Never mind Adam, Eve and the apple - the hardest thing to resist in our world seems to be a tasty sound bite. We saw it in action last week with a report from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), which - on the basis of statistics covering 0.7 per cent of the UK - announced the latest danger to society: 'man deserts', the end product of a 'tsunami' of family breakdown.
First of all, let me assure you that despite the resulting sensationalist headlines there is no tsunami. One in four families with children is headed by a single parent today, and this is a statistic that has remained broadly consistent for the past decade.
Single parent families are embedded in family life and in communities. They are the family next door, the mum or dad on the school run, the colleague at work - in short, a normal part of modern British family life.
Single parents do a fantastic job under tough circumstances, and the vast majority of children from single parent families will and do turn out just fine. As many readers will know from experience, what makes the real difference to children's prospects is the quality of parenting and how families are coping financially.
It is deeply frustrating, as an organisation that works day in, day out with single parents, to see such spurious conclusions drawn from data that simply doesn't justify it.
We are told that 'fatherless' children are more likely to be criminals or teen parents and to struggle in life. These are powerful statements affecting 3 million children and their parents, but without basis in fact.
SLIDE INTO POVERTY
If we are to talk about impending tsunamis, let's talk about poverty. Statistics show that four in every ten children in single parent families are poor, compared to just over two in every ten children in couple families.
And child poverty in the UK is set to worsen: the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that by 2020 one in four children in the UK will be living in poverty. Many of these will be from single parent families. While good relationships with both parents are important, it is income that holds the greatest sway over children's future chances, not whether they have two parents or one playing an active role in their lives.
WE NEED ACTION
There are clear paths of action that the Government can take to alleviate poverty in single parent families.
First: work. Fifty nine per cent of single parents do work and the vast majority of those who aren't working want to.
But cripplingly high childcare costs, and the difficulty in finding jobs that are family-friendly and pay enough to cover childcare, travel and other costs prove insurmountable barriers for many single parents. The result is more than 1 million children growing up in single parent families where no one works, with many of those who do finding that having a job still doesn't inch them above the poverty line.
Second: the cuts to financial support for low-income families, from the benefit cap to working tax credits, are coming at a time when the cost of living is rising sharply. Single parents are consistently shown to be among those worst affected by welfare cuts and reforms and many more of their children will be pushed into poverty as a result.
And third: responsibility. We do share one concern with the CSJ - although two-thirds of children from single parent families have regular contact with both parents, too many children don't get either the emotional or financial support they deserve from the parent they are not living with.
Research we published earlier this month with Natcen and Bryson Purdon Social Research and funded by the Nuffield Foundation found that two-thirds (64 per cent) of single parents who are out of work also don't get any maintenance for their child. But for those families who do receive maintenance, one in five have been lifted out of poverty as a result.
These are three crucial areas where the Government can make a significant difference to families' lives. It can and should take action to encourage both parents to maintain responsibility - emotional and financial - after separation. George Osborne must recognise and respond to the terrible impact the barrage of cuts to financial support will have on poor families.
And it is long overdue for the Government to tackle the barriers that are holding single parents back from the workplace and keeping their families in poverty.
Stigmatising single parent families helps no one, but taking action on child poverty will help us all.
