Chris Grayling: true to form

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Sunder Katwala has posted an interesting article on Next Left about Chris Grayling’s “latest headline grabbing wheeze”, namely the headline in today’s Sunday Times: Tories to demand: are you married?

Sunder says:

“While his colleagues attempt a liberal love-bombing strategy by posing as progressive, Grayling is already gearing up for what could prove a very successful bid to achieve Michael Howard and Ann Widdecombe levels of notoreity.”

Referring to Grayling’s view that “marriage has almost disappeared from official forms, from official documents”, Sunder continues:

“It is very strange that Conservatives love to lecture Labour on the limits of bureaucratic tinkering, critiquing a caricature of Fabianism as the belief that pulling government levers with micro tax and benefit changes can affect deep social and cultural changes in society. Except on marriage, where the policy appears to consist only of eye-catching initiatives of exactly that kind, based on the idea that a tax-break will have a deep affect on couples’ willingness to get hitched or not get divorced…

An idea of what a serious agenda to support the family could look like was set out earlier this year by my colleague Tim Horton in an essay for the Fabian Review special issue on the theme, which looked at how a pro-family agenda should focus on the quality of relationships, including the need to address the pressures on families today.”

It is also interesting to think of this in the context of the Sun’s newfound support for the Tories, and what other lobbying and influence the Sun may already have peddled in the Tory party, and for what purpose. Sunder notes that Grayling’s replacement of Domonic Grieve as Shadow Home Secretary was a condition for the Sun’s support.

If that’s the case, where else might the Sun hold sway within the Tory ranks, and what other Sun-backed proposals can we expect on issues like Afghanistan, Europe and the BBC?

Read Sunder’s full article here.