I don't believe that it is the place of the state to encourage or discourage any particular family arrangement . I declare an interest as a long time (and in all likelihood now permanently) single person, but I utterly resent the suggestion that the state should somehow reward those who are fortunate enough to have found their significant other by discriminating against singles.

I do accept, however, that the theoretical permanency of a marriage or civil partnership commitment may provide some benefits of stability in the lives of children of the union at important stages of their development. And I also recognize that virtually any interdependent personal relationship has the potential to take some of the onus off the state for support services and the like. So, how to reconcile these positions?

The answer seems obvious - Citizens' Income. Quite apart from such a system's ability to address the problems of benefits withdrawal creating excessive marginal rates of taxation for those trying to get off benefits and into work, if every individual were entitled to an unconditional and non-withdrawable basic income as of right as a citizen, those who choose, or are lucky enough, to live with another (or others), would be able to pool such incomes and no doubt make savings on the costs of procuring essential goods and services.

Food is generally cheaper when you are buying for more than one person. Family health insurance seems cheaper than the sum of the same number of individuals' insurance. In a Land Value Tax regime it is likely that multiple member households would be paying less tax per person anyway than singles simply by virtue of sharing space - making more efficient use of land by and large. Housing costs per person are likely to be lower.

So, give more of our money back to us for us to decide how to spend ourselves, and these family relationships will prove themselves by dint of domestic economic efficiencies. No need for more central tinkering.

Such is the difference, in my mind, between a moralising, authoritarian and protectionist view of human relationships and a liberal view.