Think tank calls for divorce ‘buffer zone’
By politics.co.uk staff
Couples struggling with their marriage should be forced to undergo a three month reconciliation process before divorce proceedings, according to a think tank.
The proposals were set down in a report commissioned by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who has now become the centre-point of the social conservative wing of the party.
The report, entitled ‘Every Family Matters’, calls for a reform of family law, tax breaks to promote marriage, and a reversal of Labour plans to give unmarried cohabiting couples similar rights to married couples.
Mr Duncan Smith said young people had unrealistically high expectations of marriage and failed to compromise with their partner.
“It’s ironic really, given the nature of the family breakdown around them, they have this incredibly high expectation of it,” Mr Duncan Smith told the BBC.
“And so the idea of compromise from day one, two living as cheaply as one, seems to have disappeared.
“You do not need a £20,000 themed wedding to be a happily-married couple,” he added.
Australia operates a similar system to that proposed by the former Tory leader, and asks couples to attend counselling sessions to save their marriage.
