Catholic charity welcomes Tory promise to put the family first

BY FREDDY GRAY
A LEADING Catholic adoption agency has applauded a Conservative party social justice report that emphasises the importance of marriage and the family for the good of society.
Jim Richards, chief executive of the Catholic Children's Society (Westminster), said that the document, entitled Breakdown Britain, should be welcomed because it underlined the value of marriage in bringing up children.
"It is good that a major political party is saying 'hey, look at what's going on here, we need to do something about it'," he said.
"It pushes the issue of marriage and the family up the political agenda and that is important."
The report, launched by the Catholic former leader of the Conservative Party lain Duncan Smith, offers striking statistics about the damaging effect the decline of marriage and the rise of divorce has had on British children.
"This is nothing new," said Mr Richards. "For many years we have known that children raised by a married couple have a much greater chance of doing better in life. All the research on that is very clear."
Mr Richards was pleased that the report had illustrated the value of marriage above cohabitation. "Cohabitation, by its very nature is not a total commitment. Marriage is, and that needs to be emphasised and supported," he said.
According to the report: "Nearly one in two cohabiting parents split up before the child's fifth birthday, compared to one in 12 married parents.
"Marriages are far more likely to provide a stable environment for adults and children than cohabitation and are
more resilient when the family is facing a crisis. Seventy per cent of young offenders are from lone-parent backgrounds."
The report suggests increasing tax breaks for married couples, arguing that current legislation makes some parents financially better off if they live apart.
Mr Duncan Smith said:
"Family life has, at its heart, married life and married life has been undermined by the present Government quite considerably both in tax and benefits."
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, told the Daily Mail that Breakdown Britain supported his belief that the family is the most important
institution in Britain. "Families to me are not just the basic units of society, they're the best," he said. "They arc the ultimate source of our families' strengths and weaknesses. Families matter because almost every social problem that we face comes down to family stability.
"If marriage rates went up, if divorce rates came down, if more couples stayed together for longer, would our society be better off? My answer is yes."
But not all pro-family commentators were enthusiastic about Breakdown Britain.
Robert Whelan, deputy director of the independent think-tank Civitas, said he doubted the paper would make any difference to family life in Britain.
"When Mrs Thatcher came in we heard the same thing, When Mr Blair came we heard the same thing. It never amounts to anything, sadly," he said. "It's all very well to publish these papers, but when are politicians actually doing something about the state of the family?
"It is of course absolutely right to raise this issue, but given their track record I am not holding my breath."
Breakdown Britain is not a statement of Conservative policy, but analyses the various social problems facing modem Britain, including drug addiction, welfare dependency and the personal debt crisis.
Mr Duncan Smith said that he had been "shaken" by the findings of the report.
"We see now a growing underclass of people who acmally, in some senses, give up hope of rising above it. If we don't do something about it now that dysfunctionality is going to break all of our communities."
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