London Divorce Capital of Europe

May 7, 2012 by blackbook

London has been known as the ‘divorce capital of Europe’ for many years. The divorce business is booming, and January seems to be the busiest time of year for solicitors. The Christmas holidays for many married couples begin with major rows and end in January with a phone call to the divorce solicitors in London.

Weddings, on the other hand, have decreased by almost 45% since their peak in 1972. For every 2 marriages in 2008 for example, there was one divorce. Couples in their 20′s are the most likely group to divorce, as celebrity culture encourages a rise in marriages that end within 5 years. Our society places increasingly greater importance on personal ambition and choice than on life-long marriage, and consequently, couples are investing less time in the health of their marriage, leading to inevitable breakdown of the relationship. Fewer couples are now choosing to marry than in past generations, more children than ever being born to unmarried parents. However, divorce is a costly formality, as many people will attest to. Before the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act was passed allowing ordinary people to divorce, it was a formality mainly open exclusively to men. Divorce before 1857 required an Act of Parliament, which was very expensive and a price of solicitors only the rich were able to afford.

The new law was also unfair to women, as they were required to prove not only their husbands were unfaithful, but also other faults of various levels of abuse. This law remained largely unchanged until 1969 with the passing of the Divorce Reform Act, which stated that a marriage could be ended if it had broken down irretrievably and neither spouse was required to prove any unfaithfulness or faults in order to obtain a divorce. But the reason why South East London has become a divorce haven in recent years is due to the fact that whether for short term or long term marriage, UK divorce law allows equal division of the assets. This means that if a woman were married to a rich banker for example, she will be awarded 50% of his assets upon divorce. UK judges do begin with a starting point of a 50-50 split but they do acknowledge that women in short term marriages ideally should not be awarded assets in the same way as women in long term marriages.

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A rather giant panda effect at Edinburgh Zoo sees visitor numbers soar by 200 per cent

Feb 22, 2012 by blackbook

Giant pandas are around 2-3 ft. tall and can be up to 6ft long. They weight approximately 220-250 lbs. and are listed as endangered, with only 1,600 remaining in the wild.

Pandas play an important role within the animal kingdom- and it seems their appearance at Edinburgh zoo has had an extremely positive effect.

After the recent arrival of the two large pandas, there has been a 200 per cent increase in visitor numbers at the zoo.

The pandas arrived at the zoo from a reserve in China on December 4. They first went on display for the first time on the 16th December once they had acclimatised to their new surroundings.

Already the pandas have attracted 700,000 people after first being put on display, at the end of last year. This is more than three times the number of visitors to the zoo in the same period in 2010. Alongside this, approximately 1,000 soft panda toys (some as expensive as £40) have been bought from the zoo shop each week since the pair arrived.

The chief executive of the zoo, Hugh Roberts, explained that the zoo had been fully booked almost every day since the pandas arrived and that they expect the popularity of Tian Tian and Yang Guang to continue. He continued to explain how all visitors, young and old, were amazed when they saw the pandas. As for many of the visitors it was there first time that they had seen such animals.

Visitors do not have to pay any extra to see the pandas. However, time slots do need to be booked due to the high popularity of the animals. There are approximately 200 spaces available for each half-hourly interval with the scheme being extended to March, to ensure that as many people get to see the pandas as possible.

Mr Roberts added: ‘People are often amazed to see for themselves that pandas are quite happy to make eye contact and our visitors can learn lots of interesting facts from our panda patrols, like pandas eat a third of their bodyweight in food every day and the male pandas do their own version of a handstand to scent mark their territory.’

Picture courtesy of drs2biz

 

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