Albert,
Ms Chakrabarti is skin-colourblind: she takes up causes irrespective of race. Her husband's a partner in one of the most blue-blood law firms. The article is not about her work, it's about a Cabinet minister defaming her. Her job is irrelevant.
If we give up our rights, Al Qaeda has won.

Peter, London, UK

If Andy Burham is one of the better politicians, that shows just how appalling the rest are!

Robert, Hull, East Yorkshire

Andy Burnham is one of the better politicians out there - what a pity Shami is now reverting back to playing the 'poor little lady' card - whereas she would no doubt say she would prefer to be treated as an equal - there is more going on in this country without having to listen to all this rubbish

Bev, Bury, Lancashire

Of course, if andy burnham didn't mean what he said then he would apologise unreservedly, but obviously making snide comments is all one has when one has litlle else to say. I agree with SC completely.

Asha Kiely, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Why not Ms. Shami Chakrabarti sue instead of threatening? Let us watch the whole drama in courts!

Let the victims of terrorist actions and crimes sue Ms. Shami Chakrabarti too. Let not the actions of these human rights activists be loaded favorably on the side of terrorists and criminals.

Krishna R. Kumar, Udupi, India

Typical New Labour smear tactics. And what on earth has Burnham done to merit a Parliamentary seat, never mind ministerial status???

David Russell, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Strange that all those writing here who think there was nothing wrong here ARE MEN.

barbara, north east,

Another minister who has never had a proper job. Perhaps they should pass a law requiring at least 5 years work experience before enterning parliament

LT, Bournemouth,

SURELY the courts could make better use of their time than work over a case of name calling? This is more suitable for the head teacher at lunchtime not a court of civil law!

PB, Portsmouth,

Typical Labour, can't debate the issues so they start slurring their opponents.

Bill withers, Manchester,

No one who joined the Labour Party at 14 deserves to be taken seriously.

Billy Barnett, HK,

What a load of rubbish

Ms Chakrabarti should try something difficult - go and sort out Mugabe

Colin, Colchester,

Charabarti a star PR Egotist and knows how to maximise publicity.The organisation she leads does nothing for the law abiding general public.She is good at giving out plenty of verbal to the police and the home office when wanting to get suspected terrorists released.She does not accept criticism.

Bill Rees, Truro, Cornwall

A bunch of pretty horrid people being pretty horrid to one another. How funny.

David, St Albans, UK

More of Labour''s people showing their true colours now the going is getting tough, most of them have no experience of running anything let alone the 4th largest economy in the World .(we can still hope, after this lot have done their best to destroy it!)
Like Lottery Winners that 'blow' the cash!

Andy Moore, Solihull, Uk

"Finally, someone making the point: how can someone support capital punishment while opposing 42-day detention so passionately? "
Quite easily: because in the first case, there has been a charge, a trial, a judge, a jury, a verdict, and a sentence.
In the other, there hasn't even been an accusation.

Barbara, Crewe, UK

It's a shame she doesn't devote her energies to actually stopping the erosion of civil liberties. Aside from being good for a quote, what actual good has she done?

Wynton Smith, London,

All three of them are wrong. Chakrabartty and Davis are wrong in their opposition to the bill which is essential in the present context.
Andy Burham is nothing but wrong in his insinuations. He must apologise to them and to his wife, if he is a man and expects people to respect and follow him.

LAKSHMAN PARDHANANI, GOA, India

I did not feel the comments were intended to suggest an improper relationship at all and this is a case of taking offence in a way that was not intended to obscure the fact that the real point that was being made had some merit. the same point could be made about shami's views on freedom of speech.

jem, london, uk

Is this the type of culture that David Davis and Shami Chakrabarti really want ,where freedom of speech is interpreted wrongly to make the persons comments look either racist or a slenderest.
These two deserve each others regardless, to me they are just both publicity seeking big heads!

william thomson, lincoln, u k

I do hope to see capital punishment return - we have gone much too far down the liberalist road, to a point where criminals are pampered and society is rotten. There needs to be a REAL DETERRENT.

Anthony Smales, Beverley, UK

albert:

CS was born in the UK.

