Interviewed in the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on April 30, Sir Paul Coleridge said: “There comes a time when you have to speak out in circumstances where you feel you know more than anybody involved in the debate.
“I happen to think that the family judiciary have a contribution to make to this debate. Most of us have watched as the situation has gradually got more and more appalling and out of control and there comes a time when it is, I think, irresponsible to remain quiet.
“In terms of the impact that family breakdown is having on society, nobody – and I emphasise that – nobody has the experience that the family judiciary have.
“If we remain quiet, it is like doctors who see epidemics going through their surgeries and say ‘We can’t make a comment on that because it might be said to be commenting on the way people are living’.
“This is now happening across Britain – and indeed Europe and North America – on a scale we have never seen before and the impact it has on the whole of society is very, very real and dramatic and we need to highlight it and do something about it.”
Sir Paul insisted that he was not mounting a moral campaign but simply wanted to set out the facts in a “non-preachy, non-didactic way”.

Listen to the interview here (at 0742).