Had a letter from a constituent recently, attributing the rise in teenage pregnancies to young women's desire to get a council house and lots of benefits. I pointed out to her that the stats actually related to a rise in teenage conception rates and in fact fewer babies are being born to teenage mothers, because more of them are choosing to have terminations. Separate debate to be had of course as to why teenage conception rates are going up, and here I reiterate a point I touched on in my 'women's issues' post - it takes two to make a baby, and we'd do well to pay a bit more attention to the boys, who play a not insignificant part in the process.
In yesterday's G2 Zoe Williams wrote of her shock at discovering she was 20 weeks pregnant. She'd assumed she was having an early menopause ("I'm 35, it does happen... I read it in the Daily Mail"). I also have a friend who discovered she was pregnant for the first time at the age of 38, and no she didn't do it accidentally on purpose. ("I believed the Daily Mail! I thought I was over the hill!") Thankfully her boyfriend was far less freaked out by it than she was, and it all worked out happily ever after.
Can I suggest that just as teenage magazines warn their readers that yes, you can get pregnant the first time you have sex, the Daily Mail has a duty to warn its readers that women over the age of 35 can and do have babies? Quite often, in fact. Even the 'career women' who 'forgot to have them' earlier?
25 comments:
Let's quash another Daily Mail fallacy...
There are people, who weren't born in this country, living here...legally. And contributing positively to society.
a shock, I know.
Kerry,
You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the rich out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply the wealth by dividing it
bevanite
None of my children were born in this country.
I have however taken the liberty of educating them outside of the much loved ZNL comprehensive system ( at my own cost) to make sure that they will contribute positively to society
OH, Labour investment in education has surpassed ... actually I can't be bothered. you're right, the comprehensive education system stifles debate and creates clones which are constantly surveyed by our Big Brother state... whatever. I'll humour you. congratulations on a fantastic waste of money. Elitism can rest easy in these economic times, paranoia and fear will fund it 'till the end.
Not sure even the most expensive education money could buy would compensate for such a homelife.
Bevanite
My money.....I'll spend it as I please. I earned it by working.
Do you want to see a current Biology GCSE paper? My dog got a B. Without any revision.
My children will not live and work in the UK. Millions are leaving already. Canada, Australia and Oz, the US, France, Spain and Portugal. My kids are multi lingual, as am I.
Those that can get out are doing so. Our "replacements" are queueing at Sangatte. Best of luck to them. They're welcome to what is left.
Kerry,
Six kids. Absolute nutters, the lot of them.
I'm so proud.
(Ps, I've also taught the three chickens to dance, the dog now eats tofu and the cat wants to learn Welsh)
if they're leaving, why don't you follow?
on vous manquerait mais on se débrouillerait.
just a thought.
Bevanite
Leider (fuer Sie) bleiben wir hier. Es ist und wird fuer immer, unser Heimet sein.
I think you meant Heimat.
that is unfortunate, but no society is perfect I suppose ...
Dung co cai lon nua lu nho nay!
And that from someone with a comprehensive education under New Labour.
Shock horror!
I hope that's not rude, NL. Unless it's aimed at OH, in which case I hope it's very rude indeed.
PS Old H - how does the record £57million (and rising) raised by this year's Comic Relief fit in with your world view? It suggests, does it not, that the British people are rather nicer than you give them credit for.
I also have a spot of Japanese...however I think responding to that idiot in one language is enough for now.
How about a few northern insults then?
Aren't OH's ears too delicate for the northern insult?!
I know a lot of 'northern insults' from the times I used to sit in the stands of Oakwell (look it up) but not ones I would repeat in polite conversation
It should be
unsere
because Heimat's a feminine noun.
(I'm sure there's a topical pun in there somewhere)
Ntekwa OH okujukira chitabu change Kerry.
So I think we've established that OH's claim to be fluent in five languages is, well, a load of rubbish really. Я думал так.
Not wishing to leap to the Bas****'s defence, but I reckon any German would have understood OH perfectly well, if they are familiar with English-speakers, which through necessity businessmen are, they know grammatical gender is a tricky concept for us to pick up. He may well also speak languages better than he writes them.
The book of howlers I've made in German is bigger than a traditional family Bible*.
In any case it's galling for a member of the John Prescott Party to lecture others on language skills.
You have remained curmudgeonly quiet about that Biology GCSE. I suspect, if you have ever bothered to look through it, you would think the same as OH, although you might have expressed your disbelief in less ripe terms. Your lot have messed up UK education on an unimaginably massive scale.
*(continuing the theme of a recent comment here, I once thought I asked a woman in a motor accessories shop whether she had 'a brush suitable for cleaning a motorcycle'. As was pointed out to me later, owing to a slight Umlaut confusion, instead of 'brush' I actually said 'breasts', which retrospectively accounted for the unexpected expression on her face)
He says he's a professional translator. Obviously not a very good one.
I said what?
When?
He’s just being modest. Academics consider his Lakota Sioux renditions of Beowulf and Thomas the Tank Engine to be definitive.
I'm sure you claim to be a freelance translator with hordes of children and a wife whose ethnicity provides you with impeccable 'I'm not a racist, some of my best friends are...' credentials.
But someone else tells me you claim to 'some kind of weird consultant'. Anyway you're not very good at German, это очень чисто.
Too many lentil cocktails Kerry,
6 kids, renewable energy consultant (gotta love those polititians promises £££££) and a half german wife.
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