The case for making the government marriage-neutral.

Does marriage matter anymore? Not so long ago, David Cameron was foremost amongst those giving an unfashionable ‘yes’ to this question. It became his signature theme, the closest he had to a Blair-style ‘irreducible core’. It seemed, at the time, as if a 1979-style realignment was underway. The Labour Party was being sucked into the vortex of its own economic failure. Its social failure was just as profound: it had tested to destruction the idea that more welfare makes countries stronger or fairer. And study after study showed that the institution of marriage was easily the most powerful weapon every developed to promote health, wealth and education. In Cameron, we seemed to have leader willing to say so. In my Telegraph column today, I look at what happened.

George Osborne is not a social conservative and dislikes the marriage agenda. He’d have to implement it, boast about it – and the words would stick in his craw.