Weekly Poll Lowdown

Well that's pretty conclusive. Over half of you would like to see a tax cut to those who are married or in a civil partnership introduced. Quite a high percentage of you however don't think it is a good idea and a fair few of you are unsure. I find this very interesting because this blog is Conservative orientated, and although a few lefties read this, it shows there is some sort of division over this idea.

Should the government introduce tax breaks for married couples and civil partners?

Yes.	53%
No.	37%
Unsure.	11%

Total votes: 19

So what is my opinion? Well to quote the Great Milton Friedman "I am in favour of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible." Essentially money is better in people's hands and not the government because the state has a habit of messing things up. Also, a point which I make again and again, because extra taxes means that the government spends more it takes up the role of the private sector which is where/how real life people make money and have better lives. More state spending is essentially creating more road blocks on the advancement of better living standards.

The man that needs no introduction or caption.

But when it comes to marriage tax breaks that's really not the point with many Conservatives, it's about the promotion of marriage itself because it creates families that are best in creating better lives for individuals from cradle to coffin. This is something I do buy into although clearly there are other things like friends that need to be added for a person to have a better quality of life not just families. The thing is marriage is not really a tell tale sign of a family any more because it is on the decline. A lot of people cannot be bothered with legal marriage any more and just live with each other and can do so for a very long time. Good on them, I say, because they create families too.

Marriage rates are on the fall in the UK.

Some people could say that the game has changed with less people getting married and living more individualistic lives. But that's far from the fact because recent marriage history in the country has been quite exceptional making it a lot more likely for people to get married. For example Two World Wars made marriage very popular after they had taken place because of all the trauma caused. Marriage in the Modern Era is actually quite difficult as the state has it regulated. Until 1811 Dalrymple v Dalrymple it was possible to just get married, so long as you were not brother or sister or child and parent, it was a simple legal contract that just needed agreement (it is often mistaken that this happened with the Marriage Act of 1753 but there were a number of get out clauses).

Marriage in the 1950s was quite usual as there was some many other people doing it too.

With marriage in the country today we seem to be going back to the normal state in the whole of human history where marriage was less formal and so are families. The highly regulated and expensive marriage of today is thus not indicative of a family any more and is at a stage where there are too many exceptions for there to be a rule. Thus, as I am not really into the state knowing everything about your habiting status, I personally prefer the government wouldn't concentrate on the thing. How about getting rid of the 10p tax rate?

Dave, pictured with his lovely wife Sam Cam, is probably right in not putting this high on his priorities list.

Please vote in the new poll on the sidebar.