"Restaurants belonging to Britain's leading fast-food chains were branded “extremely poor” by health inspectors "

And? was/is anything done about it? or, as in my experience, do the inspectors just concentrate on the small independents who can't afford a dedicated legal department to intimidate them?

Phil Barnes, preston, england

What happened to the tax 'benefit in kind' ? It should surely apply to Mrs blairs' use of a government car and Tony blairs' costs of flights over and above regular 1st class.

The retrospective application of this tax to politicians would raise considerable sums for the treasury, incline a number to resign and might just focus the minds of those left.

hedley, dartmouth, devon

Richard Stephens, Swansea,

You say Margaret Thatcher had the nations interests at heart but please note that she is the cause or at the centre of several of the points made.
I say bring back National Service, it teaches patriotism and how to live without life luxuries... Something politicians could do with learning.

Charlotte Cooke, Isle of Wight,

To Georgina, London/Manila, .

The actual quote is "Lies, damned lies and statistics." Mark Twain attributed it to Disraeli but no one really knows for sure.

TJ Cassidy, Arlington, Virginia, USA

When on this earth is common sense going to hit the UK government as they are responsible for all of the above. Margaret Thatcher whilst harsh had the nations interest at heart.

Richard Stephens, Swansea,

"How disturbing is it that, all the Rifles that British troops, used to kill 14 civilians on Bloody Sunday, were shipped out of Britain, will they ever be tracked at this stage. This is blatant destruction of evidence, but whats new about it all."

These weapons were disposed of mainly because the British Army no longer uses them, since 1986 in fact. You must remember that following the findings of the Widgery Tribunal the case was effectively closed and any evidence seized at the time was returned to it's owners as happens in most police enquiries even today. These particular weapons probably remained in the armoury at Palace Barracks for years afterwards, being used by whatever unit was posted there. Over the years some would become damaged and be "written-off" or sent for repair and replaced rather than being returned. I'm afraid you're seeing conspiracy where there is none, but then again that's been the case with republicans and other Bloody Sunday "experts" from the start.

Paul M., Hull,

British army men killed by frenzied mob

Nothing new here. General Gorden and his men suffered the same fate a hundred years ago, Kitchener delayed rescue.
what goes around comes around....

mark, London, UK

To the person who suggested police officers study foreign languages to save on money spent on translators:

what language, of the hundreds in the world (not to mention dialects), do you suggest police officers learn? Personally, I'd say the 21 million is well spent on expert services.

Victoria, Perth,

Er, we knew all that already - stop eating your own cooking.

Ed, Glasgow,

These 59 'things" appear to be just the tip of the iceberg. We all know that the Govt. of the UK can cover up anything they wish and definitely do so.

Surely any good investigative reporter could really go to town on this topic? I for one have vacated the UK due to the nonchalance UK Govt. adopt in these matters, in one of which I was a victim.

It is interesting sitting outside the UK (of which I was once proud) looking at the system collapsing. One can assume that nothing whatsoever will ever be done about any of them, they will grow exponentially - nobody is going to stop them.

Please publish some more 'howlers', then at least we can all
keep laughing.

JAD - Bulgaria

John Abbots-Darbyshire, Kamenets, BULGARIA

Mark Baker
I have to agree with frances. i think you miss their point. murder by a stranger is usually an extremamly low figure (why, unless you are psychotic, would you murder someone if you had never met them?)
The 2005 bombings, percentage wise, could multiply that figure over that period exponentially, the fact that it happened under blair therfore would mean wwe could represent that as somehow his fault, if we were unscrupulious reporters looking for mud to throw. (which of course no-one at the independant could be!)
There are three types of lies. lies, dammed lies and statistics!

Gareth, oxford, uk

Too bad about the Elgin Marbles, however the Greeks just left them lying around in bits for hundreds of years

mark, London, UK

"Police in England and Wales spend £21m a year on interpreters"

Why don't we just recruit people who speak English/Welsh in the first place? (;-)

steve, kidderminster,

Logarithms- a means to perform complicated multiplication or division by converting your numbers into them and adding them or subtracting them together on the principle that to add or subtract is a simpler thing to do.
The slide rule does the same, by sliding one scale against another that are marked in logs.

