BY FRANK HAVILAND Today is my youngest daughter’s fifth birthday, but I am not allowed to see her. I begged my ex-wife – then the court – for five minutes, at any time or location she chose, so I would not let Isabella down on her big day. Neither replied. The phone calls I make this evening will be blocked, as they always are. So … Continue reading Counting the Cost of Parental Alienation
BY FRANK HAVILAND Standing up for my children lands me in jail It’s 6pm on February 12th, and I find myself in the back of a police van in Andong, South Korea. I am flanked by two hulking officers, who seem to think I might attempt to jump out of a moving vehicle. Seeing as this is my last taste of freedom for a while, … Continue reading 15 Days in Andong
BY GARY McGHEE There exists a photograph of some of my extended family members, not dissimilar to the one above. At the centre of it is a matriarch, now in her 90s, called Rose. A wonderful lady who, when I saw her at my brother’s wedding, said to me, “I looked after you when you were a baby.” I was 50 at the time and … Continue reading Family
BY FRANK HAVILAND A letter from our friend Frank Haviland, Editor of the New Conservative UPDATE: Shortly after the court appearance referred to in this letter, Frank was jailed for contempt for 15 days. Dear Readers of The New Conservative, Please forgive my self-indulgence, but I write this brief note mainly in my capacity as editor to let you know what may be about to … Continue reading A Letter from the Heart
BY FRANK HAVILAND I am the father of two young daughters. They are more precious to me than everything else in the universe combined. I would die for them without a moment’s hesitation, and consider myself honoured to have been given the opportunity. Right now, they are being stolen from me before my eyes, and it is not obvious what I can do about it. … Continue reading The Cruelty of Parent Alienation
BY FRANK WRIGHT The Enlightenment values which have given us the idea of individual liberty as freedom from constraint have partnered with technological advancement to result in a mass society of atoms. The digital age is not merely a lonely one, but one in which people are increasingly patterned on visual media. The life examples they internalise are not the lectures of online grifters, but … Continue reading War on the Family
BY JOE NUTT Like many people who read an essay by Honor Jones published a few weeks ago in The Atlantic magazine, entitled How I Demolished my Life, I reacted badly. For anyone who missed it, the essay began with the author detailing her dissatisfaction with her current kitchen, before rapidly moving onto a description of the unending mess created by her three children, then … Continue reading A Family is for Life
BY ALEX STORY After a week away from home, I walk in. Not a sound. I take a few tentative steps into the flat. I open the door to the living room. There in total silence, my four children, each with their own devices, slouch on the sofa. They barely notice me. For a second, a pair of eyes zeroes in on me, only to … Continue reading Live Life to the Full
BY NICK GRANGER Living out our last days in a residential care home is a prospect that few of us would relish. In 2014 the Burstow Commission called such homes “islands of misery”. The finances of such places also tend to be iffy and administrators are forever being called in or staved off – one of Britain’s biggest providers, Four Seasons, is a case in … Continue reading The Care Village Con Part I
BY NICK GRANGER Did you know that with the care village model the biggest profit is taken by the developer/financier? This is why many of these large-scale care villages run into financial difficulties at a later date requiring a bailout by the local authority, which means by YOU, the Council Tax payer. How does this play out? The developer sets up a shell company, Company … Continue reading The Care Village Con Part 2
BY DR PREETI TALWAR The mother and child relationship is paradoxical and in a sense tragic. It requires intense love on the mother’s side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother and become fully independent. There are two times when parenting is the most difficult. When the baby first arrives at home and when the adult just leaves home. … Continue reading Empty Nest
