Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, Muslim men who have married more than 1 women can now, as long as the marriages took place in a legal Muslim ceremony IE not in the UK, claim all available benefit entitlements for all their wives. This was not announced by this government due to a possible backlash.
I wonder how long it will be before a Muslim takes this government to a court claiming that to restrict them to only take 1 wife in this country contravenes their human rights.
No wonder more and more of us are feeling like second class citizens in our own country.
I suppose we can at least be grateful that Derek Conway is not a Muslim.

My first thought is to wonder about the truth of the report, or whether it is trying to stir up a backlash against the Muslim community. Much like this particular newspaper does about silly Euro rules.
My second thought was to wonder about the reasons for it if it were true.
When I read something like this, or the report about phrases the police should not use when interogating Muslim suspects in case they are offended, I wonder if there is some kind of hidden agenda going on to ensure all the rest of our population is turned against the Muslims.
Surely no-one could possibly consider this right and appropriate, and in a country where polygamy is an offence, the benefit / tax system cannot be seen to support it. So what is the real reason this is leaked, if indeed it is true and not the brainchild of a bored journalist?

Morning,

Like you I tend to take such articles with a pinch of salt, but dates figures were given which lead me to beleive the details. Also little suprises me any more.

To read the article see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GZMONCR3P2BIBQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2008/02/03/nbenefit103.xml

'The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law.'

So, now we're adopting Muslim law? Going back to the previous subject of badly behaved 'yoof', how would Muslim law deal with them? I can imagine in a more radical way than we do if that below is anything to go by, so maybe we should bring in a few other 'Muslim laws'.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1371270.php/Saudi_Arabia_chops_off_hand_of_Egyptian_for_theft

Thanks for that, Greek.
One part of me hopes this ridiculous ruling becomes common knowledge so that the architects may be hung from a lamp-post a la Mussolinni, but another part of me hopes it remains very quiet, lest Dewsbury becomes a town of 4 women to every man.
You are a Yorkshireman, you'll know what I mean about Dewsbury.

Ah, but I was born in Nottingham and lived there until I was 29. Nottingham was always known for a city with a far higher ratio of females to males. No one every found out why. Mind you Yorkshire sheep are far more attractive than those found in Nottinghamshire. They are faster too, or could it be that age has slowed me down a bit. Fast women, fast sheep, they both have their own unique problems.

Women Are Like Sheep.

If youve ever had the not-at-all-pleasant pleasure of herding sheep, youll know why its such an evocative metaphor. Sheep are about the dumbest animals on the planet and would wander straight into a coyotes mouth if they arent herded. However, once you set them on the proper course, they generally follow itrebel sheep who dont go with the herd are pretty rare. Its becoming clear to me that the Biblical metaphor that mens relationship to women is the like gods relationship to his people, and gods relationship to people is like the sheepherder to the sheep is the primary metaphor that explains how conservatives square away all this restrictive reproductive rights legislation with their bullshit about smaller government. The government has no business interferring with the world of men, the world of business, etc. But certainly theres no reason to think the government shouldnt be pointing women, who are sheep after all, in the right direction.

Digging a big hole now.

If Muslim men can live in the UK with more than one wife ,can i ???? and if not ,why not ??.

I asked that and was told I was too ugly to find more than one woman.

Jimmy B,

Yes, no problem. Just change your religion to Muslim/Islam go to a Muslim country and marry several women. Although the rules have changed somewhat it appears that there are still several loop holes allowing this.

"Islamic law permits men to have up to 4 wives at any one time - known as a harem - provided the husband spends equal amounts of time and money on each of them" ................ so, I would get whatever allowance I could get my hands on for the first, then 33.65 each for the extra 3; I would only have to stay with each of them for 1 minute a day and spend 50p on each, then I would be able to spend the rest of the day in the pub with Trev and have 99.45 left to buy a few rounds in. Fantastic, bring it on!

mmm,, money i forgot about that one.

As a kid I always dreamed that when I grew up, I would work in a harem. What a great job (I thought) look at all the freebies that you could possibly get away with. Chief tester for the harem owner, best job in the world. Then I found out what the application medical was like. It puts the old medical saying, 'Cough' into perspective.

50p on each. Bloody hell no wonder your so popular with women.

My generosity knows no bounds Greek!

Bounds makes me think of bondage. Ok won't go there.

How does that tie up with this silly law, greek??

What galls me about all this is that if I were to set up a pressure group to press for these kinds of laws and rules allowing muslim men to follow their religious traditions in this country and offer legal advice and help on getting 4 wives here, flying first class HMRC, I would be awash with grants. The National Lottery, The Home Office, the foreign office, the ministry for racial affairs, all the bloody lot would fall over themselves to support me and give me money.
If however, Trevor and I, and a few of the likeminded who speak out on this august platform, set up a group to push for all citizens to obey the law, and for laws to be kept for the majority, for our moral values to be of higher importance than foreign religions and for the requirements of the indigenous population to be ranked higher than the desires of recent imigrants, what would happen then?
I would be denounced as a white supremecist, intolerant, charged with inciting racial hatred and derided as a nazi in the press.
I struggle to spot the difference. A few overly zealous Muslims are islamic supremecist, intolerant of their hosts views and morals, certainly incite racial hatred among non muslims towards muslims and are as far right as Hermann Goering. Yet they benefit from all kinds of legal protection.
As a kid we all thought George Orwells 1984 was a taste of the future. We were wrong. It was Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland that was closer to the truth.

why on earth would anyone want more than one wife ? the amount of nagging one woman can do is truly incredible so why quadruple it ?

and worse still 4 wives ... 4 mother-in laws!!!

The thing is how does Abdul go about claiming?
Is he even going to tell the truth?
I mean - he goes down the dole and says do you need to meet the wife before I can cop for the dosh and they say yes, so he says, well the thing is they don't get on that well so I'll have to bring 'em in one at a time, OK with you?
And the dole says fine so he goes and gets number one, who's wearing a beige burka and signs, then he buggers off and gets number two who's wearing a blue burka and she signs ... is the dole going to ask to clock the boat just to check it's a different wife?
Or even if it's actually a woman?

I was thinking of buying my wife 4 burkas and starting a new business 'Rent a wife' to save the Muslim guys the hassle of getting a wife of their own, and claiming benefits the way you suggest Chocolat. Trouble is, you may now have alerted the authorities to a possible scam: mind you, by the time it's been passed around the various departments to decide who should deal with it, I should have a good 12 months head start. (Burkad head start at that)

Are there any MPs using this scam yet? Or their wives and families, either? Or ancient mothers? Or family trusts? Hmmm? Probably not family trusts but female elderly mothers could have sex change operations paid for by the state under certain circumstances, eg, after the Christmas cards have been done. Hmmm? Probably not Christmas cards but let's say Ramedan cards instead. Or maybe even birthday cards.