'Broken Britain': Christians call on PM to address family breakdown

As Parliament reconvenes over the recent violence, CARE is calling on David Cameron to re-engage with the broken society agenda.

The Christian social policy group wants to see the Prime Minister put special emphasis on tackling family breakdown and the “crisis of fatherlessness”.

CARE’s director of parliamentary affairs, Dan Boucher, said it was unlikely that there was a single explanation for the riots but added that a “key element” in the mix was the place of the family and the role of fathers.

“When in opposition, David Cameron spoke at great length about the ‘broken society’ and about how a Conservative government would ‘fix broken Britain’,” he said.

“He was very clear that one of the key drivers of the broken Britain phenomenon was family breakdown and fatherlessness, and interestingly polling demonstrates that this resonated far more effectively with the public than his subsequent focus on the Big Society ever has.”

The charity echoed the concerns of others at the sight of children being among the rioters and looters, saying that it raised questions about the kind of family life children in Britain were experiencing today.

“The sad fact is that without a functional family, children and young people will be more vulnerable to the appeal of the surrogate family of the gang which is well able to provide an alternative, and deeply destructive sense of identity, belonging and purpose,” said Mr Boucher.

CARE chief executive Nola Leach expressed disappointment that Cameron had not got to grips with fixing broken Britain since coming to Downing Street.

She called upon the Prime Minister to do more to recognise marriage in the tax system.

“The figures, as the Prime Minister knows, are very striking, especially in the context of the riots,” she said.

“A child born to cohabiting parents has a nearly one in two chance of living in a one parent home by the time they reach their fifth birthday, whilst a child born to married parents has only a one in twelve chance of finding themselves in this situation.

“The Prime Minister must now take action and make recognising marriage in the tax system and investing much more in the single biggest determinant of the quality of parenting, the relationship between the parents, via marriage support, his number one priority for the coming year.”

Cameron is expected to outline more measures in response to the recent violence during today’s emergency debate on the disorder.

In some parts of the country, magistrates have been in session throughout the night to deal with the backlog of people arrested in connection with the looting and vandalism.