fraud of the ZANU-PF dictatorship."

"Nelson is the hero of the anti-apartheid movement, but his silence on Zimbabwe's unfree and unfair elections is collusion with tyranny. He is betraying his fellow Africans in Zimbabwe."

"Britain should be pressing African Union leaders, including South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and other top ANC officials, to call on Mugabe to retire. They should offer him a face-saving exit strategy. The Zimbabwean crisis needs an African solution.

"People around the world, including Zimbabweans, supported Nelson Mandela's freedom struggle against apartheid. It is now time that Mandela reciprocated this solidarity by calling for the release of the election results and for Mugabe to concede that he lost the presidential poll."

The long-range forecast is for drier weather in June and the Glastonbury acts -- according to organiser Michael Eavis -- are fantastic but something seems to be wrong down in Somerset.

Ticket sales have been distinctly soggy this year, whereas rival festivals like those in Reading or Leeds are boasting sellouts.

Possible causes being bandied around are worries about the mud after last year's persistent rain; the new registration process which some critics have claimed tends to put off younger fans and the naming of a rapper, Jay-Z, as the headline act.

Some are saying that with something like 177,500 people there last year, the whole event is just getting too big and losing touch with its roots. Why go and slop around in the mud when you can go to one of the growing number of "boutique" music festivals abroad?

Do you think Glastonbury is losing its appeal? 

Maybe it’s all the weird terms like bowling a maiden over or being out for a golden duck that puts them off, or maybe it’s because the game can admittedly be a bit slow and go on for as long as five days, but Americans have never been much interested in cricket.

Until now?

New York, a city famously addicted to the baseball rivalry between fans of the Yankees and the Mets, this spring became the first U.S. school district to introduce cricket as a sport in public high schools.

For now, most of the players in the New York City cricket league come from cricketing nations like the West Indies, Pakistan or India but there are signs of more American teenagers taking an interest.

Will it — could it — ever catch on in America? Or is there something basically alien about the game to Americans? (Oh, and here are the rules)

Noddy and Big Ears had their makeovers years ago -- now it's the turn of the Famous Five.

In a new Disney Channel series, the sons and daughters of Enid Blyton's four adventurers are back in manga cartoon form as multicultural, techno-hip dudes on the trail of eco-evil with the ever-faithful dog Timmy. No room for ginger beer and jolly japes here.

What next? Richmal Crompton's "William" as an asbo-carrying hoodie?

Were you a Famous Five fan? And what do you think of the idea of updating them for the 21st century?

The idea of a boycott of this Summer's Beijing Olympics in protest at the handling of events in Tibet is not yet an official policy of any government or major human rights organization.

But actor Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, has told Reuters he believes it would be "unconscionable" to attend the Games if China fails to deal with  peacefully with the latest unrest.

Do you think Britain -- or Britons -- should boycott the Games over Tibet?

Britain has long regarded Tibet as autonomous while recognising the special position of the Chinese there but has often been criticised by activists who accuse it of being supine over the issue, preferring not to rock the boat by, for example,  allowing the Dalai Lama to meet the prime minister on his visits to the UK and refraining from trenchant public criticism of Beijing over human rights in Tibet. The Dalai Lama next visits Britain in May.

With international attention increasingly focused on China ahead of the Games, has the time come to take a stand, or would such a move merely aggravate the lot of the Tibetans? 

Once, kids had to work hard to become famous.

Whatever their chosen route, it would usually involve endless hours of practice -- be it in the gym, on the pitch, at the keyboard or on the stage.

Now, with the advent of the reality TV star and the explosion of shows like the X Factor, America's Next Top Model, Laguna Beach and the like, it seems anyone can do it and earn themselves millions in the process.

In the meantime, the media obsession with celebrities like David Beckham and Paris Hilton reinforces the yearning for stardom.

No wonder then, perhaps, that many children think it's hardly worth bothering with their studies any more, as a survey of teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found.

"Celebrity culture can perpetuate the notion that celebrity status is the greatest achievement and reinforces the belief that other career options are not valuable," the Association said.

Are kids becoming dangerously celebrity-obsessed these days or do they still have their heads screwed on? And if it really is a problem, should schools be trying to counter the trend more actively?