Inheritance What??

I am absolutely hopping mad. Once again, the single parent family has been discriminated against in monumental fashion. What do the Government think they are doing with Inheritance Tax? What has it ever been to do with being a couple or not? And how can they think of getting away with raising the limit, only if you are a couple?? This cannot be legal - either the IHT limit is £285,000 or it's £600,000. It can't be one rule for couples and another rule for single parents. I'm so mad, I'm going to get onto the Government website and let them have it! How can anyone think that this is OK? Up till now, there has never been any question of status involved. So they can't just change the rules. (Oh of course, some 'lucky' widows will still be able to claim the extra amount of exemption!!) It gets worse with every minute. Hold on, Golden, you and your buddies are about to get some shit thrown at you over the internet, and elsewhere if I have anything to do with it.

On a lighter note, our video evening yesterday was great. Supper was superb; my Gay Friend cooked the most delicious calves liver with onions and shallots plus organic spinach. And we had parsnip mash too. This was followed by fresh pineapple with organic double cream - what a treat. Then we watched "Moulin Rouge", which I had sort of forgotten. It was breathtaking in parts, though my small screen television doesn't do it justice. I loved the music, and the witty way in which Baz Luhrman had all the modern songs interwoven with the more traditional stuff. It is pure, gorgeous, romance, and with the traditional tragic ending. It made me nostalgic for love - the sort of romantic love I can just about remember from my youth. How sad to think that I will never feel that again. As Son would say "That's really sad, Mum."

I have emailed the Prime Minister. It's the first time I have been moved to actually do anything like this. And I will follow it up. I am determined to get in touch with my local MP and get some reaction. Surely this is what democracy is all about? I'm not really a political animal, but it strikes me that I have been fighting the corner for single (divorced) parents for a very long time, in my own way. Guess what, Golden, it's not our fault that we have been dumped and left to bring up children on our own. And it has never seemed right to me that the dumpers have always been free to go off and create new families, which they often dump in their turn. When did it become OK to behave so badly? Something stinks somewhere, and it isn't the Mothers who also have to be Fathers because there's no-one around who cares to take that responsiblity.

An update on Grandson: he is doing really well with the new food regime, and better still, he is sleeping through for 12 hours without waking. His little tummy is obviously more comfortable. He seems to have adjusted to the "no juice" routine very easily, and is definitely calmer and more cheerful. Of course I still feel guilty because I didn't do anything sooner, but there you go. A Mother's place is in the wrong...