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We've covered some interesting issues over last the few weeks -

* delays in the coroner inquest system
* illegal car parking fines
* campaign to use coca-cola's distribution network to help people in developing countries
* the issues behind Britain's recent power blackout

We investigated and developed these stories from listeners emails, comments and tweets.

If you've an idea, a suggestion or some advice, please share what you know here on the blog, email ipm { at } bbc.co.uk, or send us a if you're on Twitter.

Thanks again.

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Christopher Hitchens was at this year's , where he told us his favourite websites...well, kind of...

Hitchins doesn't visit , , or those sorts of sites.

But he did mention and . He's featured in both.

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We'd like you to try us out as a podcast. It's free, its easy and you don't need a .

In truth, even if you don't like us much - it will open up a whole new world of listening, not least if you like a laugh. Top of pods at the moment are Russell Brand, and someone called .

So, if you'd like more than your usual Friday 6.30 fix of comedy, perhaps it's worth a try.

produces the and Eddie's been speaking to him about his work and his podcast.

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Stories we covered this week

Blackout Britain
What caused the electricity blackout and how likely is it to happen again. Details on the blog.

Favourites
The favourite websites of the unsocially-networked, but eloquent Christopher Hitchens.

Comedy podcasts
The rise and rise of comedy podcasts. Writer and performer Ian Boldsworth (AKA Ray Peacock) told us why he's obsessed with podcasting.

You can suggest a story on the blog or email ipm { at } bbc.co.uk. are good too, if you're aTwitterer.

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We always say - share what you know, so we can bring to wider attention something you think is important that's not being reported in the mainstream. With the help of our listeners we did just that about motoring fines, back on May 16th.

On breakfast telly today, and online, the story is receiving . Thanks for letting us know first. And please - if there's something you want to share...click on Suggest a Story, on the right..

And see below for the latest tip-off we got from a listener that has sent us off in a whole new direction...

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Electricity supplies are now after hundreds of thousands of people lost power yesterday. The issue was brought to our attention early, by an anonymous listener who emailed to tell us:

There has been loss of electricity supply in several parts of the country. This is because the loss of two power stations including a nuclear station (Sizewell I believe) triggered a system disturbance. A major supply emergency and possibly a blackout was only averted because emergency protection triggered load shedding of blocks of load in several different parts of the country.There is still a possibility of a generation deficit tonight. You need to check this out. The electricity system is not what it used to be in this county. Sorry about the not giving my name but I work in the Industry.

The blackouts - affecting parts of London, Cheshire, Merseyside and East Anglia - were indeed caused by the failure of Sizewell B nuclear power station, moments after the smaller Longannet coal-fired station in Scotland went offline.

We've been trying to unpick exactly what happened yesterday, and whether it suggests deeper problems in the UK's electricity infrastructure. British Energy, who run Sizewell B, are being tight-lipped about the precise cause of the failure, and aren't doing any interviews. But they did give us this statement:

Sizewell B was taken off line at around noon on Tuesday 27 May after a record breaking run followed by a record maintenance outage during March and April. It is three-and-a-half years since Sizewell B experienced an unplanned outage. British Energy is currently working on the return to service plan and the plant is due to be operating again shortly. It is the company's policy not to give technical information about the cause of trips because this could affect the wholesale price of electricity. For the same reason generators tend not to confirm the return to service date as again it would cause the wholesale price to rise or fall unduly.

British Energy suggested we talk instead to the National Grid, who are attracting for the blackouts. They won't talk on tape either, but did tell us that this was a freak event, that it's now 'business as usual' and the message to take from the episode is that things actually worked as they should have, and the market quickly responded to bring more power online.

chairs the Business and Enterprise select committee. He tells us that the simultaneous failure of so many power stations was baffling to him. He's worried that the UK energy market is too illiquid, making it difficult for smaller, independent retailers to sell energy. We may speak to him further tomorrow.

Also worried about the structure of the energy markets is , Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University and an energy advisor to the government. He says we'll see more incidents like this, especially in the medium term between 2010 and 2020, because of a badly designed energy market and an incoherent government energy policy.

