Chrissy Sturt Researcher, Politics Show South

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Your comments on Mars exploration

A lot of people complain that the �50m spent on the beagle probe would have been better spent on aid etc. Well how many of those people have spent money on trivial things this year? What about cinema visits and holidays? How much do we spend on those? So before the hypocrites start moaning about the cost of answering fundamental questions about life in our universe (does alien life exist? If so, bye-bye religion, and hence millions of lives saved!), stop buying things you don't need and give to charity instead.
Craig, Southampton, UK

Don't we want to learn more about our oceans before going out to other planets?
Julian Pratt, Reading, UK

So George W Bush will spend billions on sending men and women to Mars, yet stalls on finding measures to help with global warming? Reality check, please.
Jason, Sussex, UK

Mars is uninhabitable and the costs and risks of reaching there are impossibly high. Nevertheless we daft humans will continue to fantasise, and vainly attempt to use space travel to find 'signs of life' on other planets. We should instead humble ourselves before our Creator and show proper respect and gratitude for the planet we have been given to live on and share with one another.
Stephen Hayes, Southampton, UK

A trillion dollars is a lot of bananas, but let's not forget that that money filters down from NASA to their engineers and suppliers and ends up spent in towns and cities up and down the USA. This is basic Keynes economics. In the end it benefits everyone. I would like to wish the Yanks the best of luck with this mission, and want to know... can I have a job please?
Andy, Alresford, UK

Someone asked why go to Mars? It may answer one of the great questions about the universe. Are we alone?
Simon Campbell-Smith, Farnham UK

In 20 or 30 years, by the time they could actually get around to travelling to Mars, oil will be in such a decline that it will be hard enough travelling across London. We should stop dreaming and get down to reality.
Paul Thompson, Reading, UK

Mars missions are a complete waste of money! Why spent billions of dollars simply to determine if there was once life on the planet? The money would be far better spent 'Terraforming' the planet for future inhabitation by humans. NASA could send 'Seed bombs' to the red planet full of Genetically Modified seeds that will grown in hostile environments. By establishing plant life the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere would quickly increase making it far more hospitable to animals and eventually humans. Time is quickly running out for us 'earthlings' as we are using our planets resources at an alarming rate. We need to start colonising another planet now or face extinction!
Barry Mung, New Forest

I think it is great that we are finally going to a) get a station on the moon and b) send a manned mission to mars. The moon base will greatly reduce the cost of missions because it is possible to create hydrogen fuel/propellant from existing ice on the moon. A (wo)man on mars can perform a more detailed study of the red-planet and also dig deeper that any exist probe has gone. Also if they could take some jump leads and a can of WD40 Beagle will get in the record books for the longest AA callout.
James, Lancing

Your comments on Horse passports

Hi, I am a livery yard owner and I would like to say how disappointed I am with the level of information Defra has given all us horse owners. Every now and then I have to fill in a census for Defra so they cant say they don't know that we have a lot of horses (30) on our property. Defra send out data sheets for just about everything else.

The other thing I find very disturbing is that I cant get my "new passport" direct from Defra I have to get it from a profit making organisation, i.e. the British Horse Society, or someone similar, surly this is wrong. There is also a floor in the passport, as I have heard, from I.L.H.P that on the passport form there is a box that asks you to tick either of two boxes, one gives permission for the horse to go for human consumption the other does not.

Now any horse owner filling in this form will immediately think no to there horse being eaten , but by doing this it opens the live export row up as if they can not be destroyed in this country for human consumption they will be exported live to slaughtered for human consumption abroad!

This is very worrying. Please please give this subject more air time as contrary to belief this subject has not been discussed with the real horse lovers. The welfare organisations surely better people to talk to than the profit making organisations Thank you for listening
Sharon Wise, England

The passport scheme will bankrupt many horse sanctuaries; they will never sell their horses/ponies for meat so why do they need to have a passport for each and every animal!?