If that does not make her a citizen than I don't know what does.

elizabet , glasgow, Scotland

Politcians still don't understand that they are transient creatures in a fickle political system. Shami Chakrabarti will still hold her office when the objectionable Mr Burnham is either coming to terms with being an Opposition MP, or even voted out of office completely.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

Thie woman annoys me and I suspect many others,political correctness falls from her table at alarming rates,her many TV appearances ,these more than her"cause" should attract,for the most part are irritating.I just wish she would shout out more for the indegenous population of her "adopted" country

Albert Cooper, Norwich, Norfolk

This threat to sue does not show both liberty and the tory party in a very good light or having much common sense. The comment was inoffensive and how these individuals can interpret it otherwise beats me!

steve, Darlington,

Finally, someone making the point: how can someone support capital punishment while opposing 42-day detention so passionately? Two extra weeks of detention without trial, protected by many safeguards, compared to the state-killing of people? What a cynical man David Davis is...

George, London,

Good luck Sham !!!! I look forward to a great battle in these dying days of New Labour. Hopefully this will be the last nails in the coffin.

ian payne, walsall,

labour agian avoids the issue just like they did by buying votes from another party to get 42 days through, just like they did by refusing to stand against DD.

Obviously Labour don't know that 'insulting a ladie's honour' is inexcusable behaviour.

We've got 2 years of this left.

elizabet , glasgow, Scotland

The government is unable to debate civil liberties in any meaningful way, so resorts to smears in the hope of neutralising sound criticism.

Ian Bryan, Reading, UK

Perhaps Burnham is too influenced by the behaviour of the likes of David Blunkett and John Prescott to think decently.

Nigel Wroe, Doncaster, Yorkshire

Seems like typical New Labour to me. Afraid to address any important issue in a meaningful way, so what do they do, resort to snide remarks.

Don't feel 'heart melting' is much of a reason to threaten libel proceedings, but it is not what one would expect from a Cabinet minister,he should apologise.

John Moore, Paphos, Cyprus

I hope these two are doing this outside of their morning working hours. Because it is a 'waste of time' and I'd hate to hear that public taxing paying time is used to satify their egos.
Do some proper work that sustains the economy.

Jeff, Birmingham, Uk

Do the right thing Mr.Burnham apologise to the lady.Then get yourself in to gear and do what you are supposed to do or let someone who wants to work with the people of this country do it in your stead.Too much mud slinging not enough being done for the more important matters of running the country.

Keith Nadin, Witney, United Kingdom

Yea, Julian Peterson, Andy Burnham, 'Nulab's' 'Culture Secretary'.........quite recently, he quoted on TV that his favourite song was Kylie's 'La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la...............I just can't get you out of my head!!

Depressing, isn't it.

Shirley Bowen, Blackpool, UK

The government are good at shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to this civil liberties stuff. Perhaps they should tackle the issue head on? Oh, but then they'd lose the debate swiftly, since they're already the biggest threat we have to our civil liberties.

Simon, Brentwood, UK

How depressing. Two supposed champions of liberty strangling each other through the media over some vague remarks about "heart-melting conversations". The 'offense' that both sides have taken merely highlights the contradiction in their values; they believe they have the right 'not' to be offended

Stephen Gore, Liverpool,

Mike, at first reading I felt the same but as Diane Abbott (not a lady I'm prone to agree with) says he would not have made these comments were Ms Chakrabarti male. It also sounds as if this was just the most obvious in a line of comments. And Labours fears on engaging in real debate in this issue.

DW, Beijing, China

Sounds like Andy Burnham has been promoted too far and is a little out of his depth.

Julian Peterson, London / Singapore, UK / Singapore

Perhaps Andy Burnhamn is just reaping the karma for being Labours Bad Policies hit man. Whenever there's an unpopular bit of repressive legislation in the pipeline, they wheel out Burnham. They did it with water fluoridation and then with ID Cards. What next i wonder, GM crops, Nukes. Time to go.

Brian Jackson, Colne , UK

I don't see 'heart-melting' as being directly suggestive, though it is certainly one (of many, many other) interpretations.

They appear to have leapt upon this in an almost Freudian style, which raises curiosity in a way that the original ambiguous comment never would.

Mike Hart, London, England