Notes on the headlines

[tinyjo]

If David Cameron doesn't win the Tory leadership race there's going to be some very embarrased journalists indeed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4501586.stm)

Surely people getting married for purely tax reasons would downgrade marriage a lot more than the situation now where people only do it if it means something to them. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4499748.stm)

Comments

Embarassed Journalists

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd be amused ;-)

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

Possibly tax breaks are a form of showing societal approval of the state of public promised legal commitment which marriage - as opposed to cohabitation - entails. (I cohabbed for a few years before marriage, don't get me wrong, but.)

I don't believe that in the days when there were tax breaks that they were a significant factor in yea or nay decisions. Perhaps for the very rich?

I think Lady Butler-Sloss has an interesting point about het relationships; there are civil marriages to cover that sort of relationship but other relationships are unevenly covered. It is possible for friends/ sibs to make mutually accommodating wills, but not under the financial terms which cover married/legally united persons. There's an argument to be had about whether all relationships need or should be viewed with the same long-term perspectives which predicate committed love between previously unrelated people...

?

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

People used to get married for tax reasons (the extra married tax allowance for example) and still do (inheritance tax), not to mention other financial (but not tax) reasons (e.g. if their company final salary scheme guarantees pension payments to widow(er)s but not bereaved live-ins).

But I don't think a significant number of people marry for the above reasons who "won't last". In my experience the non-financial reason of "get married or one of you gets deported" is much more of a big player in the marry in haste, divorce all too soon league, as is the less tangible and often unconscious "my best friend/brother/sister/... has got married" and the classic "tick-tick-tick-tick-DRINNNNNGGGGGG!".

It would probably be advantageous (pension rights! Otherwise, not that well-off for the rest to count) for us to get married, but we don't fancy the idea so we're just gambling that neither of us drops dead without notice LOL.