Thursday was A levels results day - and I am sure that many students received both good and bad information. Just a thought, but which ever way it turned out, you have more than enough time on your side to make what may seem a life ending drama to have a very successful life: just get focused!
On Friday, a friend who I played bestman for in his second marriage a few years ago rang to confirm his son had passed his A levels, and was off to University. I congratulated him, but said: "Wow - but with three at University, that will be expensive!" He contradicted me, and said that as he was divorced from their mother and his wife remarried, the three children get all tuition fee's paid, a full grant plus a full loan - so that's around £120/week per child, less £70/week for accommodation, leaving £50 for books, food and transport.
Peter is my personal role model for a father. His wife left him while the family was in Singapore and about to move to Saudi Arabia. Peter told the children to go home with Mum or her parents, but as Mum didn't want anything to do with them for the next four years they decided they liked to stay with Dad, which they did with him as sole parent for seven years. Mum then came back into their lives, and they all effectively now live with Mum, who is remarried.
Peter is the most caring parent I know of - and he earns over £100k pa, and his wife is married to a millionaire. And yet, as the children are domiciled with Mum (hence Peter's income is dismissed in assessment), and she is a lady of leisure with no "income," Buckinghamshire council pick up the tuition fee's for three children.
I was watching BBC News 24, and they featured a story of a married couple with four children who all wanted to go to University. The couple estimated that the cost of putting each child through University was £20,000 per child - they had hence concluded to take out another mortgage, which would be paid back when they were both 70!!!
I say - HMRC says: get divorced! And its not just saying it, its encouraging it
What does this say about the modern morals of 21st century Britain? At one point, the family was the centre of our community. Now, if even the government penalise you for being married, is it any wonder society is breaking down so quickly?
NB: I'm not saying divorce is bad - or that many of the modern changes in our society are bad for it: the persecution of the LGBT community was as daft as the Victorian models of a woman's duty. I am just astonished that even couples who lived together are also persectuted under the same rules - surely we should be encouraging long term coupling, not discouraging it?
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