The Rights Of Man

NEWS UPDATE

Lots been going on this week, so to keep up here are a few of the articles of relevance:

The Sun - Tories worse than Labour on U-Turns (Tom Newton-Dunne) Recognition of the infamous rape anonymity u-turn as this u-turn seems to have been erased when others talk about u-turns. Well done The Sun.

The Independent - How does slut-walking advance feminism (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown) - she attacks slut walking but then makes wild accusations about men

Daily Telegraph - Chivalry is benevolent sexism (Andy Bloxham) - madness from the USA making feminism a laughing stock

Daily Telegraph - If chivalry is dead, blame it on the selfish feminists (Lucy Jones) - sensible women fight back

Daily Telegraph - Why I'll be keep opening the door for women (Stephen Bayley)

Daily Mail - Equalities Office where women earn more than men (Gerri Peev) - Great work from Dominic Raab MP showing the hypocrisy of the Government's Office where equality only counts if you are a woman (and in Telegraph).

Conservative Home - Andrew Bridgen MP has no case to answer - Another man having his name dragged through the papers when he is not guilty, no mention of the girl's name - perhaps Mr Bridgen may want to campaign against his government's u-turn?

Daily Mail - Forgiving husbands begs police not to charge wife he stabbed him

Northampton Chronicle - Brian Binley MP hits out at Nuffield Foundation

The Guardian - Don't turn the clock back on women (Rachel Reeves) - More anti-male, pro women special pleading

Daily Mail - Feminism is so passe, it's boy's who need help now (Sandra Parsons) - Brilliant from Sandra Parsons

Daily Mail - Female drunks at Take That concert (James Tozer) - What will the feminists think of this sign of empowerment?

BBC - Russell Crowe backs downs on circumcision - The anti-male (including many men) out in force to force the actor to backtrack

The Sun - Bulimia rise in boys (Emma Little) - Emma's first class research which was on the front page of the Sun shows the paper has its serious side on men's issues (it run a front page on male victims of doemstic abuse two years ago). The Daily Mail and Telegraph  followed it up.

Posted by Skimmington

ARTICLES UPDATE

Please find below some recent articles that may be of interest and have not been covered on the site in the past month.

Bestbear.co.uk - Sexual discrimination against male nannies

Daily Mail - Paramedic was unfairly dismissed after false rape claim

Daily Mail - More girls join the Scouts than boys (Steve Doughty)

Daily Mail - Fire service relaxes tests to make it easier for women

Legal Week - Eversheds sex discrimination rejected by tribunal  -A disgraceful attempt by Eversheds to applea against their discrimination against a man. It shows the lengths some go to deny discrimination exists against men.

BBC News - Girls behaviour deteriorating in the classroom

Guardian - MPs warn against false allegations in family courts

Daily Mail - Sexism is dead say British women (Steve Doughty)

Guardian - Quotas and women-only shortlists aren't popular but they work (Suzanne Moore)

Guardian - Glencore Chairman says women prefer bringing up children than being in the boardroom

Posted by Skimmington

GOVERNMENT CRUSHES FATHER'S HOPES IN SHAM REVIEW

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, been a very busy time working long hours with the downside being that lack of time to work on the blog but even worse it means I will have been contributing to the extension of the 'mythical' gender pay gap.

This week saw the publication of the interim report of the Family Justice Review which partly is addressed at dealing with the escalating cost of the family law system (both public and private), the time delays/bureaucracy and also looking at how to improve things for fathers and grandparents.

We all know through years of bitter experience and years of campaigning how the family law system system is corrupt and unfair to both children and grandparents alike.

Corrupt because CAFCASS, social services and many judges are anti-male and anti-father with CAFCASS and social services corrupted by feminist fundamentalism with many in positions of power being 'educated' in the 70's and 80's. This has often been done in tandem with solicitors and judges who have played along - solicitors just want their money. The outcome being the undermining of the fundamental natural requirement of a child being allowed to have the presence of their father in their life and the father from having contact with his children.

Secondly, the legal corruption has been the lack of sanction of mothers who breach court orders often costing the father thousands upon thousands and made worse with the Child Support Agency hammering his door down for money when he cannot see them. A state-sanctioned system of hypocrisy leading to the creation of Fathers4Justice and other groups while the mainstream groups such as Families Need Fathers have been working to get the system changed by lobbying.

The one change everyone wanted was an explicit recognition in law of shared parenting, not one based on redisency and non-residency. Not too much to ask.

 This site has commented long and hard about how men had hoped that a new government would ensure there was equality for men and women. Initially there was light with the hope on issues such as anonymity on rape, the lack of anti-male rhetoric and on family law. The government though has danced to the feminist fundamentalist tune and backtracked on everything it promised, been involved in even more male bashing on pay, directorships, pensions and anything else it can lay its hands on.

