Leatherhead Matters

Recent Government announcements suggest they are gerrymandering* votes for the next election at the expense of “Equality, Justice & Fairness”, the traditional values of the the Labour Party.

* (Wikipedia: Gerrymandering may be used to advantage or disadvantage particular constituents, such as members of a racial, linguistic, religious or class group, often in the favour of ruling incumbents or a specific political party.

New guidelines on income support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state:

“Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate … The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65.” Under the deal agreed by ministers, a husband with multiple wives may also be eligible for additional housing benefit and council tax benefit to reflect the larger property needed for his family.

Why has the Government introduced this change in income support administration when it so obviously fails a British “fairness test” and is wide open to all sorts of abuse:

1. Polygamy is illegal in the UK and yet the Government has ignored the practice in the wave of new immigrants over the last decade. Supporting polygamy runs totally against the grain of New Labour’s “Agenda for Women”
2. The new benefit policy is clearly divisive and counter to “Community Cohesion”.
3. It is also wide open to abuse & fraud. The main beneficiaries will be Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. The Government estimates that up to a thousand polygamous marriages exist in Britain, although they admit there is no exact record. (it is worth noting that in many Muslim countries there is no legally certified documentation of polygamous marriages so, the Government are opening the benefit system to fraud & abuse)
4. Income support for all of the wives will be paid directly into the husband’s bank account. In Muslim families the male is always the established head of the household. There is a history of the head of Muslim households also determining the voting preference for all eligible family members
5. The provision of income support for additional wives will inevitably incentivise some Muslim husbands to add additional wives.
6. Marriage is largely governed by Sharia Law in Muslim countries  and communities. Under British law it is possible for a Muslim to legally divorce a current wife but continue a “married” relationship with her under Sharia Law. This makes the administration of income support in polygamous families extremely difficult.

It can only be a cynical  attempt to buy Muslim votes at the next election!

10 second IQ Test posted with vodpod

Are you a genius or just dumb?  It literally takes 10 seconds to find out so, what the heck have a go but, don’t take the feedback too seriously!

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian mystic, who influenced some of the Beatles songs in their “flower power” era, died yesterday aged 91. The Beatles made several pilgrimages, during the 1960’s, to his retreat in the Himalayan foothills.

George Harrison was a devotee of the Maharishi but, John, Paul & Ringo’s interest faded over time. John in particular is reputed to have had a cynical view of the Maharishi’s activities and wrote a song about him. You may not remember it because John changed the lyrics & title of the song from Maharishi to Sexie Sadie, to avoid litigation.

Sing along with the John Lennon in the video and replace Sexie Sadie with Maha Rishi and you’ll get some idea of what John’s views were!

Scientists believe they have made a potential breakthrough in the treatment of serious disease by creating a human embryo with three separate parents. The Newcastle University team believe the technique could help to eradicate a whole class of hereditary diseases, including some forms of epilepsy.The embryos have been created using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests. Read more HERE.

Combine these developments with recent progress in developing embryos which contain both human & animal material and the Government will soon need to change their birth registration procedures & forms. I’ve suggested a possible template below:

Application for a birth certificate 

* All fields with a red star are required

In which country was the certificate registered?

Please select

Particulars of the person whose certificate is required:

Surname at birth *                                    

Forename(s) *                                 

Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy) *       

Place of birth  *                              

Father’s name  *                              

Mother 1 name  *                           

Mother 2 name  (if applicable) *  

If animal DNA used:  *

  Specify type (eg pig, cow etc)    

  Pedigree Number                         

  Given Name (eg porky, daisy)    

____________________________________________________

Specify number of certificates required: 

____________________________________

The Government Quango “The Energy Saving Trust” doesn’t like patio heaters and is peddling the following propaganda on their web site:

The cost of heating the outdoors

The patio heater is no ordinary household appliance. It uses on average the same amount of energy as a gas hob gets through in six months, emitting around 50kg of CO₂ per year. FACT: the CO₂ emitted by 2.3million patio heaters is as much as would be emitted by driving from Lands End to John O’ Groats 200,000 times.

Patio heaters are an obviously wasteful appliance in that their job is essentially to heat the open air. Our research shows that they only really get used in July and August, usually the two hottest months of the year. And they waste shocking amounts of energy doing something that could just as easily be achieved by a rather simpler, completely free and totally carbon-neutral alternative: putting a jumper on!

Let’s ignore the change of argument, half way through their diatribe (from high CO2 emission to shockingly wasteful appliances), & focus on their CO2 emission point

Most patio heaters are sized to emit 12 KW of heat per hour. The fuel is usually bottled LPG (propane) which means that, for every hour the heater is in use, it emits 2.6Kg of CO2

When driving you car, using up a litre of petrol emits 2.5Kg of CO2. Assuming you have a car which gives the current national average 32 mpg, you can travel for 7.1 miles on a litre of petrol.

So expressed a different way, cosying up to your patio heater for an hour one summer’s night emits about the same amount of CO2 as driving your car for 7 miles (which might take 15 minutes). Although I have used the same data as The Energy Saving Trust (EST),I’ve synthesised the data to a personal level whereas, the the EST have obfuscated the analysis through the distraction of large numbers. I can’t do anything about the choices of the other 2,299,999 patio heater owners nor do I have any wish to drive to John O’ Groats 200,00 times.

But, the real issue is that there is no way of making a choice between using the patio heater for an hour vs driving for 7 miles since, both have some element of discretionary use. Government lecturing on how we should spend our cash is just…..hot air. If the EST was serious, they would be lobbying for patio heaters to be banned or, for a significant tax levy on LPG bottles. They know this is not politically palatable so….they generate hot air.