So are energy markets working? We'll be speaking tomorrow to the CEO of , an energy trading exchange. They also have plans for a power cable between Britain and the Netherlands, which they say could be laid by 2010 and which could 'soften the energy spikes'.

The Institution of Civil Engineers have been that without sustained investment in the infrastructure, the lights could be going out over large parts of the country. They've predicted a shortfall of up to 80% of Britain's energy needs by 2020. We hope to speak to someone from ICE tomorrow to get their take on the current situation.

CHRIS ADDS: But what is the state of supply? The amount of supply has a direct affect on the bills consumers pay. I've been speaking with one analyst who predicts double digit percentage price rises for consumers in the near future. That's not great news for people already paying a lot for fuel, food and, well, just about everything else you care to mention.

Earlier Eddie spoke to . They felt there was plenty of capacity in the short term, but added that, "Within the next decade we really do need to build more power plant" Producers can see this "energy crunch" coming and are racing to increase supply, but the AEP claim, planning rules are hindering this expansion in supply. And then there's the European issue...

The AEP also told us they were that could, they argue, force some coal fired power stations to close. We'll hear from an EU Commission spokesperson who will I suspect will have a rather different view of the matter.

Wrapping this all up - in good Radio 4 style - we hope to hear from a minister. Fingers crossed, the "empty" chair is being prepared - just in case.

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Here's what we are working on. For the next few weeks, we are a bit bijou. Small and compact, and available as a podcast.

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We're not in the 17.30 Saturday berth for a few weeks but we ARE available as a nifty podcast. Brand new programmes in a tight 15 minute format.

If you're familiar with podcasting, you'll know what to do.

If not: here's the Radio 4 guide to getting started. Remember - you don't need a pod!

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Revealing her internet favourites to iPM this week is , co-founder and .

Martha's picks were interior decoration site , and .

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Copyright problems mean that podcast listeners will have been denied the chance to hear our very first iPM song. It's of the New Seekers, and she's singing about this.

Not to neglect our digital listeners, may we suggest a home performance of the anthem? By marrying the lyrics below with the chords D, E, A, G and D, you can take part in our biggest crowd-sourcing project yet. We'd like to teach the world to sing (but we can't help on the guitar unfortunately).

I'd like to fix those Burmese homes;
Give poverty the shove
Grow sustainable trees, give aid with ease
And show Africa some love..

Chorus:
I'd like to reach the world and bring
It perfect harmony.
I'd like to reach its outstretched arms
But I need a company:
They're the real thing
The world needs them today.
They're the real thing
The world needs them today
(Coca-Cola)

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On Saturday's iPM, we followed up your interest in suggestion about Coca-Cola. It took us on a journey. So where to go next? As ever that's up to you.

If you've idea, a suggestion or some advice please share what you know here on the blog or on email ipm { at } bbc.co.uk

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Some of the things covered this week:

Credit crunch map
We spoke to Andrew Hudson Smith, Research Director at the , who developed our credit crunch map for us. With tens of thousands of results in, the map is now a lurid shade of cyan in most areas - which suggests that fuel prices are on listeners minds. Also we spoke to Barry Shrier of Liberty Cars, who wants Range Rover owners to abandon the pump and instead .

Data Centres
Information. Bad for the environment? More here.

Favourites
Entrepreneur shared her favourite websites

Coke
Could Coca-Cola use its peerless distribution to assist in the aid effort? More on the blog.

Thanks for all the input into this weeks programme. If there's a story you think we should look at for next week's programme, or if you have ideas on the stories we currently have in production, let us know.

You can suggest a story on the blog or email: ipm { at } bbc.co.uk

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So what's the picture of? A car plant? A plastics factory? Well, no, it's actually a data centre roof. As more and more businesses require serious computing power to run, so demand for data centres is increasing. And, of course, data centres are key to e-commerce and most of what we do online.

