I never woke up and expected to write two blogs today, but I guess this topic just seemed to catch my attention and thought that it was worthwhile sharing. Taking a break from a spot of work, I came across the blog of Nadine Dorries MP. Although it wasn’t the first time I’d come across some of her views, after remembering her increasingly annoying me during the summer months over expenses scandal, her writings today over the perfect ideals for the ‘family’ is something that really did make me think.

You’d have to be interested in the whole issue to find today’s apology from a new, airbrushed, David Cameron as it seems most parts of the media have hidden the story in the vaults of their websites. There are many things we all ‘definitely hope to do’ – but is that a promise? Don’t tell everybody you’re being clear and open with the public if you aren’t willing to commit to a single thing. The words of the Prime Minister seem to have turned from a joke at Cameron’s expense into words of warning – It really does seem that the more the Tory leader speaks, the less he actually seems to say.

Fresh from her week on a council estate, Nadine Dorries is ready to give us a lecture on family life. Her account of the British family seems to be very reminiscent of David Cameron’s own style – very persuading with the rhetoric, but with no substance and certainly no ideas of how they actually expect to solve the problems she raises. It seems the Tories believe that families can be kept together by just paying them off with a potential tax break. This is of no surprise, as the Tories have this mentality for a number of issues – including their grand plans for solving the economy in the past and present – is it really better solved by paying people off on unemployment benefit? Dorries continues that although the financial bill is picked up by every tax payer the cost for others can be ‘far more personal and real’ and she is completely right! I’m therefore definitely hopeful that the Tory leader will be reading her blog and can perhaps understand why so many people are questioning his commitments to families in the run up to the election. Just giving married couples a tax break won’t fix what he calls ‘broken Britain’. Yes, we may have more people jumping into marriage because they suddenly get better tax rates, but is that really better for the family? Statistics, which the MP refers to in her first sentence, aren’t everything – do the Tories really think that we are going to believe that Britain is seemingly fixed again because there are more people married for longer?

This persistence that families are better off together come what may is simply denial. Nobody wants to see families break up and I completely agree with many people who say that marriage is something that should be treated seriously – it is a commitment. I completely agree that people need to think before having children and that we shouldn’t encourage people to use children as a form of income. But what is disgraceful is that the Tories remain completely focused on keeping the family together, because it is ‘better for the child’. Take a look at the following few lines from her blog;

“Sadly, when marriage or relationship breakdown occurs, it is often the children who are caught in the middle. Would any child, when asked the question ‘would you prefer it if your mum and dad stayed together rather than split up’, answer ‘no’?”

But to hinge a whole argument based on what the child wants is totally ridiculous. The parents should, of course, have the child’s best interests at heart and although some families do stay together at whatever the cost it may not be better for the children, it may be worse – a child could be far better served by living with one full time, loving parent that gives them a stable home. Of course the child will answer that they would prefer both parents to stay together if that is what they have been used to, but the child is unlikely to realise the circumstances under which their parents are breaking up.

According to Nadine Dorries and David Cameron, the family is better being paid to stay together because it’s ultimately what the child prefers. They believe that it is the fault of thousands of single parent mums living in council estates who’s children then grow up to be drug dealers and murderers. This rhetoric may work in winning the votes of middle England, but if the Tories really are so focused on making Britain better then their motives just don’t hold up. Why not invest in people and the community rather than just saying you are going to give more ‘power to the people’ – why not begin to inspire the whole country to move forward into a new decade and move forward? Why not? Because the Tories aren’t interested in that. It’s clear to see, as David Cameron will not commit to anything. It’s a well placed gimmick while they plan a tax break for thousands of millionaires. It’s a change all right – a change for the worse.