The Rights Of Man

NEIL OLIVER'S BOOK ON HEROISM

Neil Oliver, the TV historian produced a book this year called 'Amazing Tales For Making Men Out Of Boys' .

The book recount tales of male heroism and just the sort of stuff to get boys reading. In addition, it is a real antithesis to the feminisation of the world that stops boys from being boys. It is in a similar vein to the best-selling Dangerous Book For Boys.

Neil, in an interview in the Telegraph (link) and review (link), laments the fact that is "rubbish being a British man in 2008".

The more voices from credible people like Neil, helps the cause no end.  

JUDGES CONDEMN EAST SUSSEX COUNCIL OVER ADOPTIONS

It is a bit of an old story but probably the nastiest of this year.

In May,two senior judges strongly criticised East Sussex local authority for forcing through an adoption of a baby girl against the wishes of her father.

The story covered in The Times (link) highlighted how the council adopted "by means more foul than fair" in a case where a father who was unaware that he had a daughter until the council contacted him, wanted to take custody. This was because the mother had abandoned the child and she was placed into care.

When he contacted the council they then ignored him on purpose and he ended up losing his attempt at custody because the child had now been adopted. The judges condemned the council for its disgraceful conduct and that the council deliberately set out to prevent the father's case being heard.

In response, and despite the judges damning verdict , the councils' weasly response was "We are pleased the court confirmed that we were legally entitled to do what we did."

What the social services department of East Sussex did is frankly disgusting and it shows how some people in local authorities are hellbent on ignoring fathers, even to the point of subterfuge.

Supposedly the state is there to serve the people but clearly here, they were not interested at all. No-one will have lost their jobs at the council for this terrible terrible behaviour.

I just hope the people involved can sleep at night, though I suspect they don't care one way or other.

CHICHESTER COUNCIL BANS THE USE OF MAN

Chichester Council, in a politically correct guide dreamt up by council bosses (people funded by us taxpayers!) have banned the common usage of 'men' or 'man' in case people are offended. No more 'sleeping policeman', 'manning the switchboard' or 'the man on the street'. 

Who would have fought sleepy old Chichester in the heart of Toryland would come up with such nonsense? Only in the minds of men-haters would anyone be offended by such terms. 

They are a dangerous yet laughing stock as it would be no surprise if their guide was taken up elsewhere. They even try to defend it!

Story is well covered here:- Metro , Express, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph

AND SCOTLAND IGNORES MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

Yesterday's post mentioned the ground breaking work in Leicestershire in giving full recognition to male victims of domestic abuse.

In Scotland though, it is a different story as this article in The Scotsman shows (link). In a country of some 5 million people, there is nowhere for a male victim to go and it is clear they are not interested either. A disgrace.

Let us hope that Mens Aid Scotland, who are quoted in the article, are successful in their campaign,

LEICESTERSHIRE TAKE MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS SERIOUSLY

As you know, this site has often complained that local authorities on the whole do not take make victims of domestic abuse seriously.

Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council are an authority that does take them seriously. Their excellent booklet 'It happens to us too' (link), is the best of its kind, and is well worth viewing.

GENDER PAY GAP - GOVERNMENT'S OWN STATISTICS EXPLAIN AWAY HARMAN'S MYTHS

The Gender Pay Gap and the reasons behind it is one of the biggest anti-male myths going.

When Harriet Harman put forward draft legislation in June (link) explaining that there was a need for employers to be able to discriminate between men and women, she explained it was due to the Gender Pay Gap.

This has been used for decades now as a stick to beat men and also to allow all sorts of discrimination against them such as women-only courses, "positive" action training and used as a general anti-male propaganda tool. There has never been any systematic proof that a women is paid less than a man when she is doing the same job as a man at the same company with the same skill, experience and adding the same economic value

The Office of National Statistics this year produced clear statistics (link) and an explanation on why the gap exists and also that in some cases the gap is in favour of women.

The graph below from the Economic & Labour Market Review Vol 2 / No 4 / April 2008 shows that there is no discernible pay gap between men and women working full-time (median) until a women reaches her mid 30's (7% gap) and then accelerates to around 19% when a woman is in her mid forties.

Why is this? Well of course, as the research states, it is because many many women change their priorities in life (of which they are comfortable with) to bring up a family. It means there are then either working part-time, limited full-time hours or not working at all. In addition, when a mother is home, the father tends to work harder not only because there is one income coming in but also to make sure the household remains financially viable and he is also committed to bringing in as much money as possible for his and her children.

With such career breaks, when a woman goes back to work full-time, she has less work experience which will have an impact on her salary.

