DIVORCE ON DEMAND MAKES MARRIAGE DISPOSABLE.

While we now have the lunacy of marriage between two men or two women. the government is launching a consultation proposing to overhaul what they consider to be our "archaic" divorce laws.

David Gauke, the Secretary of State for Justice, believes that obtaining a divorce should be 'less confrontational' and so wants to remove the need for either party to demonstrate "fault" or, it seems, to have to wait the current 5 years after separation, 2 years if the couple agrees. Mr Gauke says that the current divorce law is "out of touch with modern life".

In many areas of our lives the government tells us all what to do and effectively creates "modern life"; think about laws on drink-driving or smoking, civil partnerships and marriage, and the proposals to introduce presumed consent for organ donation. Having thus created this framework, now they argue that more must change in order to keep in step. Why ?

Marriage is already seen by many as a disposable commodity, something to play at for a while but ultimately of no more value than last year's fashion items. The women, often the men as well, enjoy the dressing up and all the fuss, they love being the centre of attention and spend vast amounts of money on frippery. They set up home, produce a couple of children and then get fed up with the whole restrictive nature of real life; accordingly, they go their separate ways, often acrimoniously and usually to the detriment of the children. Now, Mr Gauke wants to make the disposal of marriage even easier, threatening what is left of true family life in this country.

It's suggested that divorce in future will be akin to the Islamic approach, with either party able to do little more than say "I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee" and that will be it. There will be no need to prove "fault", nor any need for the parties to demonstrate irretrievable breakdown beyond one of them saying that they've had enough. All that will be needed is to notify the courts of the intention to seek a divorce and the rest will be automatic. The other party will have no right to contest the action.

While Mr Gauke may be partly correct in saying that the current law is out of touch with modern life, he's utterly wrong in his answer to the problem. Rather than changing the law and making divorce easier, what he should be doing is emphasising the seriousness of marriage and the responsibilities which come with it. In fact, the government should be considering making marriage much more difficult to get out of, especially in the first few, say 10, years. This might focus the minds of the those thinking of tying the knot, making them realise that marriage is not something to be toyed with.

Sadly, politicians with an eye on grabbing votes from wherever they can by pursuing whatever policies seem to be 'flavour of the month', rarely make the right choices.