If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor.

There is little in life that cannot be solved with a bucketful of spiders

I See that the tories are having an off message day...

10th-Jul-2007 09:30 am

... Cameron claims that they want to "reclaim the centre ground" from Labour constantly, yet IDS has formulated a FABULOUS policy whereby you get tax breaks for having children, but only if you are married. This echoes the proposal a few months ago to give relationship lessons to couples to "stabilise the institution of marriage", and I seem to remember commenting then that the message this type of policy sends is a nasty one, but I think that the comments it is bringing on the BBC website illustrate the point far better than I could:

It is good that the Tories are sending out correct messages about marriage and families.

As a single person who is subsidising everyone else through the tax system, I would rather my taxes subsidise a married couple rather than unmarried couples and single parents. Council Tax should be significantly increased for unmarried couples and single parents as well.

This person wants unmarried couples and single mothers to be punished simply because they haven't made the choice to waste thousands of pounds on a piece of paper (and in the case of the single mother, several MORE thousand on getting divorced again)... Of course, it would take many many years at £20 a week to recoup the cost of even the most modest wedding, so...

I'm not going to DO the whole relationship breakdown is a symptom of the changes in society, not a cause of them rant again, but I do wish that the Tories would start harking back to the past as some sort of golden age... Marriages didn't stay together longer in the past because People Were Better And Knew How To Stay Committed. They stayed together because it was quite legal for a husband to beat and rape his wife, and because women who left such men were made to suffer by society in general for being inconstant hussies. I know, because my mother was one of them.

And this having changed is BAD?

I don't mind people making the choice to get married, I really don't. That's up to them. But for anyone to say that getting married is RIGHT and other choices are WRONG? What about civil unions? It's the only option open to gay couples. But, of course, they are making a "wrong lifestyle choice" by being gay, aren't they? Silly me. Heterosexual monogamy is the ONLY acceptable norm, and it must be enforced. Everyone else MUST BE MADE TO SUFFER!

ETA: anyone who wants to cheer me up by buying me tickets to see HiM would be much appreciated... O;-)

Tags:rants, tory fuckwits
I am feeling::irate

Comments

10th-Jul-2007 09:13 am (UTC)

shishmish

They should really take a chance to meet the people they are discriminating against, as it's obvious they have no bloody clue about them. From what I've read on here you are a wonderful mother to Shrubby and she doesn't seem to be missing out on the male role model that they think we all need. Gay people of either sex shouldn't be made to feel they are wrong; they aren't and all of the ones I have met are amazing and knid people. All they want is to be able to love someone and that someone is of the same sex - can't we be happy that they're happy as long as it doesn't actually hurt anyone (bar the people saying its against their religion - kindly show me where it states in the Bible that God is against gays!).

If hetrosexual monogamy was the norm, how is it that we have gay couple, single parents and hetrosexual couple who refuse to get married? Some needs to realise the world is a more complicated place.

/rant

10th-Jul-2007 09:18 am (UTC)

snapesbabe

But, you're WRONG and they can prove it with SKIENCE! Children from unmarried homes are more likely to be criminals! Of course, it doesn't occur to them that correlation =/= causation. Perhaps it's not that broken homes cause criminals, but that criminals are more likely to have broken homes?

Silly tories.

10th-Jul-2007 09:33 am (UTC)

shishmish

Well unless you fuck up in the next couple of years, I don't see Shrubby going down that route at all. And if she does I'm sure her mother will put things straight ;)

It's the minority thing again; they don't care about the ones who this doesn't happen too as long as they have big numbers to scare the public with.

10th-Jul-2007 09:16 am (UTC)

innerbrat

But everyone knows marriage and children are inseparable! That's why they should institute a law that annuls all marriages that don't produce naturally conceived children within five years.

10th-Jul-2007 11:28 am (UTC)

matgb

I've heard that idea before, sounds like a plan.

Bloody stupid marriage=the only way to live attitudes, absolutely daft. Fortunately it's an IDS investigation, and it's already been dismissed by some senior Tories, and it'd never get through the House.

Silly people, trying to placate their core base when they don't need to.

10th-Jul-2007 09:33 am (UTC)

blazingskies

Oh FFS...

My cup of RAGE doth brimmeth over.

It's the blinkered rose-tinted view of the 'Glorious Past' that makes me sick, as well as the smug self-rightous sentiment that getting married and popping out sprogs is somehow the pinnicle of someone's (a womans?) achievement.

