Summary: Neil Colbourne is back from a very sad bereavement and joins Vince to discuss the issues of the day starting with an argument in Spain over a pizza. Peter Hitchens writes in The Mail Online that ...."by the end of his or her childhood, a British boy or girl is much more likely to have a TV set in the bedroom than a father at home." He adds....."almost 50 per cent of 15-year-olds no longer live with both their parents. Although the figures are only an indication he states that that 79 per cent of children aged between five and 16 have a TV in their room. In almost all cases the absent parent is the father. There is no doubt about the facts here. He writes, "The cost of our wild, unprecedented national experiment in fatherlessness is now £49 billion each year – more than the defence budget." He gives us a figure..... costing each taxpayer £1,541 per year is rising all the time. Where does this money go? Hitchens informs us that the money partly goes on handouts and housing, which an old-fashioned family with a working father would not have needed. Partly it goes on trying to cope with crime, disorder, truancy, educational failure, physical and mental illness and general misery, which are so much more common among the fatherless than in those from stable homes. One in three marriages ends in divorce, while many who would once have married never even bother. About 300,000 families of all kinds separate every year. There are now three million children growing up in fatherless homes. What a picture of glowing hope for the future. The podcast clearly shows how life works in circles and that the fatherless society is heavily influenced by the lack of male teachers in Primary schools and the influences of pop idols. Can the G8 address these issues? No chance as Syria and Turkey are still encountering problems and we are now wondering whether David Cameron's priority is to send arms to the rebels. Maybe his problems are closer to home?
