Why won’t ministers talk about marriage, asks IDS
BRITAIn is facing a broken families ‘crisis’ and ministers are afraid of talking about marriage, Iain Duncan Smith has said.
The former Work and Pensions Secretary said the Government should challenge the view – widely held by the middle classes – that marriage is a ‘lifestyle choice’.
He argued that the country needs a marriage ‘revolution’ and called for tax cuts for couples who tie the knot and an end to the ‘ couple penalty’ for lowincome families in the tax and benefit system.
Mr Duncan Smith, a longstanding campaigner against family breakdown, said boys were learning their approach to sex and relationships from internet pornography, which in turn is damaging the self-worth of girls.
‘People join golf clubs and they sign up to the most absurd things. They will sign contracts on housing and never question them. And on the most important relationship in our lives, which will damage or make us, the middle class sit there and tell us this is a lifestyle choice, we shouldn’t ever tell people that it really matters that you write it down on a piece of paper.
‘It commits you to what you are about to do for the rest of your life. Out there these boys particularly who never learn the concept of what this is about will find the alternative on the internet. The alternative is about abusive sex and low value for women. That’s why there is such a collapse of self-worth among young girls, because they see themselves as objects.’
He argued that cohabitation is a ‘very different relationship from marriage’ and ‘inherently unstable’. ‘The level of break-up is staggeringly high compared to marriage, and for the most part, these relationships break up upon arrival of a child.’
He went on: ‘The answer I think is because co-habitation suits one of the partners more than the other. Almost invariably it suits the man, because they have to make good on their commitment and when that commitment is facing them they then withdraw. In marriage, having made that commitment, the child becomes a focus for your responsibility and you commit
‘Cohabitation is inherently unstable’
more. They commit automatically once the child arrives.’
His comments came at a Centre for Social Justice fringe event at the Conservative Party conference. Sir Paul Coleridge, a former high court judge and chairman of the Marriage Foundation, argued it was ‘atrocious’ that family breakdown had been relegated to a fringe issue. He said: ‘I am telling you that watching this river of human misery gather momentum over four decades woke even me up. Watching people come into the courts day after day with the same problems, the same damaged children and relationships, forced me to ask the question: what are we doing?’
He also argued that marriage should be rewarded through the tax system. Unmarried men were more likely to die earlier, have health problems and get into debt, he said, adding: ‘It’s not a moral crusade, it is a public health campaign.’ He explained: ‘The problem is that there is a view out there, borne of ignorance I’m afraid, that all co-habiting relationships are of equal worth, of equal value, of equal stability. I’m afraid they are not.’
Meanwhile, more than six out of ten Tory councillors think party leaders spend too much time on politically correct concerns. And nearly nine out of ten want more energy expended on the economy and Brexit, a poll found.
The survey of 550 local politicians was conducted by ComRes for the Coalition for Marriage pressure group.