Plugging A Hole
‘IT occurs to us that there may be a connection between the porn spam emanating from No.10 Downing Street and reports suggesting that there is a £10bn hole in the public finances.
| A typical Tunbridge Wells mother |
The Guardian says that is how much Gordon Brown is likely to exceed his budget forecasts this year and raises the prospect of higher taxes or spending cuts after the next election.
But this is New Labour and there is, as ever, a Third Way. If the Government is unwilling to spend less or bring in more by way of tax, it could always try top earn some money.
And what better way than to use it contacts round the world to run some massive international porn ring?
Who will object? Certainly, not the good burghers of Tunbridge Wells, the Kent spa town that is home of two-thirds of the countrys supply of disgust.
The Telegraph reports that, far from being the genteel capital of middle England, Tunbridge Wells is awash with babies born out of wedlock or bastards, as they used to be known.
In 2002, almost one in three babies in the town were born to unmarried parents, compared with one in five in the inner-city London borough of Tower Hamlets.
It is a pattern that, according to the Economist survey, is repeated across the country, with more conservative values apparently pertaining in London than in the shires.
The Telegraph suggests that the presence in the capital of large numbers of immigrant groups, who have more traditional views of marriage, may be partly responsible for the discrepancy.
But another reason may be that there is little to do in the countryside other than chase foxes and women.
One single mum explained her lack of a husband to the Telegraph: I divorced the sod when I found him in bed with my best mate.’
Posted: 19th, November 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
