The Rightward Swing of the US

[Sola]

But they are!

My cousin is going to be made homeless soon because her mother has to go into an almshouse. She is single and works on a shop floor. Her own family have actually suggested going out and getting pregnant as a means of getting a house. It's not great, we'd rather she didn't have to do it, but it's better than seeing her on the streets. As a single woman with a full-time job she is otherwise in low priority for housing and it's so high priced in this country she will otherwise be in a hostel of some sort.

The root problem here is actually house prices. Most of the people I know who admit to doing 'baby-for-benefits' are the eldest of a big brood and mum has simply run out of space in her house to keep them. At this point, they are only really qualified to do minimum-wage work, so they are never going to be able to afford to rent a flat of their own even in a terrible area. It's have a baby or go into a hostel. Ironically, many of these girls (in my experience), once they have a house and benefits keeping them, actually get some ambition and go on to train in a decent profession like nursing - university education is pretty affordable here.

If she does that it is highly unlikely she will get a council house. Most councils now are putting single mothers way down on their lists. All to do with the pearl clutching and moaning from the Daily Fail and their ilk. If she is lucky, and has a social worker on her side (and that in itself wont be easy because SS are so overstretched that only the most serious cases get a social worker) she might get a council bedsit or maybe a one bedroom flat in a shitty area. Having a baby no longer gets you to queue jump. Most councils now contract single mothers to private landlords.

Things have changed a lot over the last few years.

[Sola]

Bumping this one because of something in the news here today.

Around 100 Conservative back benchers are planning on voting against the legalisation of gay marriage in the UK.

Now we already have civil partnerships, but a same sex couple cannot actually marry as yet.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 90679.html