Marriage Tax Allowance is Nick’s chance to say “I disagree with Dave”

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By Josie Cluer

Tomorrow, Demos will release a report which provides further evidence that the Conservatives proposals for a marriage tax allowance of £150 a year would be “a weak tool” to help families or children.

This is good news for the Don’t Judge My Family Campaign, which has been campaigning against the Marriage Tax Allowance since last year.

The idea that government should favour one kind of relationship over another is simply offensive: it discriminates against widows, single parents, couples where both choose (or must) work, and parents who choose not to marry. People signing up to our campaign ask “How dare the government judge whether one kind of family is better than another?” In 21st Century Britain, frankly, it is none of the government’s business.

In fact, there is no evidence – once you control for income, education and whether the kids were planned – that the relationship status has any bearing on outcomes for children. So incentivising marriage is nothing but ideologically driven intolerance by bigots from a bygone age.

Even if the government did want to incentivise marriage, it’s highly unlikely that three quid a week would make the difference to convince a couple in love to tie the knot, or a keep an unhappy marriage from breaking up.

But worse, it is poorly targeted to help the very people who need help. Only 35% of the couples who would benefit from the marriage tax allowance have kids, 17% have kids under five. And it would do nothing to help the one in four kids who grow up in single parent families. As the cuts begin to bite, people will be rightly asking why Cameron is pledging to spend half a billion pounds appeasing the right of his party rather than saving Sure Start and child benefit.

Nick Clegg – who branded the idea as “a throwback to the Edwardian era” and “patronising drivel” during the election campaign – knows all this. But despite the fact that he won a concession during the coalition talks that his MPs wouldn’t have to vote for it, he is said to be fretting about whether to actually criticise the policy in his speech tomorrow.

Last week he was full of fighting talk: his new strategy would be to air differences between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. After voting against his principles on tuition fees, reaching a miserable compromise on voting reform and winning but a centimetre of concession on control orders, now is the time for Nick to say “I disagree with Dave”. Otherwise, for Nick, what was a whirlwind romance last May will increasingly look like an abusive marriage with no way out.

Josie Cluer coordinates the Don’t Judge My Family Campaign. Join up at www.dontjudgemyfamily.com

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