It's been an out of control week for the control freaks.

First the Dome sacked its boss and appointed a Frenchman to save the show.

Then the Lords voted out Government plans to repeal Section 28.

Finally mixed messages from Wales meant the Prime Minister was left floundering over Alun Michael's decision to quit as leader of the Welsh Assembly.

Paul Flynn, Labour MP and Josceline Davies, Plaid Cymru AM debate the "fun and games" in Cardiff as the Prime Minister called it.

Two members of the Culture Select Committee Labour's Claire Ward and the Conservative David Faber disagree on whether there will be politcal fall-out from the Dome's teething problems.

This week saw the House of Commons and Lord spent many hours discussing Section 28 (which prevents local authorities from promoting homosexuality in schools) and the reduction of the age of consent for homosexuals.

Two MPs discuss whether the politcal parties understand the public's tolerance for matters of personal freedom - Jacqui Ballard , the Liberal Democrat and the Conservative Peter Luff.

The week has also been dominated by events in Northern Ireland.

The former Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King and a Labour member of the backbench Northern Ireland committee Martin Salter discuss where the peace process can go now.

All the subjects in The Week in Westminster with Mary Ann Sieghart of The Tiems at 11am on Saturday 12th February on BBC Radio Four and BBC News Online.

Listen to the programme by clicking on the link below:



You can send your comments to The Week in Westminster by clicking here: week.westminster@bbc.co.uk

All about the programme

The Week in Westminster was first broadcast 70 years ago.

The Week in Westminster is presented by a range of leading political commentators including Steve Richards, Michael Gove and Peter Riddell every Saturday morning while Parliament is sitting.

Initially a weekly broadcast given exclusively by female MPs about parliamentary business, The Week in Westminster was immediately popular with listeners but less so with some politicians who believed it wrong for parliamentary business to be discussed in public.

Such views prompted the BBC's first director general Lord Reith to defend the programme as "chiefly for the benefit of housewives ... shift workers, unemployed, invalids, etc".

In its time, the programme has had a range of presenters and producers - including Guy Burgess, the infamous spy who defected to Moscow.

Lloyd George's daughter Megan and Tony Blair's official spokesman Alastair Campbell have also been presenters over the years.

Although it has moved around the radio schedules since it began on Wednesday mornings, it has recently returned to Saturday mornings and made the transition to the internet with BBC News Online.

More importantly, its original aim of giving the public a chance to see what the people they elected are doing is very much the same.