But that growth isn't without its costs. Big data centres house hundreds of powerful computers and those computers require a lot of electricity. They also, like all electrical processes, generate heat and it takes an a significant amount of energy to remove that heat and keep the computers cool.

Consuming a lot of electricity has an environmental cost. have issued a report warning that data centres could, by 2012-13 overtake aviation as a cause of greenhouse emissions

To get a sense of how centres consume energy I visited a data centre in the company of its operations manager. You can hear that interview below.

While there is a business case as well as an environmental case for decreasing the energy consumed by data centres there's a debate over whether or not data centres should be regulated to ensure they are as efficient as possible. We received this statement from DEFRA

We know that there are concerns about emissions from data warehousing [data centres] and ICT [Information and communication technology]. We're looking at this in a number of ways, including through the Carbon Reduction Commitment, which will start in 2010. The CRC is a mandatory emissions trading scheme that will cover around 5000 businesses and public sector bodies that use a lot of energy but aren't currently in an emissions trading scheme. It will include organisations from the big banks, supermarkets and hotel chains to government departments and local authorities -- as well as large data warehousing companies

So data centres are part of a strategy covering all businesses that use a lot of energy. And it's worth pointing out that some activities data centre's support, like online shopping and banking, can save emmissions by reducing travel etc.

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The results from our has led us in new directions, what can you do about ? And where better to start than "The Archers", if they can't come up a workable alternative then we are serious trouble. might recall a recent exchange between Pat and Kathy. You can hear it below - as well as a chat between Eddie and , one of the co-founders of the movement.

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and others on the blog have been keen for iPM to to hear more about . For more than ten years, Simon worked all over the world as part of the British aid effort. He thinks there is a simple way to help the - usually diarrhoea. And the answer is . Not the product - but its distribution network. Eddie has been speaking to Simon about him and his idea.

This just in from Coca Cola -

"This is an extraordinarily interesting discussion. And it is one which goes to the heart of the key question of how we can make better use of the successes of business to serve the development needs of the world in general and of Africa in particular. The recent Millennium Development Goal Call for Action by Prime Minister Gordon Brown stems from this simple starting point.

It is also something we take very seriously at Coca-Cola. We are proud of what we are already doing through the Africa Foundation - for example, providing safe drinking water to communities throughout the continent. But we are also asking ourselves how our core business operation can do more. And this includes whether we can use our distribution network to deliver other goods which will help improve lives in local communities.

The challenge, of course, is to do this without undermining the successful model which helps explain why you can get a Coke across Africa. Because the very success of this network rests on the fact that it is not owned by Coca-Cola but made up of many small independent local distributors.

Our bottlers do help these small firms get started with training and start-up capital. But the system works so well because the better they distribute our drinks, the more money they make. It taps into Africa's entrepreneurial spirit of and gives people the means and the incentive to develop their business and create more jobs.

So what we are considering is if, and how, this system can be tweaked so it remains economically successful but can be extended so it does more to help the common good.

We don't have the answers yet. As often happens, it is not as straightforward as it looks at first glance. But I can promise we are working hard to find solutions.

This summer, we are beginning a research project and pilot in Tanzania to analyse in depth our distribution model and examine how it can be used to enhance its development potential. The Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the International Finance Corporation are helping with it.

Our hope is that this research will come up with concrete measures we can then apply to our distribution systems across the African continent and beyond.

Together I hope we can come up with the right solutions. And I am happy to have a chat on this subject with Simon in the near future."

Salvatore Gabola, Global Director Stakeholder Relations, Coca-Cola.

So, no on air debate yet - but perhaps some progress.

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We asked you to help build a map of the credit crunch. Twenty thousand or so entries later and it is clear that fuel ( light blue ) food ( bright green ) and your rent/mortgage ( dark blue ) are causing most concern. But as you can see - it is the price of fuel that trumps all others.

Time then to look in some detail at the . There are in parts of the country trying to find local solutions to a global .

If you've already taken part, thank you. If not, it's very easy and just click .

Eddie Mair has been speaking Dr.Andrew Hudson-Smith. He works for the at . Here he explains more about and its potential.

