We dealt with the big questions today, from how to cover Trump to where to keep your ketchup. Catch up on the discussion in the comments now
4.23pm GMT
Thanks for getting involved today. Among other things you’ve helped us settle the ketchup in the fridge debate (or at least prove it’ll never be settled) and provided a three point plan for covering Donald Trump. Oh yes, and Jeremy Paxman seemed to lead your suggestions for the next Blind Date presenter – not one we’d thought of before, but perhaps it’s worth asking him?
We’ll be back soon with another opportunity to discuss the week’s news and views, and to suggest the topics you’d like us to cover more closely – however serious they may be. In the meantime, you can continue to talk in the comments or email me on matthew.holmes@theguardian.com or Sarah via sarah.marsh@theguardian.com with any feedback, we look forward to hearing from you!
4.12pm GMT
I wrote about how spending times in the mountains of Slovakia helped me reset my sleep and cured insomnia this week.
Related: Can’t sleep? Get out into nature and swap your smartphone for a tent | Sarah Marsh
4.04pm GMT
A couple of points on some of the things we’ve been talking about that might traditionally be aimed at our audience in the US, next – but, this first reader is right ... we are a global news organisation now. I’m still not going to use a “z” there though ...
Personally I'm a bit fed up with Trump hogging the headlines. He makes me angry, and there's nothing I can do about it, so I'd rather not have to read about him. I appreciate that The Guardian is now a global news organisation and has an obligation to American readers, but I'd be grateful if you could reduce his exposure on the UK version of the site. I'd prefer to see UK stories headlining the site, with American news placed in a section of World News further down the page.
Thanks :)
Reading that American football bit made me understand how my partner feels when me and my son are talking about the away goals rule.
3.40pm GMT
Sunday’s Super Bowl was a thriller, as the Atlanta Falcons pulled off one of the biggest chokes in sport history and the Belichick-Brady machine ruthlessly exploited every weakness to pick up the Patriots’ fifth title since 2001.
3.30pm GMT
Things are getting more serious in our below the line conversation, but you can still vote in our poll from earlier – so far decidedly divisive. Where do you keep your ketchup?
I really like that ketchup poll dial thingy.
Especially the wee ~boing~ when it settles and displays the results.
Bizarrely satisfying.
depends if you want it cold
3.12pm GMT
This reader sets out a three point plan for reporting on the president. What do you think?
My scenario to defeat Trump in the world of popular opinion:
1. Keep pointing out the lies. Devote whole news programs just debunking his lies if you have to, and you'd probably have to. Between Trump, Kellyanne and Spicer, the half-truths and lies are non-stop. They don't care, and I really don't think the news can keep up. But it's crucial to keep correcting the lies and not normalizing them.
3.02pm GMT
A couple of views from readers on reporting Trump after Martin Belam talked about covering the US president.
Trump? I suggest you use him as an opportunity to take a step back from your current path of encouraging strong UK-US relations and focus more on domestic issues and our nearby neighbours in Europe. The US, while I have no problem with the majority of the Americans I've had the pleasure to meet and work with over the years, has a horribly toxic form of politics which I am convinced is the root cause of the sad collapse of our more European-style post-war consensus as well as leading us into several catastrophic international encounters which have served neither us nor the countries we've attempted to 'help'.
So just ignore him and his ridiculous statements. Our nation's interests would be much better served keeping mr. Trump at arms' length.
Don't go over the top with Trump reporting. Play neutral.
The man is a complete idiot and will dig his own hole quick enough. Throwing spades at him will damage you more than him as people will feel sympathetic.
2.34pm GMT
I wrote a piece earlier this week looking at the dilemma that Donald Trump’s White House poses for journalists. When he issued his much derided list of under-reported terror attacks, journalists around the world, including my colleague Claire Phipps, scrambled to factcheck it.
But does that mean we are just being pushed into playing his game, on his terms?
The BBC trolling @realDonaldTrump - absolutely brilliant pic.twitter.com/dRBJz0DAEv
2.20pm GMT
A couple of you have been talking about what you’d like us to talk about up here – as well as down in the comments. Here’s a couple of starters – anything else you would be interested in discussing?
