As you say most of the current topics are either too complex or to be honest too depressing to want to be so informed about. I used to be a real news junkie maybe it's apathy or a sense of no real control over events but at the moment I often feel like I don't want to know.

Do you remember when people on the news were people who knew stuff rather than clueless knob-heads in shopping centres?

And why do reporters never ask these people the question I want answered: "Why aren't you at work?"

from Cathy who is a nurse in Basingstoke, and she says she agrees...Mmmm interesting stuff, please keep your views coming in...

what they should do is, and another thing, you don't see the likes of Cameron doing that, do ya? And anyway, I know for a fact, 'cause a bloke down the pub told me, and 'e's got a mate in the Town Hall, and what goes on there, well, and then there's all that wossname, narmean? And anyway, you don't wanna do that, it'll only end in tears, mark my words....

The government ought to do something about about it, it's a joke and I'm absolutely disgusted...

It's a funny sign of times that once upon a time vox pops on TV used to consist of people staring at the camera like an animal caught in headlights, and stumbling haltingly...nowadays they're doing everything but handing you their agent's card.

I caught a bit of Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show today where hugely non-neutral people rang up with smug, pat answers to anything from 'what AWT should do next' to 'what cheap policies could Ed Milliband adopt'. It kind of went:
'he should be shot'/'he should get therapy' or
'celebs get away with everything'/'celebs have a lot of stress'
The whole show unremittingly tedious and depressing. The urge to go and live in a commune without a TV, radio or internet is growing daily.

Actually, not only are you entitled to not have an opinion, I find that there is actually too much stuff to have a bloody opinion about. Might be the onset of senility but I find myself almost skimming through the daily paper these days. I start to read about something that would have consumed me a few years ago and a voice in my head says "can't be arsed."

Since when did a random person's passing thoughts expressed through the medium of Twitter become worthy of reading out as comment on news programmes? At least give me opinions from someone qualified to have them.

when people ask for your opinion on something you know sod tout about just say

I'm starting to wonder if rolling news isn't the worst idea in the history of television. The networks have space to fill, so they fill it with free shite from any old bastard they find outside Tesco. Sorry - not "find". That suggests they have some agency: they get Mr Anyoldbastard to tweet in.

Vicious circle: there's nothing of substance to say, so they get uninformed people to blather, so everyone thinks their opinion is worth something, so the whole thing is devalued and BOSH! Nobody has anything of substance to say.

The Beeb, gawblezzer, has no business running a 24 hr rolling news service. They should cut it back and remember how to it well. Interrupt your regular programming if there's any, y'know, NEWS. Keep it condensed and maybe you'll rediscover the quality.

Damn. That post was full of opinions, probably uninformed ones. Sorry.

*shoots self*

I will paraphrase Margot from the Chrsitmas "Good Life". "It's not that I don't want to join in, it's just that I'm not sure how"

Previously there was no forum were you or I, as uninformed lay-persons, could debate, say, the existence or non-existence of the Higgs Boson, with a particle physicist without the various onlookers taking into account our respective levels of education and expertise in the matter.

Now, there is. In fact, in less than ten minutes I'll wager I can find a suitable online forum, make an outlandish claim about the Higgs Boson and engage one or more persons in an absurd argument during the course of which I will refuse to back down an inch and denigrate their understanding of the subject matter.

Opinions are the currency of the net. They make the world wide web go round. Therefore everyone needs to have one, ideally a strong one. It doesn't have to be considered or well informed. It just needs to be expressed with force and backed with ferocious dogmatism. It's a practice that's bleeding into the real world too.

It's only going to get worse. In five years we'll all read kindles and you won't be able to tell apart the man on the train reading Tolstoy from the one reading Reader's Wives. In twenty, books will vanish from our shelves entirely. It will become harder and harder to tell whether the person you're speaking to actually has the faintest inkling of what they're talking about. All of which makes it ever easier to hold an opinion - the barrier to entry is lowering all the time.

It's one of the aspects of the modern culture which I find most worrying. And here I am, expounding on it with no real evidence or expertise to back my assertions. Ain't life grand!

the man on the train reading Tolstoy from the one reading Reader's Wives"

Well at last, some progress

Oh god, I used to have to make vox pops, back when I worked in local radio. Go to nearest shopping centre, smile winningly, thrust microphone into passersby's faces, "Excuse me, what do you think about [insert hot topic of day here]"). Return to base, edit tape into spectacularly dull package. Sigh deeply. Repeat every day.

I've got lots of opinions, but usually about stuff and nonsense...like for example what I might think about Jesus Jones' trousers on page 30 of this months edition of Word.

