David Cameron suggests that absent fathers of children born to unmarried mothers should face up to their responsibilities. I fear that Mr Cameron thinks that if these men are told to come forward they will, the problem with politicians is that they are not living in the real world, most of these fathers have no sense of responsibilty and would ignore such exhortations.
Mothers should be obliged by law to disclose the identity of fathers, a refusal to do so should effect their benefits, and importantly local authority accommodation should not be available, this is a significant factor that encourages pregnancies.
starrman
6 Comments
I am concerned about your next statements though. I think you are being as unrealistic as David Cameron to suggest that all women should be obliged by law to disclose the identity of the father. I realise that you suggest this as a way of ensuring fathers are held accountable, but placing all of the pressure and punitive measures on the mother is both unfair and unlikely to work. There are any number of reasons why a mother would choose not to, or be unable to identify the father of her child. Irregardless of whether these reasons are justifiable or even logical, mothers will likely feel intense pressure not to name the father to the point even of misleading authorities. Also, in extreme cases the lives of the mother or child may even be put at risk. Such a law would place even greater pressure on single mothers who already have enough to worry about. Yes, it is worth while seeking ways to make father's accountable, but it should not be at the expense of the mothers.
The suggestion that accomodation for single mothers is a significant factor in encouraging pregnancies seems to me quite absurd - I would like to see evidence supporting that claim. Assuming for the moment that this does happen, it must reflect only a small percentage of the total number of mothers seeking accomodation and to remove this much needed support from the majority of single mothers who justly deserve it is misguided in the extreme. If you are so concerned about the number of women falling pregnant just to receive adequate accomodation, I suggest you examine more closely the reasons why these women are so desperate for shelter in the first place. Imagine the situation a person must be in to make such a decision! You can then work on a solution for thoese separate issues rather than punish legitimate welfare claimants to spite a few desperate individuals.
If an interesting and intelligent conversation or debate develops within the replies to provide greater depth, then we will be able to rate the discussion itself. A discussion is likely to express a variety of opinions and therefore the ratings will be a better measure of the quality of the content.
As for JV's question, I've been wondering abut the ratings _ what effect does giving an item the powet possible rating have? Items apparently start wih a rating of 2 and a half stars; do they ever drop? I think I have seen items with several comments indicating strong interest, but which have received no or few votes. That may indicate that most people don't rate items most of the time, or it may indicate something else __ hard to say, since absence of evidence doesn't constitute a proof.
Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)