Summary
"THERE is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends." A lot has changed since Homer wrote The Odyssey 2,800 years ago but for most people marriage remains an ideal - something they hope will happen to them at some point in their lives. There are even signs that the institution is back in fashion, with the number of marriages steady at 30,000 in Scotland every year (though almost one in three involves "marital tourists"), while in 2001 the number of divorces was lower than at any time since 1982.
It will therefore seem strange to some that, as we report today, the Scottish Executive is preparing to strengthen the rights of those who choose not to get married. A few will even argue that it undermines marriage to allow a woman to win a settlement when she splits up from a man with whom she has cohabited, and to make it easier for a man to win access and custody rights to children from a non-marital relationship which has ended. But those who would make such arguments are wrong; whether they like it or not, times are changing and Scotland is changing with them.See the full content of this document
Extract
Leader: Modern Values
Consider the facts: in the last two decades the typical Scottish relati...
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