Marriage must be encouraged now, more than ever
by Elizabeth Francis, The Conservative Woman:
THE ‘stay at home’ instructions over the past year have dramatically increased the time families spend together. Perhaps to the surprise of many sceptics of the family model, a study from Essex University found that 20 per cent of married couples reported their relationship had been strengthened during the pandemic despite the immense pressures put on them, compared with ten per cent who said it got worse. The number of parents considering divorces had also shrunk.
Yet the ability of couples to marry has been tremendously restricted under coronavirus regulations; legal rules to date have changed no fewer than 65 times nationally and locally, averaging more than once per week since February.
To make the legislation easier to understand, government guidance has also been regularly updated to ‘offer [citizens] the best or most appropriate way to adhere to the law’. It is the guidance, not the intricate and confusing legislation, that is read by the majority of citizens who will have little legal training or the appetite to trawl through pages of repeatedly amended law. However, this poorly written guidance is causing would-be married couples increasing confusion about what they can and cannot do, a theme which has been prominent over the past year when the guidance has gone further than the law.
As of national lockdown 3.0, government guidance has led lay readers to conclude that marriages are all but banned in England, sparking cancellations and further delays to ceremonies:
Editor’s note: the author makes good points about the importance of marriage, but she does not speculate on why the government is keen to suppress weddings. Could it be that in the minds of many, the entire focus of a wedding is on a (potentially unsafe) gathering/party, rather than on the marriage itself?
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