It is truly puzzling how the obvious in the current debate, or what may just qualify as a debate on divorce, escapes some people.

It should be an incontrovertible fact that divorce is not the cause of a marriage breakdown but its consequence. Divorce is simply its legal end-piece. A marriage ends well before formal steps to separate or to divorce occur. It should also be obvious to all that that no marriage vows, no legal ethical moral religious or any other rules will save a marriage or force a couple to live together if they do not want to.

The present no to divorce position will not ameliorate the strife, the tensions and stresses endemic in a situation where love has turned to hate and where couples who cannot afford to legally separate are continually at loggerheads.

It is misleading voters to feature on adverts or billboards the face of an innocent child and assert without any evidence that divorce will be detrimental to that child. That child is suffering now and will continue to suffer whether or not divorce proceedings are available in law.

The present situation is also discriminatory in favour of those who can afford to divorce in a foreign country.

If the No vote prevails, the intransigence of the No divorce lobby will one day be challenged in the European court. That much I forecast if the Yes vote fails.

Marriage with no divorce will continue to encourage cohabitation and will do nothing for that sweet innocent face on the billboards. Is that what the No lobby want?

■ Joe Izzo

Xghajra