Heterosexual Couple Win Court Case for Civil Partnership. I don't understand it.

BrassicWoman wrote: »

It matters to them, and they aren't impacting your life in the slightest. Just turn off the telly.

Any changes to society, its formalities and customs affect us all because we're all part of society. It's like arguing that bringing back capital punishment wouldn't affect you because you aren't going to murder anyone.

Loz01 wrote: »

If it mattered to them to get married, they would've done it. If they didnt want to be married..... dont do it. Just co habit whatever its called. Get a will made so you can cover issues that unmarried couples might face if something happened to one of them.

If they really feel that strongly they want a CP (a !!!!!! less than version of marriage that same sex couples were fobbed off with for years by a weak government) then they didnt have to take their "plight" to national TV and cheer outside a courtroom as if you've marked a day in history.

Except that being married allows you to make decisions on hospital care and other such things. A will helps with none of that. Additionally tax implications on things such as inheritance require you to be married or in a CP. it probably effects all kinds of things that I don't have the slightest inclination to research. It's enough for me to know that the law as it stood wasn't equal...ie not fair. The law should be fair and just.

Senseicads wrote: »

Except that being married allows you to make decisions on hospital care and other such things.

Doctors make decisions on medical care, not spouses.


You can nominate anyone to be the person the doctors talk to, the so-called "next of kin" (a title with no legal status) and you do not have to be related to them or married to them. NHS trusts have just about arrived in the 1970s as far as their outlook on relationships goes and they do, finally, accept that people have enduring romantic relationships which do not involve marriage. You can even tell your doctor to put it on your medical records and / or carry a "next of kin" card which explicitly states this.

This whole thing seems daft and will probably be resolved by just doing away with new CP's and just let existing ones carry on.


CP is NOT like they have on the continent where couples who live together register it formally for some benefits. CP in the UK is marriage (but without adultery rules).


and them saying "oh, its better for all those people who don't want to get married and will protect the children" - well really, its going to be half a dozen middle class professional couples who do this. The people who need financial protection (stay at home women with kids etc) are going to find their partners are just as reluctant to civil partner then as marry them.

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

In the Netherlands, they are close to identical, the difference is that a partnership can be ended without needing to involved the court if there are no minor children, and partnerships do not require a declaration of vows during the ceremony wheras marriages do. So functionaly they are identical and approximately 20% of couples opt for partnerships rather than marriage.

In France, one of the ways you can dissolve a PACS is simply to marry someone else! Most young French couples seem to be using them as a half way house to marriage, rather like an old fashioned formal engagement and older people because otherwise your partner has to pay 60% tax on anything they inherit from the you.

Most countries who have them tend to have them for a reason, the UK doesn't have that need.