So now is not the time . Or is it? is a businessman. He wants you to buy one of , only his ones are only available in .

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Often we don't have time to do all the stories we'd like in the 24 minute radio programme, and have to lose something. Here's an interview we were hoping to get on last Saturday, with Keir Clarke of and .

The internet rumour mill has it that Google's about to launch Street View throughout Europe. It's already up and running in the States. Instead of a bird's eye view of the world, Google is offering a street level one. The end goal is allow you to experience a 360 degree view of every street, in every town.

There have been sightings in recent months of the Google vans (which have large panoramic cameras mounted on top) in Paris, Milan and London. But regulatory concerns have been a stumbling block to Google launching in the EU. Last week, the European Data Protection Supervisor said that the ability of Street View software to provide 360- degree, detailed ground-level images of streets over the Internet . This is because individuals' faces are often visible and the vans can potentially see into peoples front rooms.

Google has responded by introduced automatic face-blurring technology in it's imagery of Manhattan, hoping that if the technology is successful it will be enough to placate the EU. So, what can Europeans expect if Street View crosses the pond? Here's a long version of the interview we did, but never aired, with Keir Clarke.

Some of the Street Views Keir mentioned in the interview (drag and zoom them for detail, and click on the arrows to move along the street):

A papparazzi-proofed horse. Released without charge.

A woman apparently excited by the arrival of Google's vans in Homewood, Illinois.

A San Diego man, perhaps less excited, although he did apparently follow the van through the city.

And a fight breaking out in San Francisco.

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An early draft. We'll update later this week.

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Last week, blogger pointed me to which is, indeed, all about landslides. It's a really interesting read with lots of coverage of the Sichuan Earthquake up there at the moment and it's written by someone who knows what he's talking about: David Petley Wilson Professor of Georgraphy at Durham University

Talking to David about landslides he spoke about Nepal and concerns he has over the way the UK government administers road building projects it supports there. International Development minister, very kindly agreed to speak with us to respond to the points raised. Shahid had just returned from a gruelling overseas trip dealing with aid issues so we are particularly grateful for his participation.

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On Saturday's iPM, we followed up a listener's suggestion and made a programme out of it! You can read more here.

MORE IMPORTANTLY - is there something you think we should to for this week's programme? It needn't be some huge fully fledged thing - just an idea...something you know about, or something you think needs some investigation. That's what we did with Craig's suggestion (see the link above) - so what can we do for YOU?

Click on comment or drop us an email please to ipm@bbc.co.uk.

++ update ++

The iPM has met. In the mix at the moment are:

Aid Distribution - if can get its famous fizz to almost anywhere, why can't governments . and others on the blog suggest we look at - how Coca Cola could save lives by using their distribution muscle in developing countries.

Data Centres - information rich but . We've now been granted access to one of these secretive places

And perhaps tall story.

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He's a mind-control master who in his latest series has made us think twice about not killing kittens or entering pub quizzes. Relax, close your eyes, and imagine your eyelids are veeery heavy as Derren Brown tells you about his favourite websites...

If you felt an irresistible urge to visit and buy Derren Brown's book, don't worry. It's probably a coincidence. He also selected the website of the in Skegness and artist website.

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Super Size Me director was in Television Centre to promote his latest film, Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden. We asked him to tell us his favourite websites.

His choices were , , and (to keep track of Stoke City's progress, apparently).

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Listener , contacted us with a question about swallows, and in speaking with him it turned out that as well as an interest in migrating birds, Richard had a fascinating day job.

Richard works on the . Running for over 75-years the project maps the distribution of plankton in the world's oceans and "is the world's largest plankton survey."

Plankton sit at the very bottom of the food chain, and are of vital importance to everyone who depends on the sea from right-whales to Rick Stein. The tracking of changes in the world's plankton reveals a great deal about the effect warming oceans are having on the sea's ecology. In the film above and the slideshow below we learn that crabs are on the rise, young cod are finding it hard to make a living, and pipefish are booming, which surprisingly isn't a boon for seabirds like the puffin.

