Marry Old England? Not Today!

[Spade]

According to thr London Times, married adults are now a minority.

Quote:
"Data due in June is now expected to show only 48.8 per cent of the over16 population had marriage status in 2007, according to analysis conducted by The Times. "

Is marriage passé?

 

[Cliffy]

Yup. What do you expect in a disposable society. Even spouses are disposable. But the cost can be prohibitive so many chose not to go that route.

Like the old joke says, "the next time I think of marrying, I'll find a woman I really don't like and buy her a house."

 

[Spade]

Perhaps the British are following the example of the Royal Family?

 

[Cliffy]

Perhaps the British are following the example of the Royal Family?

Are you saying that most Brits are inbred morons?

 

[Spade]

Not all are morons.

 

[Cliffy]

Not all are morons.

Ah! Some are less ons then!

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Spade, when were married adults in Britain (or Europe for that matter) a majority?

During the days of serfdom, nobody cared if the serfs were married or not. The Church certainly didn’t, as long as the silver pennies kept coming to the Bishop.

A normal procedure would be the following.

Let us say the Lord of the Manor needs a crop of new babies, for future slave labour force. He would get together the men from his village, raid another village and kidnap the women form the village.

If they lived far from his village (say 40 or 50 miles away), they probably spoke a different dialect anyway, and probably wouldn’t understand the speech of his village. So the Priest or the Bishop would say a perfunctory service on all the couples and that would be that. In due course a new crop of babies (and the source of future serf labour) will be born.

All this concern about people getting married started after the industrial revolution. But traditionally, the Church did not really care if the unwashed masses were married or not. As Orwell said in the book 1984, ‘Animals and Proles are free’.

 

[Spade]

O, I'm under no illusions about Britain being a democracy. Britain and India are united in their love of curry and caste.

 

[Blackleaf]

Spade, when were married adults in Britain (or Europe for that matter) a majority?

.

They were a majority in Britain every year until 2006, I think.

In 1995, married couples made up 56.2% of the population.

In 2005, they made up just about a majority of the population - 50.3%.

In 2006, the year that married couples became a minority, there were just 236,980 weddings in England & Wales, the lowest number since 1895.

Also, the number of men in Britain aged over 100 has topped 1,000 for the first time, the ONS has said.

It said that more males in England and Wales are reaching very old age because of health improvements and the fact that the latest crop of centenarians were too young to have been plunged into the horrors of the First World War.

Men's life expectancy is increasing more quickly than that of women, and it's only a matter of time before men live longer than women.

Married couples are now in the minority as number of single and divorced people soars | Mail Online

 

[SirJosephPorter]

They were a majority in Britain every year until 2006, I think.

In 1995, married couples made up 56.2% of the population.

In 2005, they made up just about a majority of the population - 50.3%.

In 2006, the year that married couples became a minority, there were just 236,980 weddings in England & Wales, the lowest number since 1895.

Blackleaf, if you read my post, you will find that I did say that all this concern about marriage started after the industrial revolution. So it is to be expected that in recent years married adults would be in the majority.

But the phenomena is relatively recent, in old days, the Church did not really care whether the serfs got married or not.

 

[tracy]

I don't see why it matters. Marriage is not necessarily the ideal living situation for the majority of people.