Double trouble

Saturday, 1st October 2005

Anthony Browne on the marked increase in the number of twins and its social and economic consequences

Twins usually have a soulmate and ally for life unavailable to the rest of us, making them more confident, less depressive, less prone to suicide and, with this greater social support, less prone to crime (the Krays may have been criminals, but they were criminals with a social conscience). Families, with closer bonds between siblings, will become a more robust part of the social fabric. With stronger ties, society as a whole will become stronger.

Twins are still so rare that their very rarity arouses fascination. Try shopping with twin babies (if you don’t happen to have your own, borrow some from some exhausted parents) and you’ll spend all your time being proud to curious well-wishers. But when people start seeing double wherever they look, twins will enter the mainstream. Society will be divided down the middle between twins and singletons. When you first meet someone socially, one of the first questions will be which group they belong to. Singletons, claiming unfair disadvantages, will campaign for special affirmative action programmes.

Of course, it is conceivable that things may turn out differently. The number of twins is growing rapidly but, as my financial adviser keeps insisting he told me, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Geneticists and perfectionist parents may have another future in store for us — domination by blond or blonde, blue-eyed Olympic-winning Einsteins. For mere mortals, that really would be something to worry about.

Anthony Browne is Europe correspondent for the Times.