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Thanks for all your contributions to Saturday's programme - the stories that featured in the programme.

Traffic penalty charges
Details and interviews on our blog

Favourites
The talented magician and illusionist Derren Brown on his most visited websites.

Plankton man
Chris (aka Mr Blog) spoke Dr Richard Kirby of the based in Plymouth.

You can suggest a story on the blog or email: ipm { at } bbc.co.uk

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. Increasingly, a bane for the modern motorist. But we are grateful to one iPM listener for bringing to our attention. A local story, but one that highlights a national problem.

Here's the rub. In London, CCTV cameras can issue fines automatically, but there are a growing number of appeals that result in local authorities having to admit that they , often for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, in the time the camera's were happily flashing away they for the local council. But, the camera fallen foul of the law/regulations - And what chance does the motorist have of getting his or her money back? You'll find plenty of groups ( and ) willing to help drivers appeal, but at first glance there doesn't appear to be a move toward "best practice" and in one instance the police have now been asked to investigate alleged . More soon and your experience, advice and thoughts on this are more than welcome.

For iPM reporter Bob Platt has been speaking to one traffic camera campaigner .

Update

Eddie interviewed Lord Lucas yesterday for PM. He's a Conservative peer who chairs the . We'll run a shorter clip of the interview on iPM today; here's the longer version.

And here's a longer cut of the interview with Nick Lester, Corporate Director of Services at .

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Lovely spoof:

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There is now a rough plan, it looks like this.

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iPM listener, Deborah Southon emailed us to say she's been waiting almost two years for an inquest after her daughter, , died in a car accident in August 2006.

As a result, we took a closer look at the coroner system in England and Wales. We blogged about it last week and our report was broadcast on Saturday's programme. You can listen to the full report below.

There is that the Coroner's system needs to be reformed, but despite recommendations coming out in 2003 in response to the case, nothing has yet been done.

In 2006, the  ran out of parliamentary time. In 2007, it was the same story. However, it has appeared today in the Government's for the coming session and PM is picking up the story again tonight.

Listen to the full report broadcast on Saturday's iPM programme.

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The comedian is known for his one-liners, and among his quips is this:

"A lady with a clipboard stopped me in the street the other day. She said, 'Can you spare a few minutes for cancer research?' I said, 'All right, but we won't get much done."

It now looks though as if comedy is moving into the realm of reality: if you have a few minutes to play a game on-line, then who knows: you could help cure cancer, HIV or Alzheimers.

is asking internet users to "solve puzzles for science".

It's a free game, designed by scientists at the , in which players around the world compete to design proteins. You can get a more detailed explanation of proteins .

Understanding the rules of "protein folding" remains one of biology's central problems. Solving that problem could lead to real benefits: scientists will test proteins designed by the game's players to see if they make viable candidate compounds for new drugs.

You can read what others have said about Foldit , and .

In order to play Fold It, you need to and please do let us know if you happen to help cure cancer or indeed any disease as we'd probably want to feature you on a forthcoming iPM.

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Our next show is on May 17 and this is the space to submit your ideas on what we should cover and who you'd like to hear from.

You can add your ideas in the comments below, or send us an email. We read all the emails we get sent.

We'll discuss all our ideas at a meeting on Tuesday and update the blog throughout the week with stories we're looking at.

++ Here are a few of the stories in the mix for this week.

Data Centres - information rich but .

Speed Cameras CCTV Traffic Cameras - are local authorities raising millions of pounds We've had lots of correspondence about this. Thanks.

- one of you suggested we put Chris Vallance on a boat. We have, more soon.

Airport Security. Again from the blog, . Interesting.

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Some of the stories we covered in the programme this week:

Inquests
We were contacted by Deborah Southon, whose daughter Grace died in a car crash nearly two years ago. Deborah told us of her frustration at the length of time it has taken for an inquest to be held. We followed up with Helen Shaw of - an organisation that's been campaigning for reform of coroner system for years. And we spoke to Tom Luce, chairman of the Coroner's Review Group which published a raft of proposals to make the service better. He told us the government's attitude since would best be described as negligent. More on the blog here.

