Nearly half (47%) of couples having children now have them before getting married, according to Relate, compared with just 4% when the charity started 75 years ago, in 1938.

Other changes noted by Relate are:

o The number of divorces was 6250 in 1938 and more than 152,000 in 1988, fifty years later. Since then the number has dropped steadily, to 117,000 in 2011.

o Age at first marriage has changed over the years, being 26.5 for men and 24.3 for women in 1938. This dropped slowly over the forty years to 1978, to 23.8 for men and 21.6 for women. Since then the figure has climbed to reach, in 2010, 30.8 for men and 29 for women.

o The average age of couples when they have their first child has risen a little – 25.9 in 1938, 26.3 in 1998 and 27.9 in 2011.

Comments by Sir David Attenborough that sending food to famine-hit countries was “barmy” has angered charities that help the starving.

In an interview published in the Daily Telegraph the well-fed Attenborough commented: “What are all these famines in Ethiopia? What are they about? They’re about too many people for too little land. That’s what it’s about. And we are blinding ourselves. We say, get the United Nations to send them bags of flour. That’s barmy”. Continue reading →

An attractive offer made by the National Trust on the internet for its equally attractive Anglesea Abbey, Gardens and Lode Mill property in Cambridgeshire was promoted as an opportunity to tour the luxurious former home of American oil magnate, Lord Fairhaven, free of charge for one day in August, in exchange for staying a while with researchers and giving feedback for marketing purposes.

What wasn’t made clear was that although entry to the house was free that day, visitors had to enter the very impressive garden to get to the house, this for a mandatory entry fee of £8 per adult, and this conveyed by all the nice staff on the ticket desk with completely straight faces. Continue reading →

Some supporters of catholic charity Cafod are calling for the head of its 7-strong PR team, Damien McBride to be sacked.

McBride, who joined Cafod in April 2011, was previously Gordon Brown’s charisma consultant and has recently had a book about his time in the grubby world of political PR, Power Trip, published. In this McBride, unfairly dubbed McPoison, reveals tactics he used on behalf of his employer to rout the upright Mr Brown’s enemies, including smear campaigns. Continue reading →

A school in Wales that barred a pupil from normal lessons because he’d had his head shaved for a cancer charity has allowed him back into classes, but only after more than 250 pupils walked out in protest.

The management of the Milford Haven School in West Wales said the extreme haircut was against its rules on appearance. The boy, 14 year old Rhys Johnson, whose aunt is battling cancer, was shaved at a Macmillan coffee morning, along with a 14 year old girl pal, Tesni Doherty-Bowen, who goes to a different school a few miles away and who was praised by her teachers for her fund-raising efforts for the charity. Continue reading →

“My body belongs to me and no one can touch it without my permission” is the new “Underwear Rule” launched by the NSPCC to give children an easy to understand position on abuse.

According to the charity around 20% of male and female children of all ages, skin colour, class and religion fall victim to abuse, usually from someone they know and trust, abuse that nearly always goes unreported.

The campaign coincides with the shamefully late publishing of a heavily-redacted version of the 1996 Jillings report into allegations of bestial cruelty – including buggery and assault – at children’s homes in North Wales in the 1970’s and 1980’s, cruelty that is believed to have caused the deaths of at least twelve young people. The report was shelved by the now-defunct Clwyd County Council and attempts to expose the cruelty constrained by the police and social services.

The NSPCC has criticised a Crown Prosecution Service barrister who was prosecuting a 41-year-old man for having sex with a 13-year-old girl and described the girl as “predatory”. The judge in the case also told the defendant, who admitted the offence, that the girl was “predatory, and egging you on” and handed down an eight month suspended prison sentence for breaking the law.

The NSPCC has opined that the language used by the barrister and judge was “completely inappropriate”, and that “a 13-year-old child cannot be complicit in her own abuse”. The Attorney-General is reviewing the case to ascertain whether the sentence, under the circumstances, was too lenient and should be increased. Continue reading →

Health charity Mind has warned that depression caused by money worries has increased by a third in the last year.

The number of calls to their helpline, usually from those who had reached crisis point, increased by 50%, with an increase of 30% in the number that had taken steps to end their lives, had suicidal thoughts or had concerns about a loved one. There were also increases in the acuteness and/or the complexity of problems described.

Those in financial trouble are often unwilling to talk to friends or colleagues about it, for fear of censure, and suffer anxiety and panic attacks as the delay in getting help makes things worse.

Charities that pay their top executives in excess of £100,000 a year risk bringing the sector into disrepute, according to the Charity Commission.

Chairman William Shawcross issued the warning following Daily Telegraph revelations that at least 30 highly-placed charity executives, at such large organisations as the National Trust, Oxfam, Save The Children, Christian Aid, NSPCC, RSPCA, Sheler, Barnardos, WWF-UK and the RSPB enjoyed these high salaries, funded by donors, tax-payers and tax concessions. He made the point that “In these difficult times, when many charities are experiencing shortfalls, trustees should consider whether very high salaries are really appropriate and fair to both the donors and the taxpayers who fund charities”. Continue reading →