Introduction 

The intimate subject of how people live their private lives - who they love, whether they marry, when they have children - attracts a huge amount of debate and controversy, most often about the social consequences of such personal decisions. Not surprisingly then, the last 30 years have seen numerous attempts by political parties to engage in debates about personal matters. Examples include Margaret Thatcher's government's introduction of Section 28 in 1987, in a reaction against local authorities "intentionally promoting" homosexuality, as well as the launch of the ill-fated 'Back to Basics' campaign in 1993 by her successor, John Major, which subsequently floundered in a sea of political sex scandals. Conservative claims to be the true party of the family caused difficulties for New Labour who, in 2001, felt forced to state that it too saw marriage as the best framework for bringing up children. [1] And while David Cameron has sought to rebrand the Conservative Party as socially liberal on issues such as gay rights, he continues to emphasize the importance of family; most recently, he and the Conservative Party have found themselves in disarray over the subject of gay marriage. 

The British public's thinking about these issues, its sense of moral right and wrong, has been strongly shaped by a Christian tradition, especially since the rise of Victorian morality in the second half of the nineteenth century. Marriage, as the officially sanctioned institution within which a man and woman can live together, be intimate and have children, has played a key role in governing how people are expected to live. Behaviour falling outside these boundaries - be it homosexuality, sex outside marriage, divorce, cohabitation or illegitimacy - was at best frowned upon, and at worst the subject of official or unofficial sanctions, depending on the historical period in question. In reality, history gives a less black and white account of British morality. Much has been written about the gap between Victorian values and real Victorian behaviour, and the notion that in the past the English were all respectably married is also far from the truth. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, for example, a surprisingly high proportion of English brides were pregnant on their wedding day (Waller, 2009).

This chapter looks at British attitudes towards personal relationships and behaviour and how these have changed over the past three decades. It focuses on three key areas - marriage, homosexuality and abortion - to consider how much attitudes have changed, and among whom the change has been most pronounced. It explores the reasons behind these changes and, where possible, suggests how attitudes might shift in the future. It also considers how far people's views about personal relationships vary according to their political sympathies and whether this is changing over time, to help shed light on current political debates.