All this pointless now you can buy a calculator for a pound that will do this more accurately and faster.

mark, London, UK

"TB" should have paid for his own make up as any self respecting metro-man would, Cherie should have learnt to drive herself (or cycle in these new Green times, or borrow one of Prescott's Jags if these were beyond her), and taking holidays with free RAF flights doesn't sound very "Labour" to me. Glad he's gone; at least I can't see Gordon touching up his rouge.

TB's legacy seems to be fading badly.

Anwar, Bromsgrove,

#60: England will fail to qualify for the World Cup 2010.

Paddy, London,

"Six British military policemen died at the hands of an Iraqi mob in Majar al-Kabir because nearby reinforcements decided it was too dangerous to rescue them"

Rubbish.

The military policeman did not die because reinforcements decided it was too dangerous to rescue them. They were murdered because the Iraqi-mob were whipped into a hysterical fervour by fundamentalist terrorists. That an attempt at rescue was not attempted was a tactical decision made on the ground at the time, and may or may not have led to the policeman being rescued.

Richard, London,

And some of the money spent on interpreters is spent interpreting for people who until they were arrested spoke perfect English.

DavPal, Newport, S Wales

Michael Smith,

I'm sure your sentiments will make Matty Hull's family feel so much better!

Alex, London, UK

"Tony Blair spent nearly £2,000 of taxpayers' money on cosmetics over six years"

where?! and on what?!

victoria, London,

Mark, I think Frances was stating a statistical fact, not suggesting a survival strategy!

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

I am reminded of a British Prime Minister who said, "There are three kinds of lies. Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics."
What do most of these "secrets" actually mean? Some make no sense without back up. The western educational system strikes again!

M, Milwaukee, USA

Lorelei, fyi there is a product called Mirena (you can google it) which provides contraceptive cover for up to five years

Lisa, wellington, New Zealand

How on earth would sex education decrease the amount of teenage pregnancies? Most teenagers are terrified about getting pregnant, the problem is that if they are kept in ignorance, they will not know the real facts.
As soon as it is physically possible for a person to have sex they should be taught sex education in a frank and honest manner

AnneMarie, Cork,

The articles says 4 times as many people have been extradited to the US, not that you're 4 times more likely to be extradited. The relative size difference makes this even more concerning not less. It's not knee jerk anti-Americanism to think there is something wrong with the current arrangements.

Anthony, London, UK

To Jim Batley: yes, Rowan and Martin made it to Great Britain, and I remember the German soldier. To quote him in full, he said "Very interesting - but stupid".

Sarah, Bad Liebenstein, Germany

How about 59 things that should have stayed secret?

David, NZ,

I think you'll find significant numbers of these 'secrets' would have been revealed by parliamentary questions. Certainly, the government has been providing a list of crimes alleged to have been committed by diplomats for some years.

E, London, UK

With rising crime as mentioned, increasing wastelines and shortages of servicemen and women in the forces.... is it time to consider a form of national service once again?
What would the costs or savings to the nation be?

Jon Williams, Presteigne, Wales

Michael Smith, that the UK has a fifth of the US's population just makes the situation seem worse. The average UK citizen is then 20 times more likely to be extradited than the average US citizen (assuming within a country we are all equally likely to be extradited). Anyway as mentioned below what is actually needed is the context for the statistics to be presented. In this case the US congress' reluctance to ratify their side of an extradition treaty until April 2007 that the UK had accepted since 2003.

Tim, Devon, UK

Care to explain why the number of extraditions to a country from any particular country would be proportional to the population ratio between the two countries since you seem to be so well aware of statistics?

Martin SCHOUTEN, London, UK

With reference to BT charge of 4.50 for paying my bill. I would like to inform all those who are interested that I have today charged BT £10.00 for the time it has taken me to fill in and post my payment.

A P Rowe

A P Rowe, bexhill on sea, e-sussex

No, Dave, "Taxpayers' Money" is NOT a misnomer. The treasury exists at the pleasure of said taxpayers.

