Bucking The Trend

We Tylers are off for a weekend of bearing witness, toasts, and big hats. Our elder son is getting married, and we are delighted.

These days of course, getting married is pretty well a minority pursuit. We now have the lowest marriage rates since they were first calculated in 1862. The number of first marriages has halved since the early 70s, when Mr and Mrs T got shackled.

Does it matter? Will the relationship between our son and his fiancee be strengthened by their marriage?

Actually we think it will be, but in truth that's more about them than the institution of marriage per se. They've already been together for 8 years, and they're now making a very public statement that they intend to stay together. And - famous last words - from what we know of them, it will then take an atomic bomb to split them asunder.

As for marriage more generally, it's not at all clear that more marriages would necessarily mean more stable homes for Britain's kids.

But let's not think about that today. The sun has just broken through, and tomorrow's forecast is good.

Time for Mrs T to climb into her big hat.