Divorce Law Reform

The process of divorce is probably not one most people consider until they have to go through it.  Divorce law has evolved over time and is now a complete jumble.  There are five reasons that one can get a divorce - but not the one that most people would wish - 'because we both want one'.
  http://www.terry.co.uk/unreasonable_behaviour.html

One of the divorce myths is "irreconcilable differences"  - i think this applied in the USA, but not in the UK.  Divorce has moved away from finding fault  - although this is often achieved by utilising "unreasonable behaviour".  Bizarrely people are told that the reason for the divorce will 99%+ of the time have no influence on financial settlements or arrangements for any children. 

My suggestion is that divorce could be entered into like marriage by mutual consent.  One partner could fill in a form with a sworn statement that they wish to divorce and the other partner could be sent it to sign again with a  sworn statement that they wish to divorce.   As almost no divorces are contested it would allow 99%+ of divorces to start not on grounds of unreasonable behaviour or adultery, but on a neutral footing.

No-one really likes receiving a petition based on their unreasonable behaviour and a very common reaction is, "I'm not having this. I'm going to defend it and issue a petition based on your unreasonable behaviour." In most cases this would be counterproductive, increase costs, delay the whole proceedings and the end result would be the same. So why encourage it ?

Another bizarre feature of divorce is that the person petitioning controls the speed of the process.  In a  recent survey the majority of people says they used delay as a weapon in divorce. This is quite shocking.

Why is it that after a degree nisi is granted - the petition can apply for a degree absolute after 6 weeks but the respondent has to wait four and a half months !
Usually it is because of disputes over financial issues - but the delay rarely resolves the disputes - it just increases costs, stress, aggravation and drags the process out till one partner or other gives up from emotional and or  financial exhaustion.   For people coming to terms with a a break up of a relationship, often coping with being a single parent, working, struggling with legal costs or legal aid, delay is just another cross to bear.

Why no put it on a equal footing - so once the process is started - one side can't drag it out.

The Ladykillers

The Ladykillers is one of the most famous ealing comedies.  It help propell a young Peter Sellers to Stardom.

As a film, it is pretty flawless - there is black comedy, menance and fine acting, a great plot a moral tale and social observation.

Recently there has been a stage version of the Ladykillers, written by Graham Lineham, best know for co-scripting the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted.
The play as a fascinating insight into how to transfer a film to the stage.
Largely, Lineham has rewritten the film, partly because of the limitations of the stage and partly i feel, because that is what is needed for it to work well.

The play is fantastically performed and I would say that even though at the performamnce I saw, two of the main charecters were played by understudies - if one hadn't been told, you would never have known.

Professor Marcus was played to perfection by Peter Capaldi -
Ben Miller (of Armstong and Miller) asd Loius and James Fleet (Vicar of Dibley) as the Major, were obviously still having enormous fun playing the parts well into a long run.  The other members of the gang, Harry and One Round got loads of laughs - more than in the film.   Running gags were execlelntly incorporated into the performance.

Banker bonuses

Another of those couldn't have put it better myself articles.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-still-relaxed-about-the-filthy-rich-6297581.html

Psychic Powers ?

Uri Geller rose to fame as  a psychic - who could bend spoons using just the power of his mind
and his hands and fingers.  Strangely for someone using the power of his mind, he still had to touch the spoon, key, fork etc.

Presumably the power of his mind was meant to travel out of his fingers into the spoons  to bend them.
Tellingly, he could never bend things that couldn't otherwise be bend by hand, or by for example using a table or a chair to bend them against. So if he was using the power of his mind, he was bending spoons the hard way.  All of which makes me wonder how he has continued to make a living of of a rather feeble collection of conjuring tricks.

Mrs Thatcher and saving money

Files released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule include a note about the cost of refurbishing the Prime Minister’s official residence, in which Baroness Thatcher pointed out that she and her husband, Denis, used only one bedroom and already had their own crockery. She wrote: “I will pay for the ironing boards and other things, like sufficient linen for the one bedroom we use. The rest can go back into stock. MT”

So the nation saved £19 on the ironing board, and it was instead paid for by Mrs Thatcher, who was married to Millionaire Denis. The cost of the entire refurbishment is listed at less than £2000, far less than the £600,00 refit for David Cameron.

Ironically, it is the same Mrs Thatcher who authorised the purchase of Trident Nuclear Submarines - for what even in those days was a cost of £10 billion pounds.

There is a saying look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Save all the small sums and they will add up to a big sum.
In this case I think the appropriate phrase is penny wise - pound foolish.
Save the little sums but waste the big ones !

News of the World

Anyone doubting that the unethical practises at the News of the World started recently ought to take a look at the book "News of the World, Fake Sheikhs and Royal Trappings"

I picked up my copy in poundland - which is probably less than a copy of the News of the World would have been.  A tell example of most people's values.

Familiar names like Andy Coulson and Piers Morgan turn up, along with a well researched and evidenced examples of how the News of the World invented stories, told blatant lies and ruined the lives of innocent people.

The usual defence of the News of the World is that the bad is outweighed by the good -  but, actually, there are few examples of good journalism amongst the garbage that filled the pages of what was the UK most popular paper.

Many people might say they never believe what they read in the papers, it's all harmlesss fun and celebrities deserve it. However, the reality is that it is often believed, it isn';t harmless and no one deserves to have malicious lies told about them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/News-World-Sheikhs-Royal-Trappings/dp/1903070724/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326793559&sr=8-2

housing

http://www.economist.com/node/21542164