Nollaig chridheil huibh

Seasons Greetings to everyone. And a special thought for those of you apart from your children at this time of year.

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"Hallelujah"

Marilyn Stowe has just written a post inspired by the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" and I can't resist posting a video of the version sung here by Rufus Wainright.



PS Why are lawyers like ogres?

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News Roundup 3

The Ministry of Justice announced the opening up of family courts in England & Wales to greater scrutiny in this press release yesterday. Jack Straw's announcement is available here and a statement from Sir Mark Potter, President of the family Division is here.


The BBC reports the sad case of Sean Denton who died last year aged 18 months. Apparently both Sean's parents had been previously convicted of manslaughter and two months after his birth Sean was taken off the at risk register as his parents were showing no reasons for concern. Sean's father committed suicide and shortly afterwards his mother killed Sean and then committed suicide believing the that the family would be reunited after death.


The defeat by the European Parliament of Britain's opt out from the EU's 48-hour working week was reported by The Times today. I think this is good news for children as according to the Fatherhood Institute UK fathers work the longest hours in the EU.

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Do Wives Lose Out?

In his final article considering what are in his opinion three systematic failings in the way pension issues are settled in most divorces that causes a wife (or rather 'the person with the smaller final salary pension') to lose out Nigel Bradshaw of the Ancillary Actuary looks at the affects of wives opting for a credit under a pension sharing order.

Sharing the CETV 50/50 does not necessarily give 50/50 actual value to both parties, and definitely not 50/50 income. Pension schemes give higher benefits to the original pension member than the ex spouse recipient of a pension credit receives. As I said in an earlier post Problems With Sharing Pensions on Divorce during July one thing which would help is requiring pension schemes to provide information so divorcing couples could at least make informed decisions.

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Congratulations, Chris ....

.... family and Sarah. It couldn't have happened to a nicer man.

Photo BBC

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