According to findings of a British think tank set up by former Conservative Party leader, Iain Duncan Smith in 2004 – The Centre for Social Justice – divorce is not the cause of marriage breakdowns in the United Kingdom.

The same report states that cohabitation is imposing much greater costs on society – not just lack of human contentment but also financial burdens – than divorce.

“While out of every £7 spent on broken young families (paid for by taxpayers) £1 is spent on divorced families, while £4 are spent on (cohabiting) separated couples and £2 on single parents”!

There are more interesting conclusions in the said report by the Centre for Social Justice, which give the lie to the scare-mongering statements we have been getting from the no campaigners.

May I suggest one more of the conclusions reached by the above-mentioned think tank, on which the no campaigners should ponder: “Marriage and commitment tend to stabilise and strengthen families and cannot be ignored.”

How can anybody then, be they the no campaigners or the pseudo-religious correspondents and the PN, be in favour of the status quo of cohabitation rather than introducing a law which would give cohabiting couples – and separated people who do not wish to cohabit – the chance to get married, even if this would be the second marriage, and hence, “strengthen” and “stabilise” the new family unit, as the above report concludes?

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