Favourites
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock shared his favourite websites.

Food Prices
Bloggers from around the world told us about the global effects of rising food prices. Chris Vallance has mash-ups...

Trapped
We spoke to , who was for 41 hours. CCTV footage of his ordeal became an viral hit online. You can see the video and hear the full interview here.

Artificial Intelligence
A.I. bots George and Joan (who you can chat to online at ) discussed their creator Rollo Carpenter.

Thanks for all the input into this weeks programme. If there's a story you think we should look at for next week's programme, or if you have ideas on the stories we currently have in production, let us know.

You can suggest a story on the blog or email: ipm { at } bbc.co.uk

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This video of Zainab Bangura, Sierra Leone's foreign minister , eloquently looks at the are causing around the world.

Websites like the rise in prices is having around the globe. From riots in and , to people .

Here in the UK, and we know .

We're trying to harness the web in the reporting of food prices. If you've a personal experience, or have found some interesting commentary online, please leave a note in comments.

I've put together a small aggregation of relevant content on . If you are a blogger with something to say on the issue, tag your post or youtube video foodprices08 and it will appear there too. It will also pick up Twitter posts with foodprices08 in the text.

Below is a map of some of the coverage from Global Voices, popular blogs and from the media. If there are elements you think I should add to the map (which is based on Yahoo Pipes) please let me know. (It's a little cranky as an embed so you may want the direct )

UPDATE: We featured a montage of blogger created pieces on the food crisis on the podcast. Thanks to: and , , , and thanks also to , and for helping with the broadcast.

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Listener sent us his "podpath" (to coin a phrase), the journey he takes while listening to iPM's podcast. Dan works in San Francisco, and you can follow his footsteps below as he listens to the show on the map below.

So what's you Podpath? Feel free to send us a link. Dan has used service to create his "podpath"

UPDATE: More Podpaths - this one much closer to home from Mark MacLeod who listens on his way to the School of Philosophy. Audio Ergo Sum? (Ok I gave up Latin when I was 14!)

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An iPM listener emailed to say her family's been waiting almost two years for an inquest after their daughter died in a car accident in August 2006.

So, we've decided to take a closer look at inquests and the coroner system.

According to the Coroner's Act 1988, when someone dies 'a violent or unnatural death' or 'a sudden death of which the cause is unknown', the death has to be reported to the coroner and there has to be an inquest to identify the person and to answer the questions 'how, when and where' the person died and if there are to be no criminal proceedings. ()

There are around 20,000 inquests in the UK each year, about 2,000 of which require a jury.

Currently, there is no national coroner service, the coroner and their courts are all managed locally.

There is no time period within which an inquest must take place. And there is no
formal complaint system.

A draft Coroner Reform Bill was proposed in 2006, but hasn't yet made it through Parliament as it's been delayed twice.

You can .

Have you had any dealings with the coroner service? Have you attended the inquest of a loved one? Who would you like to hear from on this? All comments welcome.

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Nine years ago, Nicholas White got stuck in a lift. For 41 hours.

The CCTV recording of his ordeal was put online two weeks ago as part of a New Yorker on the lives of elevators. The Youtube version alone now has almost 3 million views, there are numerous and White has become something of an internet celebrity.

We'll try and speak to him for Saturday's programme.

Update
Here's a long (13 minutes) version of the interview we did today. Nick mentions his website, which can be found at .

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A first look at some of the stories that have been suggested and we are working on.

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"The young Hirundines begin to congregate on the tower. How punctual are these birds in all their proceedings!"

I took a walk along the Thames earlier in the week: many martins were nesting under the balconies and eaves of riverside flats, but I didn't spot any swallows. Listener Richard Kirby (also known as the , but more on that later) also noticed that the swallows seemed to be late for their annual appointment with the UK:

Where have all the swallows gone ? Last year there seemed fewer and this year there seem less again, at least to me living in S. Devon. But perhaps I am wrong.

