Columnist Melanie Phillips has written a very cogent piece on David Cameron’s support for marriage. Philips’ argument is that Cameron is facing in two different directions at once. On the one hand he says he is for marriage, but on the other, he also espouses the kind of social liberalism that has so grossly undermined marriage in Britain, and is doing so here as well.

Phillips’ best line is probably the following: “The key point about marriage is that it is a unique institution which plays a unique role in society. The rights and benefits associated with it derive from that unique status, and cannot be given to other relationships without undermining that uniqueness and therefore its value and importance.” 

Our politicians should take that sentence and nail it to their walls and repeat it every single day because it is a truth that is completely and disastrously lost on most of them.

However, in defence of Cameron, at least he is supporting marriage at some level. No major politician in Ireland is doing so.