A much better way would be to say that if you DID want to sell a horse or pony for meat then you would only be able to do so if you had a passport. This would then place the cost onto those who profit from exporting horse meat and not onto the average horse owner who can ill afford another tax on an already expensive pursuit.

I am pleased to say that I have signed the petition against this scheme at the no-horse passports website and will encourage others to do so and will be lobbying my MP to act against this legislation.
Les Howlett, UK

I have just watched your report on the horse passport scheme which this government intends to impose upon those of us who own/keep horses.

Apart from being a nightmare to administer, I feel someone is out to make money. Just where does the fee for the passport end up by the way?

All my ponies are registered with their Breed Societies and this should be enough. I DO NOT want my details kept on just ANY proposed internet database where my address, telephone number and exactly what kind of animals I own could be accessed by complete strangers.

It makes sense to only have documentation for those unfortunate enough to become destined for human consumption, which mine will NOT, and leave the rest of us in peace to enjoy our equine friends. I wrote to my MP to ask him to sign the Early Day Motion and he replied that he had no interest in doing so.
Carol Shannan, Southern England

re Horse passports
Why not a simple chip implant as for DOG PASSPORTS
James Lee, UK

As a responsible horse owner I strongly object to the Horse Passport legislation. I have always had my animals freeze branded and/or Micro chipped surely this would be sufficient to ensure that none of my horses would ever reach the Abattoir and enter the animal or human food. Not that any of my horses would ever have that fate!

I have also had to sign declarations in the past to also ensure that, due the medical treatment received, they would NEVER be sent for human consumption. So I am at a complete loss to see what difference a passport would make? My horse already has his identity registered; surely that is the point?

Yet again another ploy by this so-called Government to penalise normal working people why do the best for their animals, and let us not also forget the Charities and Sanctuaries that are also being subjected to this ridiculous piece of Bureaucracy.

Finally, I don't suppose for one single moment that this legislation will be enforced upon our friends the 'Travellers' who have many, many horses tethered on common land all over the County and are far less responsible for their animal's welfare anyway.
Penny Farmer, England

I own 3 show jumping horses, all with papers and they all have passports, their papers and vaccination records provide the same information as the passport does!

What I find unfair is for example my friends daughter owns a 20 year old Shetland pony, he is never to be sold and would never go for horsemeat. He lives in my field and the most he travels is to the next paddock. What is the point in him having a passport?

If every horse has to have a passport this will lead to more and more horses and ponies being abandoned as some owners will not want to pay for a passport or may not be able to afford to buy a passport. This is just another money making operation by the government!
Heather

Since many horses already possess ID documentation through breed/type societies, freeze-mark and micro chipping registers, why haven't the government sought to utilise these existing schemes?

Although my horse is freeze-marked why did I have to purchase another document from another company which basically identifies my horse again?

At any rate, along will the majority of leisure horses, he won't be going into the human food chain, so it all seems remarkably unnecessary.

I wonder what else the Government want to use the information for? Compulsory insurance? Road tax by the hoof?

Maybe our horses will be equipped with tracking devices and we'll be charged by the mile. I dread to think what the "safety" camera might pick up!
Ginny Wishart

As a responsible horse owner I strongly object to the Horse Passport legislation. I have always had my animals freeze branded and/or Micro chipped surely this would be sufficient to ensure that none of my horses would ever reach the Abattoir and enter the animal or human food. Not that any of my horses would ever have that fate!!!

Yet again another ploy by this so-called Government to penalise normal working people why do the best for their animals, and let us not also forget the Charities and Sanctuaries that are also being subjected to this ridiculous piece of Bureaucracy.
Penny Farmer

Why the sudden interest in horse meat on the continent from England. They have refused to buy our beef and lambs over the years. Stuff the French and Germans, and this feeble government.

Small groups of people have been told how to live their lives - but now we are going to make a stand on rural life for the good of the countryside as it should be, basic living.
Sally Jones

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