Try marriage – you might even like it...

WHILE no doubt some of those who rejoice at the death of the family will be pleased with the figures, I suspect that not only the incurably romantic will be disappointed with the news that fewer people are getting married than ever. With so many unemployed at present, do we want to see our romantic novelists added to the dole queue?

Not being married does not mean, of course, that adult women during their fertile period will not be gladdened or challenged by the possibility of pregnancy. We admire and cherish the example of those who bring up children without the legal and moral support of a husband or long-term partner, but at the same time realise that many children conceived outside a real relationship are vulnerable to the kind of pressure that resulted last year in 100,000 girls being terminated before they even had a chance to be born. Those who regard our demographic as any more than a flippant programme to get rid of “mistakes” will know that the connection between non-marriage and the very high abortion rates should give us cause to pause and ponder.

I suppose, therefore, these remarks should be best addressed to the real he-men who want to be accounted among responsible adult citizens: offer marriage to the girl. I can assure you, the costume in which she walks down the aisle will be the best and finest gear you’ve ever seen her in. Yes, you are allowed to cry. And, who knows, you might actually get more of a kick out of being the all-round good family guy than you ever did as an ageing juvenile trying to play the field.

To give children a fighting chance, it is not just necessary to have adult females capable of conceiving. If the way to the abortion clinic is paved with the feckless stony hearts of the immature male, then perhaps a bit of schmaltz and old-fashioned romance about tying the knot are precisely the kind of grown-up realism that a bad world needs?

Joseph Biddulph, Pontypridd