Goood luck to those who are married, and well done to those who are rasing future generations - you are a better, more pantient and selfless a person than me...but I fail to see why someone should be punished by the tax code if they wish to do one and not the other.

Bah.

10th-Jul-2007 10:41 am (UTC)

staceyuk

It's the blinkered rose-tinted view of the 'Glorious Past' that makes me sick, as well as the smug self-rightous sentiment that getting married and popping out sprogs is somehow the pinnicle of someone's (a womans?) achievement.

Goood luck to those who are married, and well done to those who are rasing future generations - you are a better, more pantient and selfless a person than me...but I fail to see why someone should be punished by the tax code if they wish to do one and not the other.

Same here.

10th-Jul-2007 11:48 am (UTC)

mle292

The Tories are examining schemes currently operating in the United States and Australia, such as “relationship centres” designed to encourage marriage and then help couples stay together once they have children.

So, what's the *divorce* rate like? I would have thought by now that it's pretty well known that compulsory marriage doesn't work at encouraging happy families. That's why divorce is highest among the most zealous of marriage advocators and lowest among those who feel that marriage is optional.

If the problem is REALLY that there seems to be a correlation between unhappy home life and criminal activity, how about not referring to children from homes that include other than heterosexual-married parents as from "broken" homes.

How does one "fix" a "broken" home anyway? Get remarried? Aren't most divorces a last resort to actually FIX a messed up relationship that is making no one happy?

Treating a parent or a child as if there's always something unfixed about them will probably cause that person to eventually believe that there's a fundamental flaw.

Grrrr...

10th-Jul-2007 11:06 pm (UTC)

fracindy

how about not referring to children from homes that include other than heterosexual-married parents as from "broken" homes.

Thank you.

*applauds*

10th-Jul-2007 12:07 pm (UTC)

misscoollinda

When the conservatives talk about the "sanctity of marriage" I always say "what about Michael Jackson? He's been married and divorced twice and he's a freak" There's no sanctity of marriage there. Plus, I know plenty of married people who shouldn't have kids, and plenty of singles who are excellent at raising kids (including you!)

10th-Jul-2007 12:08 pm (UTC)

muffin_nuffin

HIM were supporting Metallica when I went to see them on Sunday...

10th-Jul-2007 01:44 pm (UTC)

jw_77

I would slightly disagree with the commnet 'You get tax breaks for having children but if only you are married' as it is not quite how I read the bullet points provided by the BBC website - caring for children is one example the BBC cites, the transferable allowance between married couples and those in civil partnerships could be equally used in other circumstances such as taking time off to care for a relative. £20 is not a lot but it would I daresay be a help to some couples earning below the national average when the 10p tax rate is abolished and everything they earn over the basic allowance is taxed at the basic rate.

The increase in child benefit proposed would be paid to the mother now regardless of their marital status.

Of course my comments are based only on what I have read in summary in various news outlets, the full report in its six volumes can be found at -

http://povertydebate.typepad.com/home/2007/07/new-report-from.html#comments

From what is reported my initial feeling is that it is going to cost a lot, surely it would be quicker just to raise the tax allowances substantially nad leave it up to individuals and that its attitude to alcohol, drugs and gambling are rather nannying.

10th-Jul-2007 02:04 pm (UTC)

sylo_tode

That should read:
"Heterosexual married monogamy is the ONLY acceptable norm for women"

Are they going after the guys that get the girls pregnant and then abandon them? Why aren't they being held accountable?

To add to

misscoollinda's comment: so many of the "paragons of virtue" that are first to scream "Family Values!" have been married more than once. Newt Gingrich even wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while his wife was in the hospital recovering from surgery!!!! Not just hypocrisy, but despicable hypocrisy!

[refrains from continued preaching to the choir]

10th-Jul-2007 06:20 pm (UTC)

padawanpooh

Ah...but we have to remember that sex before marriage is WRONG! And the girls who do it are slutty! Also once you use a tampon you aren't a virgin any more, and if a female is interested in sex she is dirty and of COURSE marriage is purely for having children and if you don't produce children within a marriage you are selfish and if you produce children outside of a marriage you are selfish...

*headdesk*

All things I have been told over the years.

*despairs at world*

10th-Jul-2007 07:42 pm (UTC)

snapesbabe

I read somewhere today (can't remember where) that some girls are proudly having anal sex to preserve their virginity...

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