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  1. Politics
27 May 2011updated 26 Sep 2015 2:17pm

The political elite should represent different lifestyles

This blogger thinks that Ed Miliband should have stood proud in his decision to live out of wedlock.

By Frances Ryan

This blogger thinks that Ed Miliband should have stood proud in his decision to live out of wedlock. Do you agree?

Today Ed Miliband became a husband. What a waste, I mourn, and for reasons other than his geek bachelor charm. I toyed with the idea it was my duty to stop it, the ceremony being only a bus ride from my house.

One last-ditch race to the hotel (not a church, at least . . . thank God) and things could have been so different, as the registrar asked if anyone “knew a reason” why they shouldn’t wed. “Yes me!” I should have cried. “Because you don’t need to, because you said you didn’t want to, and because there are many of your electorate who feel the same.”

When the newly elected Ed became the first British party leader to live with his family outside of marriage, he suddenly became a rather more attractive catch. In a refreshing demonstration of progression and free thought, Ed and Justine were swapping matrimony for happy cohabitation and ignoring the multiple media outlets that criticised them for the act.

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Ed turned down Christine Bleakley’s kind offer of proposing to his partner live on air, and to the traditionalists it was tacitly explained that commitment didn’t come with a piece of paper and all women weren’t pining for a diamond ring. It was all going so well – until they got engaged.

Faced with enough public scrutiny, two adults who had been sharing their lives with a home and children were now making the “real” commitment of institutionalism and legal documentation. For me, a love affair that had started so promisingly was quickly turning sour. Under the spotlight of the right-wing press, before Ed knew it, the personal had become the political. Far from being the time to rush to the altar, this was the time to stand proud.

Marriage is a valid option in life, but there are several fine alternatives, as Miliband had the chance to show. A woman doesn’t need to have her man’s baby to prove she loves him, and he doesn’t need to get down on one knee.

There are different models of relationships in modern Britain, a range of choices to be had, and these are not things to be ashamed of, not values to brush quietly to one side. They are, rather, lifestyles that vast portions of the citizenry choose daily, and choices the political elite should have the strength to represent. In saying “I do” to his partner today, Ed looked at the electorate and said: “I don’t.”

Frances Ryan is a freelance writer and political researcher at the University of Nottingham.

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