It Says Nothing To Me About My Life

Here we go again ... obscure Tory frontbencher Dominic Grieve has called for a return to Victorian values.

Are we the only country that has politicians who seriously look at society 100 to 150 years ago for moral and policy guidance?

Do the German CDU say "let's get back to Wilhelmine values" or French conservatives say "let's get back to 3rd Republic values".

I don't want to go back to Victorian values - private repression and hypocrisy, gross inequality and exploitation, public moralising and espousals of religiosity by people with lifestyles funded by the systematic ripping off of the British working classes and the colonies.

Grieve's core argument seems to be that all the ills of society are created by people not getting married. As someone who has been with the same partner for 8 years, has a child with them, and has no intention of getting married, I feel personally insulted by Mr Grieve's insinuation that I am the root cause of, according to the Observer, " poverty, school failure and crime."

The reality is that people's lives don't all fit into a neat pattern of marry, have 2.4 kids and live happily ever after. Attempts by the Tories to assert that that's how everyone should live just remind people that they are offering 19th century solutions to 21st century problems.