We’ve already covered the falling divorce rates so I won’t plough over old ground completely but I was interested to read Resolution’s response to the news that marriage rates are at their lowest since records began in 1862.
The provisional marriage rate for men in 2008 was 21.8 men marrying per 1,000 unmarried men aged 16 and over, compared with 22.4 in 2007 and 31.1 in 1998, according to the Office of National Statistics. The provisional marriage rate for women in 2008 was 19.6 women marrying per 1,000 unmarried women aged 16 and over, compared with 20.2 in 2007 and 26.6 in 1998.
So, in this day and age when couples choose to live together quite happily without feeling the push down the aisle, Resolution has renewed a call for
unmarried couples to be granted legal rights, giving them the same legal foothold that married couples have. That way, both individuals would be treated fairly if they split up, “without equating living together to marriage or civil partnership”.
On the face of it, this may seem like a sensible idea. Greater protection would give some safeguards for a couple who never formalised their union if they subsequently broke up. But would it also not just be making work for lawyers left with a little bit more free time because divorces are falling?! If a couple choose to have their lifestyle ratified by the law of the land, they can get a living together agreement to protect their assets, or a civil partnership if they are a same-sex couple.
Or – and this is radical, I know – they could just get married. For better or worse.
The institution of marriage appears to be subject to constant erosion. Pretty soon the only thing you will gain from getting married is a huge overdraft.
The point is that some couples may choose not to get married simply because they do not want the legal ramifications that come from a short walk up the aisle. They should be free to do so. Whichever way round people choose to do things is up to them. There is a legal agreement there for them now. Yet another law is something we don’t need.