The very word has been expunged from public usage in its traditional meaning which of course, has the word 'marriage' understood within it.
The social damage which this has caused is well documented where children from married parents are streets ahead of those who have parents who are merely 'an item'.
Both these groups are naturally ahead of those where there is little or no formal structure or single parents. (Where the latter are an issue - it is always necessary to distinguish between those who are victims and those who are calculating or feckless.)
The Conservatives allowed the lefties to prevail in these areas when last in power and I simply disbelieve 'Slippery Dave's' assertions that he will 'make it all right again'.
Ed Balls has just declared that Labour oppose even the principle of tax breaks to encourage marriage - which had a long and successful history until the recent iconoclastic decades.
I just wonder what the old time socialists such as my grandfather would have made of these amoral so and sos.