Judge: Getting a divorce is too easy

Getting a divorce is "easier than getting a driving licence" a senior judge said today as he warned about the "huge" problem of family breakdown.

Sir Paul Coleridge, a Family Division judge, suggested people needed to "re-educate" themselves about the value of stable relationships for the good of the whole of society.

About 3.8million children are estimated to be caught up in the family justice system, with no sign of that number coming down, he said.

"Divorce is easy in the sense that obtaining a divorce is easier than getting a driving licence," he said. "It's a form-filling exercise and you'll get your divorce in six weeks if every-one agrees. Everyone in the land, from the royal family downwards, is now affected by family breakdown.

"It affects the lives of children, it affects the lives of their parents."

The judge blamed the problem on social changes over the past 50 years. Speaking to BBC Radio Five he said: "In about 1950 you weren't allowed in the royal enclosure at Ascot if you were divorced. That now would exclude half the royal family."