23rd August 2013
Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to you to draw your attention to the desperate need for reform of the divorce laws in England and Wales.
The current law has been in place for 40 years. It belongs to a bygone age. The world has changed beyond all recognition since the early 1970s, but unfortunately the law has failed to change with it.
If someone wishes to divorce without a lengthy period of separation, they are forced to formally blame their spouse for the breakdown of the marriage by alleging adultery or unreasonable behaviour. This all too often will result in a couple becoming distracted from the far more important need to resolve disputes about financial issues or their children. Instead they waste time and money arguing about who divorces who and why.
The grounds for the divorce make no difference to the outcome of any dispute about children or finances, and there is no good reason to require couples to do this. It adds additional hostility and conflict to a situation where there is plenty already. It damages a couple’s ability to work together in the long term for the best interests of their children. It encourages them to think in terms of winning and losing and heroes and villains when the reality is that most marriages break down because of mistakes and failings by both parties to a greater or lesser degree.
The Major government attempted to introduce no-fault divorce in the Family Law Act 1996, but those plans were abandoned by the Blair government. It is high time that the issue divorce reform was again considered. When a marriage has irretrievably broken down, couples should be given the means to divorce with dignity.
There no doubt will be some MPs who believe that introducing no-fault divorce equates to weakening marriage. I would urge you to resist that view. Marriages will continue to break down at the current rate, regardless of whether divorce has to be fault-based or no-fault. It is already easy to obtain a divorce; you just have to be unnecessarily unpleasant to your spouse. No-fault divorce would not cause the divorce rate to rise, but it would benefit our society by minimising the harm that marital breakdown can cause.
I therefore would urge you to introduce no-fault divorce laws as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely