Legal rights for cohabiters?

04 June 2006 ~ 16:12

I'm sorry but why would the government do this? The simple fact is, if you want to have legal rights in your relationship and you are a straight couple, you can get married. If you are a gay or lesbian couple, then since December 2005 in the UK, you have had the right to form a legally recognised civil partnership which confers exactly the same rights a straight married couple has to inherit property, be the next of kin etc. But if you don't want to do that, then why should you expect the same rights as those who have bothered to get hitched? It seems to me that those simply living together want to have their cake and eat it.

This government seems to be hell-bent on doing all it can to undermine marriage while paying lip service to the notion that they are promoting it. Yes, a lot of married couples end up divorced, but the fact remains that a married couple are statistically more likely to stay together for longer than a couple that is merely cohabiting. So it is an important social structure and the best one society has yet come up with to give kids a stable family background.

Are we honestly saying that if Sally moves in with Jake for just a year, she has some claim over his house? No, that is just stupid. What will happen is that couples will feel they cannot move in together if one of them already owns property or has more money than the other. Well, who knows, perhaps people will do as they did in the old days and simply wait until they are ready to marry before considering living together.

Nightdragon and I had no choice but to marry for immigration reasons and it did us no harm that we couldn't live together first. We celebrate our eight-year anniversary in four months and still feel as strong together as ever.

But truthfully, why should I be surprised by this latest development? We are, after all, living in the I-want-everything-now generation.


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