The Single Mother's Manifesto (by J.K. Rowling)

...The 2010 election campaign, more than any other, has underscored the continuing gulf between Tory values and my own. It is not only that the renewed marginalisation of the single, the divorced and the widowed brings back very bad memories. There has also been the revelation, after ten years of prevarication on the subject, that Lord Ashcroft, deputy chairman of the Conservatives, is non-domiciled for tax purposes...

I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating ex-pats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles.

A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism. On the available evidence, I suspect that it is Lord Ashcroft’s idea of being a mug.

Child poverty remains a shameful problem in this country, but it will never be solved by throwing millions of pounds of tax breaks at couples who have no children at all. David Cameron tells us that the Conservatives have changed, that they are no longer the “nasty party”, that he wants the UK to be “one of the most family-friendly nations in Europe”, but I, for one, am not buying it. He has repackaged a policy that made desperate lives worse when his party was last in power, and is trying to sell it as something new. I’ve never voted Tory before ... and they keep on reminding me why.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7096786.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
----------

What I've quoted is the end of a much longer essay, most of which is a rant about how out-of-touch the Tories are with the reality of life for single parents in the UK.

for some kind of conservative utopia project. Have the Tories, the rwing conservatives here get together and create the society they lust after.

Just kidding...please no flames from my co-heartofdixieites.

and Georgia and Arizona aren't too far behind.

for that purpose

She ought to consider writing fiction. Maybe a story about an orphaned kid who has to make his way alone in the world with the help of his magical powers and his friends. Something like that.

can't write effective non-fiction. She seems to be one of the few who can do both.

She's exceptionally talented.

and I dare say- honer, both qualities in short supply these days.

Especially the part about not relocating to a tax haven because she wants to raise her childrn in a culture as old and rich as England's , and because relocating would mean associating and spending time with the tax cheats. Bono, you listening?

The Internet is full of ads for gated communities in dirt-poor countries where, to judge from the ads, Libertarians play golf and tennis all day and brag about how little they're paying their servants.

:applause: and deserved every royalty check for the next 50 years.

Great essay too.

I'm starting to like and admire J.K. Rowling. Hopefully she'll continue using her celebrity in righteous ways.

from supporting people when they are down. The safety net is a good thing. If she were in the states there would be no Harry Potter. Makes me wonder what wonderful works could have been produced by they talented folks out there who simply struggle to survive. How many minds have gone to waste?

I've been a fan for years, but lately I've gotten more reasons to like her than just her fiction. A friend pointed me towards a youtube video of her Harvard commencement speech, and I was impressed. Now this, which I find even more awesome. The number of people who succeed just to forget that they wouldn't have been able to succeed in the first place without help are uncountable. She is definitely in a minority, and a highly admirable minority it is of which to be member.