My plea for marriage
by Kathy Gyngell, TCW:
LAST Wednesday the Daily Mail devoted its front page splash to the news that a majority of babies are being born out of wedlock for the first time since records began in 1845.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, in 2021 624,828 live births were registered in England and Wales, which included ‘320,713 live births to women who were not married or in a civil partnership when they gave birth – 51.3 per cent of the total.’ This compares with 304,115 live births to parents who were married or in a civil partnership.
The news was depressing and shocking. Shocking in that it neither made the headlines elsewhere nor attracted concerned comment. Yet what it revealed was how selfish, adult centric and casual our society’s become – that it no longer believes or understands why marriage commitment should be the prerequisite of childbirth – not even ideally. It begged the fundamental question of whether a child is no longer deemed significant enough to bother to commit to a contract over, to secure the legal and moral responsibility for it of the mother and father. So when the producer/director of GB News’s Colin Brazier show asked me if there was anything in particular I felt strongly about (what a question!) that I’d like to give vent to on their Speaker’s Corner spot, I had my answer ready. Marriage and why it matters. I was given only a few minutes and about 400 words to make my case, and here it is:
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