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Thursday 7 January 2010

Committed to an Institution

A regular visitor to Zelo Street has contacted me to signal his bafflement over Young Dave’s pledge to “recognise marriage within the tax system”, which has caused the Tories some discomfort this week.

The more this move is examined, the more it fails to make sense: Cameron would appeal to no more of the population by pressing on with it, any commitment would come with a cost attached – and a convenient stick for his opponents to beat him with – and it would place those who cohabit but are not married into a “lower division”, along with same sex couples who have entered into Civil Partnerships (which Cameron is said to support).

Unsurprisingly, Tory blogland is not exactly awash with enthusiasm for the proposal, and who wants to even discuss an idea when Party HQ can’t say for certain what it is? Big Al, who would himself be relegated to that “lower division”, will be exploiting this one for a while yet.

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