How the British state stopped supporting marriage

We are used to hearing proposals for adjustments to the system of income tax which would allegedly encourage more people to marry or to stay married. Any such effects would of course be marginal, at best.

But in one astonishing decade the British Parliament removed much of the legislation which reinforced whatever social or personal motivations there might be for conventional marriage.

I think Larkin was wrong. Sexual intercourse began in 1967, when intimate relations began to be legislatively decoupled from marriage.

Consider the following:

1967 Abortion Act

1967 Sexual Offences Act

1969 Family Law Reform Act - removed legal difficulties for illegitimate children; marriage at 18 possible without parental consent

1973 Report of the Population Panel - free contraceptive advice & prescriptions as of right, regardless of marital status

1973 Matrimonial Causes Act - easier divorce

1973 Guardianship Act - mother shared guardianship rights of legitimate children

1974 Finer Report on One Parent Families - improved income support

1975 Sex Discrimination Act

What with the recent headline divorce settlements, one does begin to wonder whats in it for a man

Link

Annus Mirabilis by Philip Larkin (read by Philip Larkin)