Fashion, Theresa, Ivanka and controversy?
With Trump in the Whitehouse, Brexit, Wales v England tomorrow and we're discussing Blind Date and ketchup?
It's quite fun isn't it.
2.11pm GMT
Speaking of dating – as we were earlier – here’s Pete Cashmore on an new app he’s been trying
I’ve now been an eligible bachelor on Hater, the new dating app that matches singletons according to what they dislike, for 60 hours. Disappointingly, despite being a bottomless goldmine of petty dislikes, I’m still single.
Related: Can you really find love with someone who hates Putin and 'bae' as much as you do?
1.40pm GMT
We’ll put our top reporters on this one
Where did Cilla keep her ketchup?
1.13pm GMT
Whether its for top class political debate making sense of the news or topical issues that are at the hearts of our lives, thousands of you come to the comments every day ... And on Wednesday this week, it was certainly a conversation with gravitas that caught our eye.
Related: The great fridge debate: first eggs – and now ketchup
This is the perfect opportunity for the Guardian to do it's own poll.
well if 53% want it in the fridge that means everyone has to. No debates. Even the 47%ers must realise that the 53% won so they should shut up and get on with using the fridge
1.00pm GMT
Just a last handful of your suggestions for the new Blind Date host before we move the conversation above the line here on a little ...
Kathy Burke. No question about it.
Who should host the new Blind Date? Paxman, obv.
"Are you seriously suggesting that this young lady should choose you to take on a date based on some sort of puerile double-entendre answer to a question about what sort of ice cream flavour you would be, and why? Is this what you think the viewing public deserves?”
Jeremy Paxman should do it in exactly the same delightful manner he used when they started making him do the weather.
Sheridan Smith
Dear ITV,
I'll even sit through the ads if you let Jerry Sadowitz do it.
In the days before iPlayer et al., it seemed to me that there seemed an element of irony in a show that is about finding a date while sat in front of the TV on a Saturday night.
12.45pm GMT
Picture editor Joanna Ruck takes us through some of the most memorable images her and colleagues have seen this week.
The standout photo this week has to be the one of Barack Obama on holiday in the Caribbean. Looking healthy and somehow still smiling despite all that’s going on.
12.32pm GMT
A couple more of your suggestions after Harriet Gibsone asked who you would like to see host the returning Blind Date.
There have been a few votes for comedians in character...
Alan Partridge.
You know you want to see it.
Clearly, Blind Date should be hosted by Cilla Black.
As portrayed by Leigh Francis in a rubber mask.
yeah, or Paul O'Grady., to keep the Scouse edge.
12.21pm GMT
Who would you like to see on Blind Date? Here are some of your suggestions so far ...
THERE IS ONLY ONE CHOICE: the great Miriam Margoyles to host Blind Date. Incidentally, the revamped version which Grundy's did in Australia made the contestants sign a waver that stated that if they caught a venerial disease as a result of the encounter, the production company could take no legal responsabliity
David Brent
Richard Osman. Love his quick, dry wit.
A LORRA LORRA BLINDA DATA LULLY CUPPLE
12.08pm GMT
31 May, 2003: the day terrestrial television bid a fond ta-ra to Blind Date – the one stop shop for love and a lorra lorra laughs. At the height of its popularity in the 1980s, 18.2 million tuned in on a Saturday night to watch as a selection of lonesome singletons with enormous perms wrestled with food-based innuendo.
This week it was announced that the show is making a comeback. It returns in a very different cultural climate, however. Perhaps the end of Blind Date marked the end of innocence itself. It existed before one could hook up with the nearest ankle fetishist within a 10cm radius within the click of a button. Before you could flick on the TV and see a row of brazen penises on display (Naked Attraction, not The Grand Tour).
12.03pm GMT
Welcome to our weekly social, where we discuss the week’s news and comment with our readers. We’ve got lots of great things lined up today (including some comments on the return of Blind Date. Very exciting). Share the topics you want to discuss now below the line. Look forward to chatting, thanks all and great to be back.
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