David Cameron’s policy to give £3 a week in marriage tax allowance to a third of married couples is to ‘send a signal’ that marriage is better than any other type of relationship. Today, a new campaign launched to ‘send a signal’ back: don’t judge my family.
Inspired by JK Rowlings’ attack on the policy last week, The Don’t Judge My Family campaign (www.dontjudgemyfamily.com) is seeing people sign up in droves. The issue has clearly touched a nerve: in just a few days 1,500 people had signed up to the Facebook page, before the website had even launched.
We’re hoping Liberal Democrats will support the campaign, because the policy flies in the face of everything that Lib Dems stand for: freedom and fairness.
First, the policy is illiberal in the extreme, as it would see the government making a value judgement about what a good family looks like. That picture is very different to what real families look like these days. As Nick Clegg says, it’s a “throwback to the Edwardian era”.
Second, it is unfair. The Lib Dem manifesto has pledged to hardwire fairness into British society. The marriage tax allowance would do the opposite, by hardwiring discrimination into the tax system.
The policy actively discriminates against:
- the very poorest- couples where both partners earn under £6,555 don’t pay income tax anyway, and the bottom 10% of earners would see about 2% of the cash
- the 140,000 people who become widows or widowers each year
- single mums or dads, trying to give their kids the best start in life
- the 3m children growing up in single parent families
- the thousands of people who make the brave decision to leave violent or unhappy relationships
- couples who both work
The Don’t Judge My Family campaign asks people to pledge that if they’re eligible for the allowance they’ll give it to charity, and is keeping a rolling total of cash pledged. The website links to Gingerbread, Relate, and the National Association of Widows. These charities actually support couples to stay together, and help vulnerable children get the best start in life, rather than judge personal choices.
Check out the website at www.dontjudgemyfamily.com
‘The Independent View‘ is a slot on Lib Dem Voice which allows those from beyond the party to contribute to debates we believe are of interest to LDV’s readers. Please email [email protected] if you are interested in contributing.
3 Comments
The idea of a marriage tax allowance deserves to fail. Not only for all those good reasons above, but also because the value judgements it makes are patently false. Marriage, in the context of the stability and wellbeing of relationships, is a symptom not a cause, and has no effect in itself on the outcomes for any children. http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2010/04/20/does-it-matter-if-childrens-parents-are-married-or-not/
The Tories, of course, may well only be be listening to the Daily Mail’s blatant distortion of these findings…
In your list of people discriminated against, you missed out single people without children. We’re people too!
A change is Gonna come it seems, Interesting Stuff!!
While you at it, check out these T-Shirts, I think they are HIlarious, IMagine spotting them all over London! 🙂
http://www.totomerch.com/shop/St_Alan
Let the revolution Begin!!
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