WHY have a number of poli. ticians, including the leader of the Conservative Party, been showing off their unmarried partners?
What was the message they were trying to convey by making it clear these were active sexual relationships? Were the papers, broadsheets included, just trying to find something new to sell to us?
When William Hague sends a message of support to the Gay Pride march and Michael Portillo says that the Conservative Party should be tolerant of single parents this is something that all socialists should take note of.
But the traffic isn't all in one direction.
William and Ffion may have shared a double suite at Blackpool but the Tory leader has been careful to make us understand that they do intend to marry.
This spin was not only a concession to Maggie and those others in the Tory party who were taken aback by this but to quell the unease about the overall libertarian direction of his stance.
Cherie may have represented Lisa Grant, and Tony might be happy to have openly gay - and now lesbian MPs - at his side. When it comes to a vote on lowering the age of consent for gay men to 16 however it will be a free vote. victory of Euan Sutherland at the European Court of Human Rights -is very likely to be carried. Many MPs have made it publicly clear that they intend to vote against it but the leadership has done nothing to challenge this.
Free votes are very convenient when it comes to another issue of so-called 'conscience' - abortion. Labour will not introduce legislation to improve women's rights without a huge public campaign. They don't want to offend the Catholic Church, they don't want to be seen to be too radical.
Blair's conference speech explained that he was determined to tackle the 'family crisis' facing Britain, and is setting up a cabinet committee to deal with this issue. He explained "We cannot say we want a strong and secure society when we ignore its very foundation: family life". Under Jack Straw's leadership, it is pretty clear what is in store from the committee - more manure from the stable that has brought us curfews for the under IOs and other supportive and enabling policies...
If there are mixed messages from politicians whether Labour or Tory there are contradictions too in the patterns of how people actually live their lives. Divorce may have soared Some families are more interesting than others to Jack Straw and the New Labour moralisers over recent years, but so has remarriage.
In the early days of the lesbian and gay movements campaigners were extremely critical of the model of the heterosexual family. Today the demand for the right to gay and lesbian marriages has become stronger.
has changed significantly. The world of work is different, especially in the advanced capitalist world. Hours are mich Shorter so the non-work world has become more important and has had more opportunity to develop variety. There has been a massive growth in the number of people living on their own or as groups of adults without children. It has become increasingly clear that capitalism uses and creates different family forms at different times. Black feminists in Britain and elsewhere pointed out something that is true for working class families in many different situations - that the family can be a site of resistance as well as of oppression. Black families are often torn apart by the system - whether by apartheid in South Africa or immigration controls in Europe.
All of these forms however can