Today - 19/05/2009

Presented by John Humphrys and Sarah Montague. GMB union leader Paul Kenny discusses claims of allowance abuses by its MPs. President Obama has urged the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the idea of a Palestinian state. Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas discusses. Charity worker Helen Atkins says the attempted purchase of sex should be illegal. Professor Douglas J Levey explains how mockingbirds can remember the faces of people who go too close to their nests and then single them out for attack. M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose discusses the retailer's fall in profits. Oxfam's David White discusses the need for humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka. Environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee reports from the shores of Lake Windermere on the future of lakes around the world. Thought for the day with Canon Lucy Winkett of St Paul's Cathedral. A report examining what MI5 knew about the London bombers before their 2005 attacks is published later. Security correspondent Gordon Correra and Rachel North, who was injured in the bombings and has represented the victims and their families, discuss what could be contained in the report. (The audio has been edited from the version broadcast on the programme.) Conservative leader David Cameron discusses the ways MPs' expenses would change if his party were elected. Political editor Nick Robinson reports on the calls for the Commons Speaker Michael Martin to resign. Reporter James Alexander examines claims from scientists that they have worked out what is causing 'the Hum'. General Sir Mike Jackson discusses a ruling on the protection of soldiers' human rights. Father Patrick Dubois and Dr Jean-Marc Dreyfus, a holocaust historian, discuss the use of 'mobile killing units' by the Nazis. Publicist Max Clifford discusses why the media got involved in the story of Alfie Patten, the boy who was reported to have conceived a child when he was 12 years old. Author Tom Standage and Peter Kendall, of the National Farmers' Union, discuss how the history of food has affected the history of man.