Clegg attacks marriage?

[xenia]

Not content with getting it wrong over tuition fees voting reform and the Brussels veto Nick Clegg seems to be anti marriage. Is this a serious political animal?

 

Statistics prove that children raised in a stable marraige are four times more likely to have productive happy lives than those brought up with couples that are co-habiting.

 

Yet Nick Clegg puts the boot into what seems to me a perfectly sensible effort by the Tories to make it tax effective to be married. Hopefully creating a more stable environment for kids and going some way to prevent the disgrace of the summer riots.

 

Is he serious or is he determined to destroy his own political career and his party?

[Cookingfat]

why take notice of clegg no one else does including cameron hes a waste of a good mans rations and oxegen cant wait for next elections when he is kicked out. but i bet before that he resigns from is consituency but i bet they find him a nice save seat

[L00b]

Not too sure how true this "anti-marriage" thing is, though, or the extent to which it is actually "anti-".

 

I've only heard about this from the Daily Mail (which you OP appears to plagiate a bit ), and it is about a speech Clegg is reportedly going to make. Not against marriage as such, but against Cameron's proposed re-introduction of tax advantages/relief for married couples.

Is he serious or is he determined to destroy his own political career and his party?

He's just making soundbites to try and preserve some semblance of relevance for the LibDems within the Coalition (in the aftermath of the Brussels/veto thing).

 

When he'd "achieve more" (or at least, "lose less") by keeping schtum (at the right time/in the right circumstances...such as now).

 

Here is a man who doesn't pick his battles well, that is for sure

[Classic Rock]

Have you got a link to this news report?

[L00b]

Have you got a link to this news report?

Here goes (Daily Mail...you have been warned - again )

 

EDIT - newsbite since noticed in most other broadsheets (FT, Grauniad, Telegraph, etc.)

[TheGuy]

He's a married man himself isn't he? isn't he??

 

He's not being anti-marriage as such, he's against using the tax system to encourage marriage.

 

The Labour lot will be up in arms about it but they have a lot to answer for themselves; they built a tax/welfare system that encouraged parents to live apart.

[whiteroses]

Hopefully creating a more stable environment for kids and going some way to prevent the disgrace of the summer riots.

 

Is he serious or is he determined to destroy his own political career and his party?

 

Don't take everything you read in the Daily Mail seriously - especially not a rabidly right-wing comment piece.

As for the "statistics" you quote, they appear to come from an accompanying piece written by the renowned sensible, balanced and informed "journalist" Melanie Phillips (ahem).

Surely it is better for a child to live in a home with two happy parents, married or not, rather than going through the trauma of divorce?

 

Also, Cameron's proposals are not going to encourage people to marry. Happily cohabiting couples are not going to suddenly make the decision to spend thousands of pounds on a wedding just because George Osborne will reward them with an extra couple of quid a week.

 

What the Tories' proposals are about is a bit of political posturing, to try and please their right-wing fanbase who would probably rather we returned to the days when, if a girl found herself pregnant, she was hastily marched up the aisle. It's a welcome distraction from all the actual news going on in Brussels, yes? Same goes for Clegg - picking a fight here, as L00B points out, is an exercise in saving face on the veto issue.

 

Also, quite apart from the married/co-habiting debate, why should someone who is single get discriminated against in the tax system just because they haven't found someone who they can spend the rest of their lives with? This isn't just about having a pop at parents who don't marry - not everyone has kids, and not everyone is lucky enough to find someone they love and who loves them in return.

[Riccardoh]

No he hasn't you fool

 

He's against proposed Tax Breaks to married couples, which I think he's quite right about too.

[L00b]

He's a married man himself isn't he? isn't he??

Maybe he forgot?

He will reserve his sharpest criticism for the legal profession, which he will say is “woefully unrepresentative”.

 

“More than two thirds of all high court judges and top barristers are privately educated. Nine out 10 QCs are men. Nineteen out of 20 are white.”

 

Mr Clegg’s words will not go unnoticed in his party — whose MPs are all white — or at home. His wife, Miriam González Durántez, has recently been made a partner at Dechert, an international law firm.

 

To a Spaniard as well...hope the walls of the Clegg household are well soundproofed

[gnvqsos]

Clegg married a Barcelona lawyer,one Gloria Xavier Hernadez,last seen escaping from Sheffield in a black cab.She can be seen frequently in Cubana(Trippet Lane ) where she hosts karaoke nights featuring the songs of Bizet,Ravel and the Buena Vista boys.