Saturday 24 May 2008

DUCKS & DRAKES

Last night our great-granddaughters slept over at their Great Aunt’s house (our eldest daughter). I would describe her as a Great British Eccentric and she absolutely adores children. They were feeding the wild ducks in her garden when one of the little girls said “do they have names?” “yes” replied our daughter without batting an eyelid “the one with the green head is called Idontgiveaflyingduck and the other is a Secret Agent duck called Deefaduck". See what I mean about her being eccentric? I have no idea where she gets that from!

Her house is beside the river and is now full of children. They adopted her husbands’ nephews when their mother died and now they have given a home to our grandson who has returned from France to resume his education in England.

I have great hopes for this grandson who is without a doubt the most intelligent of all the children (and we do have some bright kids in the family). If he keeps the standards up he will easily qualify for Oxbridge and could go on to higher things. Some of my colleagues in the office think that I should be Prime Minister (are they a biased, sycophantic bunch, or what?) but I seriously think that this boy could be one of the great and glorious in this land – so I will now attempt to influence him with my brand of truth.

To change the subject, interesting thing about my daughter living beside the river and feeding wild ducks, OG’s observation is “she’ll regret feeding those ducks, they shit all over the place. And they’ll eat all grass. It just goes in one end and straight out of the other”. And my mother, god-bless her, if she was still alive would have said “you don’t want to live near a river, you’ll have rats”. Whereas our blissfully optimistic daughter just sees that it’s lovely to live near the water and have wild duck to watch, feed and provide her family with fresh eggs. It’s all a matter of perspective.

And to change the subject again, although I guess it is related to perspective, yesterday I read that the Olympic creed was inspired by a sermon given in St. Paul’s Cathedral by Ethelbert Talbot, the Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, on 19th July 1908 when he said “the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” Amen to that.

One last thing. I heard that immigrants that paid NI and claimed child allowance and tax credits in this country could have these payments credited to a bank account in their own country. Is this true? I tried checking it out on Google and got my knickers in a twist. I couldn’t find any reference to the rules on how payments were made but stumbled across another question. It seems that child allowance can be claimed in this country for children that still live in their homeland, not only that, in some instances child allowance can sometimes be claimed in both countries. Is this true?

I can’t believe that this government could be so stupid as to allow this. Or could they? Surely not when we have so much economic injustice in our own country, like, for instance the pittance that OAP’s are paid and they way they neglect to look after our armed forces etc, but that is another subject!

12 comments:

Maggie May said...

Words fail me if this is true about the family allowances being paid in both countries to immigrants. This country never ceases to amaze me!
I came over to tag you!

Anonymous said...

On reading your blog regarding family allowance I can confirm that it is paid overseas. The children do not have to reside within the UK only the parent. The Family allowance and tax credit is then sent outside of the country……..MIND BLOWING. So, 1 father can be working within the UK and have 4 children at home with their mother. After the government has seen the childrens birth certificate we send 4 family allowances and the relevant tax credit to their home land. MAD !!!

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Hi Maggie, I think that the next comment probably answers our question. If all that is need to get the child allowance here is to show a birth certificate then I would guess the allowance can be claimed in the same way in their homeland. Disgraceful.

And thanks for the tag. I did do that one before and one of the things I wrote that is not generally known about me is that I can drink copious amounts of alcohol and not get drunk, but I won't use that one again!

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Thanks for the info anonymous. That is absolute madness on two counts. Why should we pay child allowance fo children that aren't living with their parents in this country? And any payments made should at least stay in our economy not be sent abroad to boost the economy of the home land that they chose to leave.

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Yup I knew that about the child allowance. Saw it on a documentary last year. Quite pathetic really.

Laura Jane Williams said...

'idontgiveaflyingduck': brilliant!

Jean Genie(us) said...

Oh so much to reply to and so little time. So glad you found out what I'd heard but didn't know to be true. Child benefits from the UK to anywhere in the world providing you have a bank account. Now next question is why half of the Eastern Europeans are going home again - to live off the immoral earnings of their 6 children collecting benefits from the British Taxpayer????? Oh stop it that has taken even my cynicism too far!!! And blow me they didn't even give us an "une pointe" in Eurovision - just "deux doights" And then there's the £1.32 per litre - LITRE - not OIL RIG - that I paid for at the fuel station on Friday. I can only say to those who are rallying this week-end saying that Gordon is the only and best man for the job - "Get a grip". And finally the river - I live by it too - I too feed the ducks - Davy you're right about the mess but then I go back to government under Gordon - when the masses are up to their necks in alligators who cares about the shit!!!! Keep feeding the ducks - at least they don't take you for a ride!!!!

Jean Genie(us) said...

PS And as for the armed forces..... ah!!! duty to the country, they now supply from their own (or mother's) pocket their body armour and we'll no doubt see soon the tanks arriving at our fuel stations filling up to get them where they're going (throwing all the guys' credit cards in to fill up 'cos the MOD can't afford to do it) -and pay the exhorbitant prices (at 70% tax per penny to the government) so that the taxes from the rest of us can pay for the second mortgage, new kitchen, wet room, and daily food allowance of the Defence Secretary. George Orwell lives.

Jean Genie(us) said...

PPS Yup I'm after a good anger management course like the rest of the British public - we could perhaps get this from a Government initiative - moving swiftly to Sergoviaboncroanonia to qualify!!!

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Why, oh why, do we sit back and allow it to happen MOB? Apart from the Americans we seem to be the most reviled nation on earth and yet, like the Americans, we give, give, give. It doesn't make sense to me.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Now, girl in the mask, I did say that you were a younger version of me and you obviously have the same sense of humour.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Oh Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie, where have those two young merry, optimistic young people gone? We have been replaced by two cynical, xenophobic old crones. What happened? Gordon Brown, that's what happened.