steve caplin

Some single mothers are spectacularly

successful. Take J K Rowling. Would Harry Potter ever have had the chance to delight millions if his creator hadn’t been a divorced mother writing in that Edinburgh cafe because it was too cold at home? And what about Lauren Luke, the 28-year-old make-up sensation from Tyneside? She dropped out of school at 16 to look after her baby and started posting video tutorials on the internet of herself applying cosmetics in her bedroom. She now has her own product range, a book out and a Nintendo DS character based on her. But on the whole, you can’t win when

you’re a single mother. If you don’t work —and it’s not easy when childcare is in such short supply and costs so much— you’re labelled a scrounger. If you do, you’re penalised in your pocket. You can’t benefit from any tax breaks

for married couples, including the double capital gains and inheritance

tax allowances enjoyed by the wed. If I were run over by a bus tomorrow, my estate—of which my six-year-old son is the beneficiary—would be liable for tax at 40 per cent on any amount over £325,000. On the other hand, the estate bequeathed to a child of married parents, however dysfunctional their relationship, would have a tax allow- ance of £650,000. In other words, my son, an orphan, would, through no fault of his own, lose an extra £130,000 from property and savings that I’ve worked and saved hard for. In the end, it’s always the kids who

suffer for the “sins” of lone parents, however hard-working and prudent. There’s something wrong with that in a civilised society. So give us a break, please, and not just a tax one.

» Do you think single mums are an easy target? Tell us at readersletters@ readersdigest.co.uk.

Fount of dubious knowledge

Users of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia should take care. In their miscellany of misinformation “Complete and Utter Zebu” (Old Street Publishing), Simon Rose and Steve Caplin recount some of the fictional nuggets reported as “facts” on Wikipedia:

Alan Titchmarsh is writing a new version of the Kama Sutra.

Robbie Williams made a living before Take That “by eating domestic pets in pubs in and around Stoke”. David Beckham was a Chinese goalkeeper in the 18th century.

Margaret Thatcher is fictitious.

The village of Denshaw, Lancashire, was “home to an obese population of sun-starved, sheep-hurling yokels with a brothel for a pub and a lingering tapeworm infection”. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24