David, Morpeth, UK

Kelly D,

I don't think that teaching sex education would reduce the number of teenage pregnancy. If anything it could increase the numbers of pregnancys. I wish the world worked the way you think it should - but it doesn't. . . Thats, sadly, is the way it is. A phrase I never thought I'd hear my self say.

James, Glasgow. ,

"I am 4 times more likely to be extridated to America and that needs no further information to ask why." - Nikolai, England

Nothing to do with the United State's vastly largely population? The U.S. Population is almost exactly 5 times that of the UK so in actual fact, Britain percentage wise extradites more than the US do.

Perfect example of somebody reading what they want into a statistic to come up with an all too prevalent Anti-American opinion.

Michael Smith, Liverpool,

I note Tris Orendorff needs more information.

Sadly Tris you miss the point. If the Government had its way and the FOI Act did not exist you would not even have the information that these things even possibly existed let alone have a call to ask for more information.

If the Governments rumoured ammendments go through you wont get even this limited amount of information as it will all be secret again.

Wake up and smell the coffee as they say in America. Whoops better be careful I am 4 times more likely to be extridated to America and that needs no further information to ask why. After all the murderers of Matty Hull are hardly likely to be sent to Britain after all the tape of the evidence was supposed to be a secret wasn't it!

Nikolai, England, Police State

There are implants that render you infertile for three years. Even five in some cases.

D. johnson, Brisbane, Australia.

"Illegal immigrants are getting into Britain by enrolling on university courses, obtaining visas and then failing to turn up to study "

Absolute disgrace when its easily avoidable with some simple checks.

Tintin, London, London

This list is rubbish. Each item requires more information to determine its significance. I'm shocked that this paper would print this list without the proper context for international readers, like myself.

Tris Orendorff, Cornwall, Canada

There's no contraceptive that makes someone infertile for up to three years.

lorelei, london, uk

The 6 members of the RMP killed in Iraq were not killed in those circumstances.

Unlucky Alf, London,

"Taxpayers' money" is a misnomer. The money you pay in taxes belongs to the Treasury.

Dave, london, UK

They speak English in Guam, it being a US territory. Just for the record.

D.A.M., New York, US

I prefer my money is spent on Tony's cosmetics than Iraq

john, lancaster, UK

I would rather Tony Blair spent my taxes on cosmetics than nuclear missiles or even nuclear power.

Trevor Rowell, Perth, UK

Odd that it doesn't mention a 1979 report by the then Lord Chancellor predicting that independence for Scotland would create a "New Switzerland" and set England back 50 years - At the same time as they were telling the Scottish people that they'd suffer economically if it happened. Lying, I think it's called.

I'd suggest that was a slightly more significant story than how much Blair spends on cosmetics.

Andy, London,

The tide of British self inflicted cultural sewage is on the rise, as evidenced by these dopey "secrets" as well as many of the corresponding, equally dopey comments.

Remember the Empire chaps, the stiff upper lip and all that stuff, grow up and stop blaming the USA for your problems.

Terry S, Melbourne, Australia

What this article doesn't say is that the money spent on the cosmetics and whatever are part of the person's salary. I'm sure civilians, celebrities, and professionals have psychiatrist bills, dermatologist bills, and whatnot.

Yonji, Blauvelt,

Why take taxpayers money and spend it on stupid things such as cosmetics and private management consultants when you can spend it on something more important like attempting to get rid of poverty?? No wonder why taxpayers complain! At least put the money taken to an effective cause!

J, Leicester, UK

Very interesting (as the German soldier used to say on the Rowan & Martin Laugh-In - Trust this outstanding sixties TV show made it to the U.K.), but where are the links?

Jim Batley, Gaithersburg, USA / Maryland

To Robert

Thankyou.. at least I must have spelt logarithms correctly ...whats a calculator?

Colin stansbie, portland, dorset

It is a little unfair to accuse police officers of having a criminal record when they have only been bound over for breach of the peace. Breach of the peace is not a criminal offence.

