Independent ignorance

Just where did the leader writer in today's Indie get his education? He or she writes concerning the family

'It has come to be associated with a narrowly defined, Christian-sanctioned relationship. It needs to be reclaimed as something that encompasses gay, as well as straight, relationships. Married or unmarried. And politicians need to stop viewing it as a rose-tinted ideal that leads to the castigation of those falling short.'

Oh, so people only got married in Christian countries did they? It was only in Christian countries that a man and a woman formed a relationship in order to produce children? No matter where and when, throughout human history such relationships have been seen as a contractual obligation legitimised by ceremony.

The writer misses the point. Of course it is no business of society at large to value one human relationship over another. Society though does have an immediate interest once that relationship produces children. If children are not brought up within a child oriented environment involving two parents it produces results which affect both the well-being of the child – measurably in the case of educational achievement and the ability of the child to socialise normally with its peers as it reaches puberty and then maturity.

If politicians do not involve themselves in this who should? A correct analysis of the pitfalls of single parenthood is about the one thing which Blair has got right. Pity he hasn't had the gumption to follow it through.