Not wrong Richard. than in the previous two years as they explain below:

Have you seen a swallow this year? Or are your summer visitors delayed? Let us know.

The blog post title is, for those that care about such things, from which by an odd coincidence I first read in a collection of English verse lurking in the discount bin of a Danish bookshop, in a small town crowded with nesting swallows

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Following up the suggestion of a listener last week we took a look at the situation of people on Housing Benefits. As part of that work we contacted the , asking about the effect of the credit crunch was having on Social Housing.

They told us they were working on a report but weren't able to share the findings yet. Well on Friday we were given a preview of one of the key findings of that report. The LGA told us that,

We are set to predict that the impact of a slowdown in the economy and the credit crunch could lead to two million households in England, or 5 million people will be on the waiting list for social housing by 2010.

• "Second lowest mortgage approvals in 13 years, reducing demand for new-build where affordable housing is built. "


• "Housing associations struggle to secure loans to create new affordable housing due to the credit crunch."


• "Local authority and housing association new-build over the last decade is at its lowest since 1947."

There will be more on how the credit crunch is affecting demand and supply of social housing on PM on Monday.

UPDATE: From Monday's PM. Nils Blythe looked at the issue on PM and the figure we obtained from the LGA was put to Caroline Flint MP the housing minister, you can hear that below:

Related Link: The Credit Crunch map.

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Lots of comment via email to a PM story last week about an adoption case involving East Sussex County Council.

The child's birth-father -- who discovered he had a child only when the council served care proceedings on him and asked him for a DNA test -- had asked for the placement order to be revoked.

But one day before the planned hearing, the council ratified the adoption panel's decision, denying the father the chance to be heard by a judge.

Senior judges at the Court of Appeal described the council's conduct as "disgraceful". They said its actions would "fuel public distrust in the good faith of public authority", and there was the "clearest inference" that the council was "out to gain its ends by means more foul than fair".

Here's Eddie interviewing the father's solicitor, Barbara Macdonald.

The piece provoked quite a reaction. Listener John McReynolds wrote:

It's rare that hearing an item on the radio makes me stop and gape open-mouthed in disbelief at what I am . But it happened today on the piece about East Sussex Social Services Council and their action with the adoption of the child when an application for the Father's parenting suitability had been served.

Please don't let this story drop. In effect, as the father's legal representative said, they decided to usurp the Court where the decision-making should take place.

And Tim Thornton emailed that:

The UK is, I believe, the only country in Europe, and one of a few countries in the world, where children can be forcibly adopted against the wishes of the parents.

This is an area of law and procedure that is in desperate need of being overhauled, but is one that it is very difficult to publicise. Some, such as John Hemming MP, are actively campaigning for a review, and this needs to be instigated as a matter of urgency.

Several emailers lay the blame on the system of adoption targets, claiming they provide a financial incentive for councils to place children in adoption. As Tim notes, has been for a while. Others dismiss the worries as unfounded, that a laissez-faire attitude would put children in danger.

We're open to any ideas on how to approach the issue on iPM. Post your suggestions in the comments, and we'll discuss them at the Tuesday meeting.

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Here's a longer version of Saturday's interview with , who has collected every piece of spam to hit his inbox since 1997. The first part of his archive (1997-2003) is .

The first spam email, now 30 years old, can be read .

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We looked at the issue of and asked if abandoning the principle could adversely affect competition and innovation in the UK. In the piece we heard from the BCC and from CEO of Vuze

We also recorded an interview with , which I've included in full below. He presents a nuanced view of the issue: while he accepts Ofcom's view that competition among ISP's is key, Volpi raises questions about how competitive the ISP market is in the UK.

I should also add, in this context, the statement given to us by the Department for Business, "This issue is part of the wider debate about the future of broadband and the government has asked Francesco Caio to look at the barriers to investment in next generation access. He will be looking at how the market might cater for increasing consumer demand for bandwidth and the factors that might affect decisions over upgrading infrastructure. It is though too early to comment on likely outcomes."

