(no subject)
I think the various proposals that seem to be floating around about co-habiting couples are just madness and it really frustrates me that the only people arguing against them are slightly loopy "must protect family life" campaigners. When quizcustodet and I got married, our legal rights and obligations within that contract were explained to us by the registrar and we understood what we were signing up to. Under the various proposals that are or have been afoot for cohabiting couples, that wouldn't be the case, they'd just be automatically signed up to something that they didn't explicitly agree to.
The cohabiting couples that I know well enough to have spoken to about this kind of thing are not married because they don't want the legal rights and obligations that come with marriage and I think that's a totally reasonable decision to make. With the new proposals about inheritance, at least you'd be able to opt out by making a will, but with the previous set of proposals, it basically wasn't possible to opt out - you were just automatically signed up by virtue of moving in together.
Most of the arguments in favour of such changes amount to "people don't realise that they don't have legal rights/responsibilities when they're cohabiting" but I think it's bizarre to make that a reason for changing the law - why not educate people? Why not establish some standard cohabitation agreements that you can pick up at WHSmiths, like you can basic packs for other things? Why not give people the choice to make the commitments that they want to make?
It also seems to exhibit a total ignorance about the way that people live their lives these days. I know couples with totally separate finances, housemates with totally joint finances, couples with partly joint finances, housemates with partly joint finances, people who live together with more than one partner, siblings who live together.. it's hard to see why couples in romantic relationships who live together should have one particular model forced upon them by the government when we already have a way for them to sign up that model, if they want to.