Yet in the backgorund the flame that still flickered was on family law. That flame has now been snuffed out.

As ever with these things, the government pre-briefed the media so the initial headlines that greeted everyone at the beginning of the week were that grandparents would have a legal right to see their grandchildren  (and Telegraph) and this review would be ground breaking. And then when it was published it was clear when you read it that it was a sham with the grandparents issues a carefully crafted smokescreen that shows no progress for fathers - it is straight out of the spin doctors manual and the dupes in the media fell for it because they are too lazy to do anything except regurgitate the press release.

Basically, there is no real mention of shared parenting at all it says "there should be regard given to the status of shared parental responsibility" - but no presumption! It rules it out (Page 23 - section 108).

The reforms win the backing of lawyers and judges (no surprise) but as the Daily Mail reported - others like Fathers4Justice and the Family Society say it is a sham. Families Need Fathers says it still has a long way to go and organisations such as FNF had made sensible, reaosnable and well thought out submissions. But they were ignored.

It was almost as if the review had been 'got at' by the fundamentalists - that by having shared parenting would mean the value of fathers would be enhanced and that was unacceptable. If the governement enacts these proposals in this 'interim' review then there it will be cleat that the government is as bad as the last.

It gives the hope of equality and justice for men, and then takes it away. That is worse than making clear there is no hope at all.

Posted by Skimmington

Postscript - There are a number of Conservative MP's such as Brian Binley and Charlie Elphicke who are campaigning for shared parenting so we hope they are vocal in their opposition to this. 

Postscript 2 - The sound Brian Hitchcock from the Family Law Society on BBC West Midlands

 

DOMINIC RAAB MP STANDS FIRM

Unlike Christopher Blunt MP and other Ministers in the Justice team whose knees buckled against the onslaught of the anti-male feminists, Dominic Raab is holding his line that men get a raw deal and that there is a lot of feminist bigotry in the UK.

He has been further interviewed on the BBC (see also blog) and Evening Standard  (the journalist Pippa Crerar says that women get paid 10% less than men for doing the same job - an assertion that is completely and utterly incorrect) and there has been further coverage in papers like the Daily Mail (423 comments in their comments section!) and Daily Express.

The BBC says Mr Raab defends his comments, why should he defend them? When Harman, May or Featherstone make their anti-male comments, do the BBC ask them to defend their views?? No, the BBC just accepts them.

As Jon said in yesterday's post, we should individually write to him via http://www.dominicraab.com/contact_dom.html and thank him for raising this issue and for standing firm.

Posted by Skimmington

AT LAST, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT STANDS UP FOR MEN AND BOYS: DOMINIC RAAB MP

At last an MP in the House of Commons has stood up for men in this country and said that equality means equality for men and boys too.

Dominic Raab MP has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons in his first class article on the Politics Home website where he declares that "We must end feminist bigotry".

He also declares that:

"From the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal."

"Meanwhile, young boys are educationally disadvantaged compared to girls, and divorced or separated fathers are systematically ignored by the courts"

" Maybe it’s time men started burning their briefs, to put an end once and for all to what Emmeline Pankhurst used to call ‘the double standard of sex morals."

At long long last we have a British Member of Parliament not only making the case that equality applies to men and boys too but also pointing out the facts about the gender discrimination gap which is used as a way to berate men and ask for special favours for women. His attack on soft discrimination beloved by Harman, May and Featherstone is spot on.

He also raises general issues about male employment, education and family law and also makes the valid point that feminists, especially the extremists like Harman et al, intensely dislike in that men and women like each other and are inter-dependent. Attack men and you are attacking their mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, partners, or girlfriends.

Has he been reading this site, we ask ourselves?

As you would expect, especially when the idiots Andy Gray and Richard Keys put the cause back, it is not long before the usual anti-male suspects line up to attack Dominic Raab.

Harman says "Women still earn 20 per cent less than men, domestic violence claims the lives of women every week and women bear the brunt of poverty in the developing world." And a new campaigner, Nia Griffith, the shadow business minister, called on Mr Raab to "get real and stop being so self-pitying”.

We have all been waiting for years for just one MP to raise the issue about male inequality and that equality means equality for men and boys too.

In Dominic Raab MP, perhaps we have now found someone who will stand up in parliament and speak up for men and boys, as well as their mothers,  sisters, daughters, wives, partners, or girlfriends. Let us all hope he sticks to it, all of the above are hoping he does.

