Family Breakdown & Global Warming

Family Breakdown & Global Warming

At a recent legal conference held by Resolution, a group of family lawyers, Mr Justice Coleridge, a Family Division judge, made some very strong statements regarding the current state of family life in the UK.

In his speech, he warned that the results of family breakdown could be as destructive as global warming.

"What is certain is that almost all of society's social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life."

As a family court judge with over 37 years experience, he has overseen multitudes of cases involving children caught up in drink, drugs and school truanting and says: “Scratch the surface of these cases and you invariably find a miserable family, overseen by a dysfunctional and fractured parental relationship - or none at all."

"We are experiencing a period of family meltdown whose effects will be as catastrophic as the meltdown of the ice caps - as big a threat to the future of our society as terrorism, street crime or drugs".

"What is certain is that almost all of society's social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life. I am not saying every broken family produces dysfunctional children but I am saying that almost every dysfunctional child is the product of a broken family.”

"What is government doing to recognise and face up to the emerging situation? The answer is: very little and nothing like enough.”

"It is fiddling whilst Rome burns."

Yet which receives more press attention, funding, and attention – global warming or family breakdown? As a society we seem to care more about the planet than we do about ourselves – yet what good is the planet if as a society we are ‘self-destructing’? Questions without answers…or should this be a wake up call to do more to encourage couples to stay together, to raise a family with a ‘Mum’ and a ‘Dad’?

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