I agree, particularly with complex 'big ticket' issues there are so many different arguments, so much information to take in and so many shades of grey involved I've rarely got a strong opinion.

hearing Twitter opinions or man-in-the-street opinions to slebs. Like when good ol' Eamonn Holmes says summat along the lines of: "After the recent cuts in public spending, particularly in the education sector, youth unemployment has risen to a record high. We'll be talking to Mick Hucknell and Nigel Havers about that shortly."
I don't like that.

"Wise men speak because they have something to say.
Fools speak because they have to say something"

The other side of the coin is that a politician who can't give an off-the-cuff opinion on some complex, breaking and unclear story is seen as weak and not on the ball; a football manager who offers an opinion will be fined and suspended by the FA; and a musician who expresses one will be told to stop being a twerp and focus on playing his gee-tar.

And is it me or is a lot of the news now more about "reporting" speculation, gossip and opinion rather than reporting facts?

"People have only to talk for a short time for it to become obvious that the greatest of human rights is not freedom of opinion, but freedom from opinion."

you question the need for democracy. I have no idea what is good for the country or the world, or even for me, so why should I be able to cast a vote with my uninformed gut feeling?

I’m often amazed at the ability of some of the folk on this forum to have such strong opinions on such a wide variety of topics. It is a talent indeed to have a mind that can juggle multiple concepts let alone interpret them by taking a view.

I may understand a particular issue or idea, but It’s rare that I feel inspired enough to come down on one side or the other unless it is an item of genuine special interest to me. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I am not driven either confrontationally or directorially enough to articulate feelings or subconscious beliefs.

I could never be a regular columnist, I’d shoot my bolt in the opening issue. How the likes of David Hepworth, who has fantastic powers of expression on such a wide variety of topics, manage it quite so often amazes me.

non-equal arguments. "Global warming is happening and is a reality!"- say many of the world's top scientists. "No it isn't!" - says Jeremy Clarkson, to millions of people.

a man who went to primary school with a woman who died tragically was shocked by her death because he used to sit behind her twenty years ago. He mentioned this on Facebook. The BBC reported it. Took two paragraphs.

... I find out what my opinion is by looking for it here.

As usual I can't express this very competently. Other people always seem to do a better job of it. But that's the point I am trying to make.

In the age of the blog I feel like a minnow in the Pacific. Trawling around on YouTube and so on I am frequently amazed at the ability of people to do things that I could never imagine myself doing. Communities used to be small and local, so it was not so difficult to feel capable. And if you voiced your opinion it was one of not very many. It used to be that you were a bigger fish in a smaller sea. During my school days I thought I was good at all kinds of things (sport, art, English, music appreciation) but I was only comparing myself to boys of my own age who lived in the same town. Then I went to a non-premiership university, and then work. Each stage seems to get more difficult.

The older I get the more I am reminded of the grand scale of my limitations. So yes OP, I agree.

And then you get to this point, your finger hovering over the "post comment" button, wondering if there is any point. Does it add to what has already been said? Is anybody interested in my opinion?

WholeHogg - I'll assume you are afflicted by similar insecurities to mine (and now I have insecurities making me question my right to make that assumption - flippin' 'eck!) and therefore will say this. Go on telling us your opinion. I am interested in it and others will be too.

the less I know about something the more I can have a firm opinion about it. When I know more about a subject my opinion seems to be more nuanced. I think most people are like this, aren't they? This explains why journalist always complain that "Experts" don't interview well and the ordinary punters on programs hosted by the Jeremys of our media always have strong opinions and simple solutions.

But then the great thing about opinions is you don't have to back them up with facts.

A quick look at the paper this morning and things I need to know about - because they will materially affect my life over the next few years, and more - include scotland's 'illegal' 2014 referendum, benefits reform, HS2 (I live nowhere near the line but it's a £32.7bn outlay of tax money, minimum), press regulation, American politics, the Middle East, the financial crisis (banks not lending to each other folks, whispers of autumn ,08 ahoy), the future of the Labour Party and that's before you get on to the really important stuff like the long-term viability of fulltime professional football in scotland ... Even having a meaningful view on one of those would take more than a five min browse of the Guardian. But I've finished my coffee so I'm off...

I have nothing to add.

When he said this:

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. "

is such a great idea. I mean really, one of the best.

Unfortunately it's becoming more and more apparent a lot of people are idiots and ought to be made to just - fucking - shut - up.

as far as news goes and then I can form an opinion but too much of the news is opinion and that's a fact.

But you're all talking complete bollocks.

Apart from the two or three of you who probably said things that I agree with.

You're spot on, you are. Well said. Have an "up". You'll have to self-award it, but I'm sure you know who you are.