To Divorce or Reconcile, That is the Question… and we can work it out for Ourselves

The divorcing couple are all too often portrayed in a negative light in publications the lean to the right of the political spectrum. Often viewed as the destroyers of familial ties, these couples’ decisions to divorce are viewed with contempt. Some publication’s editorial inches even claimed that divorce, separation and the absent parents were to blame for the riots that plagued the UK last summer. Such claims, of course, are completely absurd.

I have yet to come across an individual that took their decision to divorce lightly, I am also yet to come across a couple that did not consider the possibility of marital reconciliation before arriving at the decision to divorce. In most cases, in fact, it is given serious consideration. The vast majority of couples that choose to divorce – irrespective of what naysayers may claim – are making the right decision.

In spite of this, many are claiming that couples should be further encouraged to ‘repair broken marriages’ and address peoples’ willingness to ‘recycle their partners’. At the risk of repeating myself, these claims, and their orator’s desire to create a pressure group to extol the virtues of marital reconciliation are nothing short of preposterous.

More worrying sill is the fact that these proposals have been backed by several MPs, with Tory MP Julian Brazer even going as far as to claim that family judges have had too much of an influence of family law for the past two generations. Who is better placed to make assessments of and suggest changes to the law exactly?

The simple fact is that any such group will be found to be superfluous within a very short period of time. Couples are already more than capable of deciding whether marital reconciliation or a divorce is right for them.