Posted by Skimmington

Media coverage - Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard (plus comments), Daily Mail

 

CHILD MAINTENANCE REVIEW OFFERS HOPE ON JUSTICE IN THE FAMILY COURTS

At the turn of the year the site commented on its despair at the actions, in-actions and u-turns of the Coalition Government on equality issues for men. A lot of this is because it has been driven by the Ministers for Equalities and Minister for Women.

The one area where there still remained a flicker of hope was the fact the government remained committed to reviewing family law and the way that family courts and other institutions operated. This is helped by the fact that 'the family' remains a central construct in Conservative ideology (less so for the Lib Dems though John Hemmings MP has been active).

In the Coalition agreement it stated: We will conduct a comprehensive review of family law in order to increase the use of mediation when couples do break up, and to look at how best to provide greater access rights to non-resident parents and grandparents.

Whilst that review remains ongoing, they have just launched a separate consultation on the future of child maintenance - a system riddled with anti-father bias and unfairness.

One of the biggest injustices in overall family law system has been the disconnection between child maintenace and access - where a father is denied access to their children despite court orders and agreements but still the CSA and now CMEC continue to demand (with menaces) the maintenance payments. These issues have been dealt with in a silo.

It has meant mothers who flout the law are still rewarded by the CSA/CMEC  - a morally corrupt situation especially made worse by the family courts failing to 'punish' mothers who ignore court orders. Mothers in this situation are gaming the system because policymakers have never made the connection between child maintenance and access.

This has also been enhanced because fathers recognise and worry about the consequences of withhloding payments on their children and recalcitrant mothers play on this as well.

Welcome news has been received today though that this now being looked at in the round as the Family Justice Review team have said:

As part of the [child maintenance green paper], DWP have asked us to look at the extent to which decisions on maintenance or contact should have a bearing on each other – alongside our emerging proposals for whole-system reform.The full proposal is laid out in the Green Paper as follows:

We know that one of the most significant issues for non-resident parents is when contact with their children is denied or withheld. This can lead to tension and hostility between the parents, especially where maintenance is still being collected through the statutory system.

We are keen to explore approaches that allow maintenance arrangements to be considered in the round when determining appropriate contact enforcement measures. We recognise, however, that there are challenges in linking maintenance and contact in this way, most importantly how such decisions might impact on the best interests of the child. We also recognise that it is important that this issue is considered within the context of wider reforms that are currently being progressed elsewhere in government. We have therefore requested that the Family Justice Review consider this issue as part of its wider work in developing options for reform of the Family Justice System.

 I am aware that you may have an opinion on this issue, but might not have addressed it in your evidence to the Review. We plan to set out the issues and invite further views on this in our interim report, to be published at the end of March.

 If, however, you want to pass on any immediate comments on this proposal for our consideration ahead of this, we would be grateful to receive these by Friday 4 February.Please submit any evidence to: [email protected]

This is extremely encouraging news because it means a joined-up government approach and the review on family law is a root and branch review.

Not only does it mean the prospect of shared parenting is on the horizon but also that there may be justice and equality with regards to child maintenance as well.

Let us hope that those mothers who purposely deny their child(ren) the chance to maintain a meaningful relationship with their fathers, despite court agreements, no longer are allowed to sit at home counting the cash he is still forced to send through.

All is asked for is moral and legal justice in a supposedly civilised country.

Posted by Skimmington 

PANORAMA SHOW ON FECKLESS DADS SHOW INSTITUTIONAL BIAS OF BRITAIN'S MEDIA ELITE

One of the enduring and underlying themes of documentaries about men is the fact that there always seems to be room for naysayers who want to undermine the concept of the show. Sometimes this can take away the overriding message or dampen its effect.

The site picked up on the negative comments from a Damian Carnell from Nottinghamshire Domestic Abuse Forum (in the BBC's excellent and well received Last Refuge  programme) whose sole remit seemed to be to try and make out that official statistics on male victims of domestic abuse were not as they seemed on paper. I felt his contribution had been shoe-horned into the programme and certainly on a documentary about female victims of domestic abuse, the BBC would not have someone on whose purpose was to undermine statistics on female victims.

Other documentaries scratch the surface in such a way as to not do the subject justice or skew things to such an extent that meaning or relevance can go missing. It can obviously skew meaning to the detriment of the subject matter and often this can be deliberate and add more weight to a stereotype. It's all so easy to do if you are a member of the the anti-male media, public sector and political establishment.

This is the case with the Panorama programme on Monday night called Britain's Missing Dads, which left viewers with the impression with the fact that men were feckless and the plight of single parent mothers was the sole fault of men and the benefits system (which mothers were happy to exploit). Even to the point where Frank Field berated fathers for being feckless and they used the worst possible case in the UK  (a man with endless children by endless mothers).