When we came off-air, listener Chris Hall sent a thoughtful analysis of the issue. Chris thinks net neutrality is a good thing but raises some interesting issues, principally who is going to pay:

Why should the ISP support a video service that is not prepared to pay to reach its customers? Suppose I decide to go into the mail-order aggregate business. Should I expect Royal Mail to deliver gravel by the lorry load at their expense?

The issue of who pays for the increased demand is of course central to the debate. The full text of Chris's email is in the comments it's a good starting point for a discussion, I hope you'll join in.

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Our next show is on May 10 and this is the space to submit your ideas on what we should cover and who you'd like to hear from.

You don't have to leave a fully formed an idea. Just a suggestion for something we should look at is enough.

You can add your ideas in the comments below, or send us an email. We do read all the emails we get sent.

We discuss all our ideas at a meeting on Tuesday and update the blog throughout the week with stories we're looking at. Again we welcome constructive criticism on the decisions we make and the stories we feature in the final programme - thanks.

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What did you think of the show? The stories we covered this week.

Rising cost of heating oil
We investigated why the price of home heating oil has risen so dramatically and if there are any alternatives for the 1.5 million UK households affected.

Everest
The media blackout surrounding the Olympic torch's journey to the summit of Mount Everest. More on the blog here.

Net neutrality
How so-called traffic shaping would impact our ability to fully access the internet..

Favourites
Film director Wim Wenders recommended his top websites.

Mr Blog
Chris mentioned who's blogging his travels to Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and the north Caucasus over the next 4 years for a book on Sufism.

Happy birthday spam
To 'celebrate' spam's 30th birthday, we spoke to Richard Jones, who has kept all the spam he received since 1997. His online archive is .

If there's a story you think we should look at for next week's programme, or if you have ideas on the stories we currently have in production, let us know.

You can suggest a story on the blog or email: ipm { at } bbc.co.uk

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The Olympic torch is headed to mainland China this week. You can track its progress around the world on any number of , and . Less certain is the location of its lesser-known sister, a parallel torch that's been stalled on the north face of Mount Everest, waiting for clement weather to make the ascent to the summit. One Chinese newspaper described the lack of news as a "mysterious veil that has surrounded base camp."

Information has been limited on the north face of Everest, but on the south side - where all the climbers are this year - a total communication ban has been in force for almost two weeks. The Â鶹Éç's reporter was on April 28th, and told by the Nepalese authorities that they were 'doing this for our friend China'.

What information there is comes from the climbers who are blogging - often surreptitiously - about their time on the mountain and their worries over the time it is taking for the Chinese Olympic climbers to summit. There are only two brief windows every year when an ascent of Everest is possible, and the regular mountaineers aren't able to climb until the torch has reached the top. The delays are raising fears that this could be a particularly dangerous season, should the climbers race at once to climb the same route in a reduced window of time.

We looked at the situation today through the reports posted on blogs such as , , , , , and .

We also spoke (very briefly in the end, due to time pressures elsewhere in the programme) to Luis Benitez, who's been up and down Everest eight times but refused to go this year for 'moral, ethical and safety' reasons. He's involved in Climbers without Borders and , which has been aggregating the blog news from Everest this last fortnight and offering an anonymous call-in service for climbers on the south face to communicate news without jeopardising their stay on the mountain.

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We've just had Thursday's iPM production meeting, and we agreed that this week's show looks quite "serious".

As you can see from the running order , the subjects don't lend themselves to levity:

- whether broadband internet service providers are having an undue say about which sites and applications you can access.

Home Heating Oil - why has the cost of heating oil for domestic users risen by 75% in a year?

Everest - Tales from climbers who're being silenced as the controversial Olympic Torch relay nears the mountain.

So - we're turning to you.

We want your suggestions for something a little lighter. Have you come across any quirky blogs or websites that deserve a wider audience? Let us know in the comments section below and it could well feature on a forthcoming iPM.

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Here's how the programme is shaping up as of Thursday morning.

Don't forget that you can shape what we do if you share what you know about the stories we're looking at.

Comments are always welcome below or you can email us

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