A Happy Family is a Nuclear Family, says Cameron in The Sun

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In a recent article for The Sun , David Cameron declared a wish tomake Britain more family-orientated, alleging that 'any big social problem we face' is rooted in the lack of proper parental influence and family unit.

Cameron magnanimously says that he wants to ‘ease thestresses and strains that come with family life.’.  He goes on to describe how he’s going toachieve this lofty goal.

‘This morning, I’m meeting Kids in the Middle. This is agroup of national charities and Agony Aunts [...] They do amazing work inhelping children whose parents fight a lot – and in helping those parents stopgetting into that situation in the first place.’

In his blind quest for the Big Society, Cameron seems tobe advocating the old-fashioned view of the “nuclear family”. He praises Kids in the Middle for ‘helpingthose parents stop getting into that situation in the first place.’ How exactlythey propose to do this is unclear. Sometimes, marriages do break down – and no amount of money thrown atthem by the government will help this. Furthermore, sometimes they break down due to one partner being abused,either physically or emotionally.  Surely in this case, couples should not stay together to appease Cameron’sidyllic view of the ‘traditional family unit’. And one would hope that, unlike Cameron seems to imply, a child livingwith the non-abusive parent would not automatically turn into a doomed juveniledelinquent through lack of contact with both parents.

Bafflingly, in this article Cameron makes nomention of the legal aid cuts, which as many organisations have pointed out willleave many women – and their children – who can’t afford private legal fees inan extremely vulnerable position.  Personally, if I was in an acrimonious situation with my marriage breaking down, I'd rather have legal advice than agony aunts such as Deidre from The Sun advising me. But that's just me.

Perhaps David Cameron should first pay more attention to these newdiscriminatory proposals, which look set to be far more detrimental to childrenthan the risk of having less contact with one parent and not being involved ina neat little ‘family unit.’  A lovely image, but one that simply isn't feasible for many modern parents and families.