S, Exeter, UK

To Colin,
Logarithms were taught in the days before calculators. They were used to carry out multipication and division. The slide rule was based on logarithms so if you did physics at A level, for example, you would have been taught how to use one.

Robert Flack, Crawley, UK

To Kelly and Joanna,
Trust me, if it wasn't for the immigrants, your country would be even worse than it is now (economically speaking). And thanks for your answer Tatiana, you are just so right !!!

T, London, UK

GB looks as if its roots are in the 3rd world simply because the 5th world is full, otherwise that is where it would be today.

I always aspired to hold GB nationality, but this, thank Heavens, was denied because my maternal grandmother was British BUT my paternal grandfather was not. Nationality depended on my father being a Brit, which he was not. How´s that for discrimination based on gender?

Its bad enough living in South Africa but, with hindsight, I was spared an embarrassment.

Petrus Schalk van der Merwe, Makouvlei, South Africa

Logarithms hope I have spelt that correct ....anyone tell me what they were for ?? I was taught them but now at the grand old age of 56 still cannot figure why or what for ...wish I had kept that book when I left, must be worth a fortune now..duh!!

Colin stansbie, portland, dorset

I lived for 4 years in Germany and have lived for the past 20 in France. All this time I have experienced daily at first hand the problems of foreigners like myself trying to learn a new language. I can vouch for it being incredibly hard to do. One mustn't forget either that their are all the local dialects to contend with, even different languages in countries such as Spain. A child spends all its formative years immersed in the language, either with the family or at school and is corrected when he or she makes mistakes. An adult coming into Britain will find it almost impossible to meet local people and no one will take the trouble to help them learn. Even all the Australians in South Ken cannot count a Briton among their circle of friends. How many people have actually tried to work a hard stressful day and then go home and study a language? It's the last thing one wants to do.

Terence Hollingworth, Blagnac, France

Regarding translation. My father in law sometimes translates for the Police in Wales. The people whom he translates for are not normally resident in the UK but are visitors. The language he translates into and out of is Spanish. He also has a flat in Spain which my wife and I often use - nearly all the British ex patriots we meet have learned enough Spanish to buy their shopping but not enough to hold any real conversation with a Spanish person let alone stand up to a police interview. We can hardly complain when we can't be bothered to learn languages abroad even when we intend to live their for the rest of our lives!

Mark, Cardiff, Wales

LOR......Lack of respect abounds in all aspects of life these days..I fear for my my granddaughters ...its so sad we are going to far to fast...need to slow down and think...the world is accellerating far to fast we have only been in the air for just over a century ..its scary

Colin stansbe, portland, dorset

Police in England and Wales spend £21m a year on interpreters

Surely that would be better spent training employees already in the police force to learn foreign languages? Sometimes you wonder whether the government has an ounce of common sense among them.

Rosie, London,

Christ almighty, what's wrong with you people?
It's always been like this.
It's just we've never been given the truth before.
Aren't we all old and wise enough to know what we regard
now as normal was probably regarded by our parents' generation
as abnormal, and so it goes on.
Human being humans, nothing surprises me.
At least we are not blowing each other up in the streets
and beheading each other, and killing women for daring to do what they want.

K.McGhee, London,

OMG what a shock, goverments ripping off the country, lying to the population and lining their own pockets, i would never have imagined that the ruling class would be so underhand and self serving. Seriously though, you could only find 59 things???

Rachel, Merseyside, England

'More than 1,000 girls aged 14 and under had abortions in a single year'

i am a year 11 student i was taught sex education in year 6 which i believe is still taught at that age (10 - 11) i belive that this subject should not be taught until children are legally old enough to have sex, in which case should be the final year of their teaching, one girl has missed out more than half a year of her education due to having a child, another girl in my year is pregnant she bought a maternity note in the other day, by teaching sex education in the final year of teaching would this stop the amount of young girls getting pregnant ?

