"I don't believe in marriage"

Chavs 1
Originally uploaded by hoveringdog.

This morning there was a piece on Radio 4 News about the growing proportion of children born outside marriage and living in single parent households.

This was immediately followed by a feature on the difficulties of preventing bad behaviour in schools. There couldn't possibly be a connection, could there?

"I don't believe in marriage", was a comment made by an amiable but completely irresponsible young man of my aquaintance. It came up in a discussion about adultery, which he thought was perfectly OK. The irony is that he has several times been rescued by his indulgent father when he has needed funds to deal with the effects of his irresponsibility. It is lucky for him that his father actually does believe in marriage or he would have been in big trouble.