Emma Lunn: All in this together? Not if you're single and don't have children

 

Emma Lunn
Friday 22 August 2014 18:25 EDT
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David Cameron has pledged to put families at the centre of every Conservative policy. He argued that parents and children are too often "overlooked" and could be left worse off by reforms.

Overlooked? Parents and children? What? Try not being married and not having kids if you want to be overlooked.

The subtext of the "family is the cornerstone of society" message is the implication that singletons – whether they are young, widowed, divorced, dumped or just plain old fussy – are somehow letting society down.

But the Prime Minister's far too family-obsessed to even acknowledge that not everyone has, can have, or wants, children. Or a permanent partner for that matter. Ask any single person and they'll tell you how their vote appears not to matter and that their contribution to society, financial or otherwise, goes unnoticed while politicians bleat on about "hard-working families".

And yet, around a third of households consist of just one person. That's a lot of voters to ignore. But it seems "we're all in this together" doesn't apply if you're, well, on your own.

How about a government that stands for just "people", not simply a sub-section of the population? Now that could be a vote winner.

Twitter: @emmalunn

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