Kelly D, lincoln,

"Britain is downstream of the US". This must explain the cultural sewage which pollutes British life nowadays

Ernie B, London,

If Diana had not died, Charles-Camilla marriage would be illegal; other arrangements for a future king couldn't continue forever; and yet people in the slightest positions of power to influence opinions have been turning up their noses at "conspiracy theories", and ridiculing those who suspect it was too convenient an accidental death of someone who might have given half Arab (and possibly muslim) half siblings to your royal heirs; and for good measure, they – the people in power to influence public opinion – are also going pooh – pooh at those who question even JFK murder being due to a lone crazy gunman (who it turns out was not only CIA but had been in USSR for CIA prior to the JFK murder), who was never brought to trial but killed by another lone crazy guy.

As for the rest mostly it proves Britain is not so different from other better than average countries, of which there are a few.

Dr. J. Gokhale, Bangalore, , India.

Nicholas,

Britain is downstream of the US. It used to be upstream, but that all changed long, long ago,

Paul, surfside beachs, us/sc

If it needs saying, ('Kelly and Joanna'), the police need to communicate with suspects (indigenous or otherwise) to determine whether they have committed an offence or not.

Similarly, it is often felt beneficial that a suspect know the nature and seriousness of allegations made against him whether he admits them or not. This is true even where a suspect has committed the grave crime of not learning the language of a country he is visiting.

I cannot imagine that any English person would travel to (say) Guam without first becoming sufficiently fluent in the local languages to feel confident of understanding the terminology of court proceedings, but sadly some of these reckless foreigners just aren't British, are they!

Thomas Wright, London, England

The fact about the Bloody Sunday rifles in Sierra Leone was actually first reported in Major Phil Ashby's book, Unscathed published in 2002.

James, Chelmsford, England

So Britain has extradited only four times as many people to the US as have been sent in return since the introduction of fast-track extradition. I'm surprised the proportion is so high. Mr Blair's repudiation of the rights of British citizens in this way is a consequence of his perception that Europe is, politically, down-stream of the United States and it is in its way a sort of appeasement.

Nicholas Archer, Hong Kong,

In the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Churchill had a phonecall with Roosevelt. The germans tapped this call, and with decades gone released the transcipt.

I have read the transcript and it's not good news for those who feel that Rosevelt and Churchill are heros.

Our government will still not release their copy of the transcipt. Ever wondered why?

Simon Robinson, Leeds, West Yorkshire

£2,000 on make up over 6 years! I haven't spent anywhere as near so much and I wear it all the time.

maggie, Castle Cary, uK

Gee! I tought it only hapened in Brazil.

Carlos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Editors, please do the American version. I'd love to see that. We're really not that different now, are we?

Rich Hill, Philadelphia, PA, USA

To Kelly and Joanna, the money was spent to get statements of victims of crimes (immigrants and tourists) committed by British drug addicts and yobs that plague your cities. Don't fool yourselves immigrants come to the UK to work and that has helped your economy to develop (ask any economist) although I do believe that they must learn to speak English and make an effort to be integrated in the society.
Shouldn't you be focusing on other parts of the list like "Politicians are spending £2.2bn a year of taxpayers’ money on private management consultants" - this is much more outrageous and we are all victims (British and immigrants).

Tatiana, London,

'Police in England and Wales spend £21m a year on interpreters' surely the police force could find more suitable and effective things to spend money on, maybe if England were to not let so many immigrants into the country more money would be spent on effective ways of reducing crime, why do the police force need interpreters?, are they needing interpreters to talk to foreign people that are committing the crimes, should they be allowed to stay in this country if they are committing crimes? a standard requirement of becoming a police officer should be to learn at least one foreign language, immigrants should not be allowed into the country unless they can speak english.

kelly and joanna, Lincoln,

Amazing! Now I know why they want my Incapacity Benefit removed, its to pay for Blairs aftershave!

Bill Glanvill, Horsham, W Sussex

I strongly believe that the diplomats around the world cannot continue to be ''above the law'' in a way which results in these facts..
As everything else,this matter must be handled in a more efficient way in order to minimize the illigal actions and finally the modern profile of diplomats which is under critisism..

Antonis, Athens, Greece

How disturbing is it that, all the Rifles that British troops, used to kill 14 civilians on Bloody Sunday, were shipped out of Britain, will they ever be tracked at this stage. This is blatant destruction of evidence, but whats new about it all.

