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

[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...