Who'da thunk it
Also while I was away, I read some absolutely astounding news about Britain that shocked me to the core. The Telegraph reported:
Figures released yesterday by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) revealed that underage pregnancies rose by four per cent to total 7,462 in 2005 - the latest year for which data is available. This leaves England and Wales with the highest birth rates for under-16s in western Europe…Professor David Paton, an economist at the Nottingham University Business School, said…’There has been a tendency for the Government's teenage pregnancy strategy to focus on creating schemes where teenagers can get the morning after pill or other forms of family planning at school or clinics.The danger with this sort of approach is that it can lead to an increase in risky sexual behaviour amongst some young people.There is now overwhelming evidence that such schemes are simply not effective in cutting teenage pregnancy rates.’The Telegraph also reported an equally unbelievable revelation:
Gordon Brown's flagship tax credit policy is penalising working families while rewarding unemployed single parents, a leading Left-wing think tank claims…The report is scathing of Mr Brown's tax credits, saying they fail low-income families by punishing them financially if both parents work.I’m glad I was sitting down when I read this.