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Taxpayers can afford est £10m funeral for Thatcher

published by TPOS on 10 April, 2013 - 15:05

British taxpayers can well “afford” to contribute to the estimated £10 million cost of Baroness Thatcher's funeral, the Foreign Secretary William Hague said this morning, as MPs and peers gathered to debate her legacy.

Both Houses of Parliament will meet this afternoon in special session to allow tributes to be paid to the former prime minister.

MPs that were abroad at the time of her death and wanted to attend will be able to claim up to £3,750 to reimburse the cost of flying back.

But Mr Hague, who was backed by Baroness Thatcher when he ran successfully for the party leadership in 1997, said the cost of funeral arrangements and other associated expenses were entirely appropriate considering what the former prime minister had contributed to Britain.

"British children facing bleaker future under coalition"

published by TPOS on 10 April, 2013 - 00:52

Children and young people in the UK are facing a bleaker future under the coalition government than they did under Labour, according tochildren's charity Unicef.

In what amounts to a direct challenge to the government's austerity agenda and widespread tightening of access to benefits, Unicef ranks the UK 16th out of 29 developed countries for overall wellbeing – and warns that teenagers' prospects trail behind their counterparts in many European countries, including Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

Continuing high rates of teenage pregnancy, relatively low levels of young people in education, employment or training and problems of alcohol abuse in young teens push the UK down the international league table.

BBC Panorama to expose Failings of British Shariah Councils

published by You on 7 April, 2013 - 17:48

Are Sharia councils failing vulnerable women?

BBC Panorama has uncovered fresh evidence of how some Sharia councils in Britain may be putting Muslim women "at risk" by pressuring them to stay in abusive marriages.

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In Leeds I met Sonia, a woman who suffered extreme violence from her husband, who punched and kicked her and threw her down the stairs. He also hit their son. When Sonia got a civil divorce, the courts would allow him only indirect access to the children.

Sharia courts are not allowed to interfere in child access matters, but when Sonia went to Leyton Islamic Sharia Council for a Sharia divorce, they told her she would have to give the children up to her husband.

I married young

published by TPOS on 3 April, 2013 - 22:30

These days, young married couples are an anomaly. In pop culture, they usually get married at a surprise wedding: Think Andy and April inParks and Recreation or Jessa and Thomas-John(who’s not really young) in Girls. Before the bouquet toss, viewers were counting down to the divorce episode, probably because celebrities have taught us that it won’t last. Britney Spears’ first marriage was annulled within hours, and she racked up a second divorce before age 26. At age 22, Jessica Simpson scored a reality television show about her marriage to Nick Lachey: The couple divorced three seasons (er, years) later. Is it any wonder the world scoffed at Miley Cyrus’ plan for three weddings?

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