Late Night Love

One of the factoids that came out at the end of the year - and which did not surprise me - was that married households are now in the minority.

Not surprising? Well considering that human history on this planet goes back around one million years and the Marriage Act only happened around 200 years ago - and that marriage seems to be more about property than love it's surprising that more people haven't smelled a rat before now.

Or perhaps they did - most of old literature seems to be about people forced into unhappy marriages when they would rather have eloped with their lovers.

But listen to Graham Torrington's Late Night Love and you start to wonder if 90% of the population have lost the plot. People ringing in "He/she cheated on me and blah, blah, whahhhh!!" Fill in the blanks and that's most of it covered. Isn't that terrible? No just get used to it, and here's why....

Firstly we've been encouraged to place all our emotional and financial eggs in one basket. It's not realistic nor healthy nor sustainable. Secondly, we humans are primates - and primates generally live in polygamous societies. Why? Because it makes genetic sense to do so - young born in polygamous societies have a better survival rate. And that applies to humans as well as other primates.

What's more - there seems to be a presumption that screwing around is a male preoccupation. Well I've got news for you - every shag requires both a man and a woman - so the numbers must be exactly the same. Not a lot of people seem to have noticed that - perhaps it needs to be pointed out!

So Graham Torrington: next time you're moralising on your radio show about the things that people get up to remember this: the way people behave now is just a continuation of the way they have for the last million years. We evolved that way for good reason and a couple of hundred years of moral code isn't going to change that.