Divorce easier than getting driving licence

A top UK judge has said that getting a divorce is now easier than getting a driving licence, and it is due to the fact that now a marriage can come to an end with just a basic form-filling exercise.

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Sir Paul Coleridge blamed 50 years of relationship free-for-all for the spread of divorce on demand, and said that it has left 3.8 million children at the mercy of the courts because of the break-up of their parents.

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The judge, who sits in the High Court Family Division as Mr Justice Coleridge, has called repeatedly for legal reforms to clear up the mess left by the decline of marriage.

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He described the problem of family breakdown as "huge" and condemned the ease of divorce in an interview on BBC Radio Five Live.

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"Divorce is easy in the sense that obtaining a divorce is easier than getting a driving licence," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

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"It's a form-filling exercise and you'll get your divorce in six weeks if everyone agrees," he said.

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He added that the stigma attached to divorce in the past has also disappeared.

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The judge said there was no sign that the misery of large numbers of children hit by family break-up was diminishing.

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"In fact, every indication is it's going up. The whole of society is affected by this. Everyone in the land, from the Royal Family downwards, is now affected by family breakdown," he said.

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"It affects the lives of children themselves, it affects the lives of their parents. The wider family gets caught up in it.

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"It then ripples out to the local community, the schools and then into the wider community," he added.