Dearly beloved...

So getting a divorce will soon be as easy as "applying for a television licence", as one paper put it. The idea is that the paperwork will all be handled administratively and the whole thing simply rubber-stamped by a district judge.  This is in fact no more than a continuation of what has been going on for years - with the courts taking less and less of a part in the process.  So does this, as opponents maintain, devalue marriage? Yes, of course it does, but it is simply reflecting reality - it is not responsible for the devaluation of marriage, simply adapting to deal with it.  The idea of marriage as a sacred bond which two people undertake for better, for worse and all that jazz has long since gone.  Shame, but there it is.  So there is no longer any reason for making divorce any more than a matter of signing a form.  Of course children and money may need more sorting out, but the actual cutting of the knot is really now accepted a nobody's business but that of the couple involved.