Chip

Gay and lesbian couples in England and Wales are to be given the chance to get similar legal rights to married couples under a new Civil Partnership Bill. Under the new plans same-sex couples, who register their partnership at a civil ceremony, will have a range of property entitlements, and also parental responsibility for children.

But what about heterosexual "normal" couples that will have no inheritance, pension rights etc. Whats with the parental responsibility bit as well?

And then there the question of what happens when two brothers or sisters are living together. They,ll get no pension rights either.

This country has really gone **** up these last few years. Seems so long as your an ethnic, gay or other minority group then the Gov is on your side. If your married , working ,trying to live a decent honest lifestyle then your penalised for it.

Chip.

angrynorth

If only I was a one-legged, female, asian, rich, southern, lesbian

Chip

Why Southern then?

Chip.

Dracoro

Chip, do you have a problem with gay people having these rights OR that heterosexual couples don't have the right?

Nothing is being taken away from anyone.

In addition, I think that there should ALSO be similar civil rights for other non-married couples but there has to be some form of recognition of commitment. Whether they are gay, straight, or brothers/sisters etc. is of no relevance.

I hope you're not trying to say that that being a gay or ethnic means you are NOT living a decent honest lifestyle? The only difference is that married couples have rights that non married couples don't. Hardly being 'penalised' now is it?

angrynorth

People in the south have benefits over the largely ignored north.

Maybe I should have re-addressed it to London particularly. This country concentrates too much on London and forgets about everywhere else.

PS this is not where my username came from

Butkus

Was going to reply with my thoughts, but then I read Dracoro's post and it's exactly what I was going to write so I won't bother now

Nigel Hawthorne's partner was on TV this morning explaining how he'd had to pay a load of inheritance tax after N.H.'s death (they had insured for it though, or something like that). To me this seems incredibly unfair - they were essentially married.

Chip

No I,m not saying that homosexual people live a dishonest lifestyle.Far from it in fact. I do wonder though ,why the Gov has pandered to just a small group of people rather than to address the problem as a wholewhich is what it should have done.

I do however totally disagree with homosexuals having adoption rights. Children should be raised by a mother and a father as has happened for many 1000s of years. To allow them to be raised by same sex couples is not and hopefully never will be a natural thing to do.

Chip.

nsld

As someone who lives in the south and sees a large chunk of his council tax diverted up north for no other reason than to pander to labour councils I would say you are not ignored. In fact regional assistance development grants and the like are huge for you guys, we just get to pay for them!

P1Fanatic

On the dole you mean, they get far more benefits.

Simon.

angrynorth

NSLD :

Council Tax prices for my council. Figure on top is ours, figure below is national average. You cannot say that you pay for everything up here. The village where I live has 5 police officers yet I pay almost £100 above national average. Oh we don't have a fire station here either. Just the bins once a week.

Band A
£814.96
£742.83

Band B
£950.79
£866.63

Band C
£1,086.61
£990.44

Band D
£1,222.44
£1,114.24

Band E
£1,494.09
£1,361.85

Band F
£1,765.75
£1,609.46

Band G
£2,037.40
£1,857.07

Band H
£2,444.88
£2,228.48

Markus

umm, I know I've been out of the UK for a while, but that's still incest which is illegal (guess you were just joking and making a point though?)