The report also shows that women working part-time in large companies earn more than men. In addition, in the health, social care and secretarial occupations, part-time women also earn more than part-time men. In the first two categories, the gap is 22.% in favour of women.

It is interesting to note that the oft-quoted 17% gap between men and women is based on a mean average rather than the more sensible median average which takes out the distortions of the very high earners. If the median is used, the figure is just over 13%.

What the research states is that the reason for the gap is because of :-

• Differences in educational levels and work experience;
• More part-time women workers;
• Travel patterns as men travel further to work than women;
• Occupational segregation because many female occupations are paid less than male ones.

It also clearly states that "part of the gender pay gap is the result of RATIONAL choices made by the different sexes and not all due to discrimination."

What this means is that whenever the Government or others wheel out the Gender Pay Gap as a reason for more positive discrimination for women and therefore negative discrimination for men, use this Government report.

It nails the myths of those who want to use Gender Pay Gap as another stick to beat men with.

GOVERNMENT CAUGHT PEDDLING MYTHS OVER 415 PLACES AVAILABLE TO MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS

One of the innumerable areas where this Government have paraded their anti-male credentials has been in the area of support for male victims.

It is bad enough when they spend £60 million per year through the Supporting People initiative on housing support for female victims but nothing for men.  Now they are trying in typical New Labour style to spin how much support male victims receive.

In a response to a e-petition (link), they claim there are 415 places available to male victims. This is based on a terribly misleading report from the Department of Communities and Local Government (report - see page 45).

The report makes this claim and also shows that 250 of these 415 places are in Yorkshire. However, after speaking to the ManKind Initiative (link), they said that these 415 places are actually in hostels for people on bail/recently released frOm prison/alcoholics etc. These are not proper refuge places with requisite care facilities (only six exist for heterosexual men, 1 for homosexual men whilst there are 500 for women).

The myth of the 415 places is deliberately misleading, it is a simple and typical untruth.

If anyone sees this being used by the Government, please alert this site or The ManKind Initiative. 

RESULTS HIGHLIGHT THE DESTRUCTION OF BOYS EDUCATION

The latest set of education results this week showed that the crisis in boys education continues apace.

The SATS results show that in English, Reading and Writing, 14 and 11 year old boys are a long way behind girls.

More than a third of 14 year-old boys have a reading age below 11 years of age (link) supposedly 10,000 boys had a reading age at 14 that was lower than when they went to school at 11.

 

The feminisation of education is destroying boys in our country (link) and the Government and the education establishment do nothing about it.  

CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE LAUNCHES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CONSULTATION - PREMISE IS BIASED AGAINST MEN

The Crown Prosecution Service have launched a new consultation - Prosecuting Cases of Domestic Violence (link).

What is disturbing is that the premise for the consultation already shows it only really views women as victims of domestic violence and not men. This false premise has to be challenged. Indeed, if the CPS does not change its guidance and training then it would be liable for challenge under the Human Rights Act and the Gender Equality Duty.

Under the section What is Domestic Violence? it states:- "...the evidence shows that the overwhelming majority of victims are women and abusers men. Taking action against domestic violence is therefore included as part of the CPS Violence against Women Strategy."

The accompanying press release (link) also quotes this Violence Against Women Strategy (link).

Firstly, the CPS, like other Government Agencies, shows its knee-jerk institutionalised sexism against men. The overwhelming majority of victims are not women. That is an untruth. The British Crime Survey figures show that two and five victims are men with nearly as many men are victims of severe force in a domestic relationship as women (See previous post, Dewar Research and The ManKind Initiative). It is ratio of 60 (women):40 (men) and this is not an 'overwhelming majority'.

Secondly, of course, where is the Violence Against Men Strategy?

There is a clear need that for those organisations, such as male domestic abuse charities, who must respond to this, they must challenge the myths that the CPS are basing their consultation on. It goes back to first principles.

VIOLENT WOMEN INCREASE MEANS MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED

Police announced today that they can no longer cope with the increase in violent women (link) - 240 per day.

After listening to the story of a male domestic abuse victim on Radio 4 (link - click on latest edition and 35 minutes in), the lightbulb went off.

Wth such an increase in violent women in British society nowadays, some of this at least be coming out in domestic situations, whether it is reported or not. 

Therefore the needs of male domestic abuse victims must be made a high priority rather than being ignored by the Governement, police and local authorities. These figures show that male victims must be on the increase, this violence cannot just be confined to after-closing-time incidents.

It also means that those who believe that only violence is carried out  by men are WRONG. They have been proved wrong and must challenged.

Again, no comment from Harman, Baird or Eagle?