Sunday, March 30, 2008

Have We Finally Crossed Over The Line?

According to the First Post this is in today's Observer.

Men or women who refuse to share housework with their partners could be accused of breaching their human rights under the UK's first written Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland will also put in law the right of partners to take time off from housework.

And before anyone has a pop at me for being sexist, or whatever else, I'm aghast at the fact that this kind of thing has to be enshrined in law, not at the principal of who does what in the home.

10 comments:

r morris said...

Hilarious. I envision many over-worked housewives rigging up clandestine video cameras to catch their spouses vegetating on the couch all day while she does housework. It would make for a great reality television program.

Anonymous said...

But my girlfriend genuinely does love washing up - she keeps stopping me from doing it!

Selena Dreamy said...

Legislation has swept the country. No other land has been so copiously blessed.

I think one of the problems in trying to solve individual and infinitely varied relationships by legislation, is that as soon as you define anything, you are creating a kind of status, which - by pre-empting a domestic discussion on the subject - is potentially in competition with marriage if not a reinvention of natural laws. Yet a very convincing case can be made to argue that nature, not the law, is right.

Ironically, given the absurdity of the whole piece, this may well prove a case of too much medication: It’s rather like being dependent on every pill on the market - legislation to help you sleep, legislation to keep you awake, legislation to dull your pain, legislation and more legislation...

But, have we finally crossed the line? Has there been in recent political history a more loaded peace of legislation?

Dreamy

CFD Ed said...

Is this an early April fool? If so very droll, if not then words fail...

Breaching human rights?!

The right to take time off from housework?

Surely we all have this 'right' already? Last I heard slavery was illegal in the UK.

Ellee Seymour said...

I look forward to the first test case. I daren't even go there as far as the Seymour house is concerned, but then my husband does have a long commute each day....

Chervil said...

I sometimes take time off housework for an evening... Guess what - my undone work is still waiting for me the next day. I reckon the law needs to include a provision to make sure that the work does itself instead.

Selena Dreamy said...

Absolutely, Chervil! And did you know, the Government is preparing an Act of Parliament where, as of May 1st, petrol will be outlawed and all cars must be driven on water!

Thank God for that!

It’s so easy to cure the world’s ill with a bit of legislation. I wonder why no one ever thought of that one before...

D.

CFD Ed said...

I presume the state will supply someone to come round, when they can get the day or the address right and do it to a standard you wouldn't subject a dog kennel to.
Excellent!

James Higham said...

Strange that we both posted on a similar theme. I agree with you here, Richard.

Colin Campbell said...

This kind of thinking needs to legislated against.