Marriage central to Cameron plans
Sunday, 4 March 2007 12:00 AM
David Cameron has defended his views on the virtues of marriage at the Conservative party's Welsh spring conference.
Speaking to party activists in Cardiff, the Tory leader insisted he would continue to promote marriage as the "central institution in a strong society".
He went on to say that that errant fathers should feel the "full force of shame".
Mr Cameron's proposals to grant tax breaks to married couples had been criticised by senior Labour party figures for neglecting children.
But the Conservative helmsman said he "didn't care" if others thought he was wrong to single out marriage.
"The evidence is there and we need to support it," he claimed, citing data that says 70 per cent of young offenders hail from lone-parent families.
"In particular we need to create the right social pressures, applying the full force of shame to fathers who run away from their responsibilities to their children."
Mr Cameron went on to warn of the potential damages of ignoring the fact that "one in two co-habiting parents split up before their child's fifth birthday, compared to one in twelve married parents".
"That is why we support marriage," he added.
"You know and I know and everyone out there knows that the big argument in British politics today is about our society.
"I think it's time we recognised that family breakdown is the central factor in the social breakdown we see in our country today," Mr Cameron concluded.
Speaking ahead of the Tory leader's speech delivery, Tony Blair said in an interview with the Observer that Labour's policies on the family were "right and better" than the Conservatives'.
"Marriage is a good thing, but you're trying to support children," the prime minister said.
"It's hard to see why you would want to support a married couple without children rather than a lone parent whose husband may have left her through no fault of her own and who is trying to bring up two children.
"Of course we should try and support marriage in whatever way we can, but to reduce support for lone parents isn't justified," Mr Blair insisted.
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