Should the Government regard stable marriage as better than all other forms of family structure, particularly single parenthood and unmarried partnerships? This is the first question brought up by the publication of an interim report of the Conservative Party's Social Justice Policy Group, and the answer is undoubtedly "yes". It is not only Christian teaching that says that a permanent commitment between two people of the opposite sex provides the most favourable circumstances for raising children. The statistical evidence is so overwhelming that even opponents of marriage have conceded the point. But the second question the report raises is more complicated. Can government do anything to influence behaviour in the desired direction, thereby reducing the damage to children and society from lone parenthood and family breakdown? The report seems to think so, but the honest answer is that there is no quick fix, and probably no slow one either. 

It is very doubtful, for instance, whether restoring tax incentives for marriage, the Conservative Party's preferred solution, will increase the overall stability of family life. The act of marrying for material gain will bring nothing to the relationship that was not already there. When such incentives were last in place they were one of a range of social and political supports for marriage that have been eroded over the years almost to vanishing point. The decline in the influence of religion, once a mainstay of marriage, has had a profound effect. So has the revolution - welcome as it is - in the role and status of women in society. Alcohol and drug abuse have become easily available palliatives for people living unhappy lives without thought for the future. The media on a daily basis pumps out the message that casual sex is mere harmless fun.

So this Christmas, the report's portrait of Britain as a society not at ease with itself is a true one. But there are many deep-rooted factors at work. Family breakdown, ...

Serious issues are raised by the Government's proposals to forbid discrimination on the grounds of homosexuality, particularly as they are likely to impact on the work of church welfare agencies. The Catholic Church is not alone in finding a key requirement - that voluntary adoption agencies treat homosexual couples on the same basis as married heterosexuals - an uncomfortable challenge to its moral convictions. ...