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Divorce was once again unfairly blamed for the downfall of society earlier this week when Reverend Richard Chartes, Bishop of London, claimed that there was a ‘divorce epidemic’ present within the UK. Going on to add that divorce served to erode the familial and communal culture that resonated throughout Britain in the early fifties. Now, the first thing I would like to point out is that the word ‘epidemic’ is entirely inappropriate. An epidemic comes about when a new strain of a disease infects a population at a far greater rate than that which could reasonably have been expected in accordance with prior experience. Divorce is, depending on how you choose to look at it, either a legal procedure or a decision made by unhappy spouses. Regardless of how you view divorce it is not – and cannot be compared to – the bubonic plague, Spanish influenza, measles or typhoid and the use of the word ‘epidemic’ is, if we are to use the word’s formal definitions at least, inaccurate. Still, I’m probably being pedantic. It’s pretty obvious that the Reverend was using the word colloquially and claiming that the UK’s divorce rate is spiralling out of control. Much like his choice of words, though, this assessment is deeply flawed. Prior to the divorce rate having increased slightly in 2010 (the figures for 2011 will be released later this year), it had been declining steadily since 2005. In fact, fewer marriages ended in divorce in the noughties than either the nineties or eighties. It may be fashionable to claim that more and more marriages are ending in divorce than ever before, but it simply isn’t true. Whilst it’s also alarmingly common for those who consider themselves to be amongst the UK’s moral elite (Paul Coleridge, Reverend Chartes etc.) to claim that divorce does invariable and irreparable damage to children, this, too, is a remarkably inaccurate and unfair assessment. The vast majority of divorced parents are able to maintain meaningful relationships with their children: the vast majority of divorcing parents that use Quickie Divorce inform us that their children see their non-resident parents more than twice a week, for example. The clergy and other various institutions will always have negative things to say about divorce, but they really should get their facts straight first!