DannyS, Dublin,

All democrasys get what they deserve. The people get it. It just takes some time. The Empires will fall as they always do when their time is out.

Thomas, Fredrikstad,

If Blair leads us into someone else's war and dozens of our boys are shot by trigger happy american 'freindly' fire does that count as strangers?

Jim, Norwich, UK

how would the dolphins have found the Loch Ness Monster?

Mildly concerned that someone with diplomatic immunity could murder/rape/molest and be immune to prosecution! I suppose there is a clause, but still...

Steph, London,

"Killings carried out by strangers have increased by a third since Tony Blair came to power"
Meaning killing by our friends has dropped? God, we can't let that happen.

Cliff , springfield, australia

Why do I get the Feeling that this list is only the "good news"?

Sam, Melbourne,

What was it Disraeli said? Lies, lies and damned statistics...

Georgina, London/Manila,

"More than 700 nurses and doctors were disciplined for drink or drugs at work in the past ten years"

Well, considering that the NHS is the U.K's largest single employer, and also the amazing stress and low pay many of them endure, that's a pretty good result.

Imagine the headline-"more than two employees of Tesco were disciplined for drink or drugs at work in the past ten years"

Not such a big wow, eh?

Ian Onions, Grimsby, England

Frances, that is mis-use of statistices - like saying that taking a bomb on a plane is for protection, because the likely hood of two bombs is so low.

Mark Baker, Grays, UK

As someone who was at school in the '80's, I now feel that my fear of school dinners has been vindicated...

Daniel, Fareham, UK

The 'revelation' that infuriates me the most is the former Director General of the BBC Jon Birt's comment identifying
"the abolition of National Service as a significant factor in the “exponential” rise in crime over the past 50 years" Mr Birt gained a third class degree in Engineering and is in no way qualified to make such a sweeping statement. Those of us who wasted two precious years of our lives saw National Service do as much harm as good to our fellows. Mr Blair certainly knew how to pick the most asinine of advisers.

John Rennie, Beare Green, Surrey

And Athens has been told that The Parthenon Marbles are safer in the British Museum!! Carborundum paste cleaning with steel brushes in the 30's, schoolboys fighting in front of these priceless objects, what next?

Lionel, NY,

The Prime Minister... guests included Esther Rantzen, Trevor Brooking, Elton John and Des O'Connor. Celebrities? I would hate to have to sit through dinner with this lot mixture of has beens and nonentities.

Jon Bird, Timaru, New Zealand

»The Thatcher Government concocted a plan to search for the Loch Ness monster using a team of dolphins

I for one welcome our new pleasiosaour masters.

shaun, chicago, Illin'

Shocking. And the worst thing is that the British public is indifferent as to where their money is spent.

Karen, London,

Very little to surprise in this list so far as I can see. We would be innocents at large in this wicked world if we thought any of these things were not really to be likely. All of these examples are just evidence of the realities of human nature that tell us that people will "take advantage" and "promote solutions that yield a personal advantage" and "act in their own best interests regardless of consequences" and "stay quiet about things that might not reflect well on them if discovered." Naughty policemen; help for the Israelis; men in power who use their status to do things we wish they wouldn't or think they shouldn't ... No, it's just people and institutions doing what they think either they can get away with or are "entitled" to do. Human nature.

david Imisson, Cambridge,

"Killings carried out by strangers have increased by a third since Tony Blair came to power". I imagine the reason for this could be attributed to the 7/7 bombings in 2005. Murder by a stranger is still the least likely of the murder statistics. Women in particular are most likely to be killed by someone they know, so much so that they are in fact, safer with a stranger.

Frances Roberson, Croydon, UK

Lies? Unlikely, given that they're FOI requests...if anything this is onl scratching the surface.

Rob D, London,

Trust no one, Mohamed.

Not western governments, not me, not Tony Blair's cosmetic suppliers. No one.

Sean, Cork,

probably, some of them are lies, but thanks for that.

Mohamed Massoud, Cairo, Egypt