Ellee Seymour

I had no idea that Malta was the only country in the European Union which banned divorce, though allowed marriages to be annulled. I caught the tail end of a radio interview about this yesterday, a young woman was saying how she was annulling her marriage on the grounds of her husband’s immaturity, which seemed a very bizarre reason.

Yet a recent poll on the island proved astoundingly that Malta should introduce divorce legislation with 78% support. Abortion there is also completely illegal.

One man even formed his own political party in Malta two years ago to liberalise laws, claiming that the country’s ban on divorce made them a laughing stock. He hoped that changes would be forced on human rights grounds. Nothing seems to have come of his plans.

The reason for the ban is the country’s strong Roman Catholic background and fears that divorce will harm children from broken families, especially teenagers. No account seems to have made that marriages are breaking up and spouses are forming new relationships.

The country’s Green Party believes that trying to promote divorce as an election pledge is a vote loser, so couples continue to cohabit outside wedlock.

It certainly seems very controlling. If families are already breaking up, then why is the Maltese government turning a blind eye to this?

Malta’s Alternattiva Demokratika (Green Party) Chairperson, Dr Harry Vassallo, has stated it is time for Malta to face realities about remarriage:

“It is time for our political class to grow up and catch up with the social reality of the people on whose support it depends. Nobody in Malta can reasonably claim the right to prevent somebody else from making decisions for himself or herself on matters as intimate as the decision whether or not to remarry following a separation. It is unacceptable that the political class makes such a decision for all people simply by stubbornly refusing to make any change at all.”

Although this party would also appear to have given up on this, the country’s opposition Labour party is said to be more liberal and has appointed a commission to examine this thorny and very divisive subject. I guess it’s only a matter of time before divorce will be legislated, that however terrible the word sounds to them, it pales in comparison to the hypocrisy of permitting annulments and cohabitation, while denying future happiness and security through remarriage.

I’m not going to crack any yokes about the latest loony advert ban about going to work on an egg on the grounds that it does not promote a balanced diet. If only kids did eat that healthily for breakfast, cereals are full of so much sugar. And my husband has been known to fly out the front door with a couple of chocolate biscuits in his hand first thing in the morning.

Do you know of anyone who has suffered any ill-effects from over-indulging on this inexpensive and wholesome food?

Just ask Brian Grimston, an egg farmer in Devon, who eats five or six eggs a week and, at the age of 71, considers himself in very good health.

“Christ, what nonsense. There’s nothing like an egg. It’s pure and un-tainted by any pesticides. It’s quick, it’s full of protein. We produce 20,000 eggs a day and to my knowledge no one has ever suffered.”

The full nutritional content of an egg is outlined here and describes how they are an excellent source of protein, vitamins and minerals.

As a child, my ever anxious mother always thought I looked anaemic and made me swallow a raw egg each day, I can still remember the slimy, bulky liquid getting stuck in my throat if I didn’t gulp it down quickly enough. Yuck!

I wish these thought-police would realise that the public does have some intelligence and knowledge about healthy eating, we are not half as daft as they imagine.

Now where’s my Mars bar; doesn’t a Mars a day help you work, rest and play? Then it’s got to be good for you ….