It was almost as if Panorama was trying to be the TV equivalent of the Daily Mail (better than the Guardian of course!).

The progamme did not cover the bias in the family courts, the ideological disdain for fathers by  CAFCASS, the CSA/CMEC or of course, the fact that some mothers do not want the father around especially if it means they cannot 'game' the benefits system. The latter two points were made out to be the sole fault of the father.

The man bashing agenda can be seen by the response from the Fatherhood Institute about the way their quotes had been taken out of context and their view that the programme just perpetuated stereotypes. It is an excellent response as is the response from the Men's Network.

The anger about the programme can really be felt by the comments left on the BBC website. Instead of looking at the issue in the round or concentrating on an issue where there is clear problem (the family courts for example), the BBC's Panorama chose the ideologically easy target - the feckless dad.

It is easier you see to concentrate your fire on men and fathers in this way because they are a not politcially correct victim group. It is far harder to produce a programme on the bias of the family courts denying children access and support from their fathers. All hell would break loose if the BBC told the truth about the family courts system.

Posted by Skimmington

PS There are lots of comments on the BBC's site but this one says it all in a nutshell (listed at 8.55pm). 

"Yet another program that only shows one side of the problem.What about showing the mothers that refuse to give fathers any access to children after a divorce, then spread rumours like, 'I think he may have been doing something to them', even when completely untrue.

 "I lost my career because my ex decided this was the best way to stop me having any access, and went from £25000 a year in 1990 to £9500 in 2010. I had difficulty paying bills, let alone maintenance, and as for contact I have recently found out she destroyed any letters I sent to my children or any they sent to me.

 "Is that the actions of a caring mother?

"How about another program showing the other side of the problems, not just the governments or mothers."

 

ARTICLES ROUND-UP

Just an update on a few recent articles worth looking at:

Daily Mail - My wife hugged me and then stabbed me in the back (Penny Marshall) Please read comments section.

This is Leicestershire - Support for male victims of domestic abuse (Ciaran Fagan)

Daily Telegraph - Poor white boys score lower than chinese classmates (Tim Ross)

Daily Telegraph - Mother stunned after being accused of kerb-crawling (Chris Brooke) : Mother attacks police tactics mentioning what would happen if it was a man accused.

Evening Standard - Fathers at risk from legal aid cuts (Martin Bentham)

Daily Mail - The children who never see daddy (James Chapman): 369 comments in this section

Daily Mail - More rights for women has led to fewer jobs in the recession (Harry Phibbs)

Daily Mail - My dad is number one role model

Posted by Skimmington

 

 

ARTICLES ROUND-UP

As is traditional, there have been a number of articles/stories that the site has not covered or linked through to over the past month or so. A list is set out below:

UK Poverty - Suicide statistics show 80% of young adult suicides are by young men

Daily Mail - Amber Portwood charged with domestic violence

Prince's Trust - Youth happiness

Oxford University - Men's weight

Porstmouth News- DV policy is a war on men

Daily Mail- Amanda Bradley jailed for false allegation

BBC News- Emma Bunden jailed for false allegation

BBC News- Merthyr 16 year old jailed for false allegation

Daily Mail - Judge Coleridge says women should have children taken away if they do not allow contact with father.

BBC News - 61 women sent to trial over false allegations

Posted by Skimmington

 

2010 - ANOTHER BAD YEAR AND ANOTHER BAD GOVERNMENT FOR BRITISH MEN

When the coalition government came together (also with lots of new MP's) there was some hope that the prospects for equality for men would improve after 13 years of a proudly anti-male Labour government with Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, proudly proclaiming her anti-male credentials.

When the coalition government came to power, there were a number of positive things it outlined. Family law reform (still pending), anonymity for rape defendants unless found guilty and a commitment not to implement the controversial 'positive' discrimination sections of the Equality Act specifically designed to undermine the employment chances of men. Plus there was a general feeling that there would no longer be the harsh anti-male tone of the previous Government.

There were still troubling issues such as the fact that there was again a Minister for Women but no Minister for Men (how can a government state it believes in equality and have a Minister for one gender and not for the other, if it has to them at all). It also talked about equality in the boardroom (now going ahead), continuing with pension age discrimination and also nothing on men's health or education.

So what has happened, well its worse than we feared:

(1) The government performed a heinous u-turn on anonymity for rape defendants.

(2) The controversial section (section 159) of the Equality Act was implemented (on the link see latest news on 2nd December 2010) and hidden in the small print on its announcement on its Equality Strategy (see 8 below). This pernicious part of the Act was substantially covered on this site (1 and 2 ) and the u-tunr was covered in the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Metro, Daily Telegraph 2, Daily Telegraph 3

(3) Still no Minister for Men

(4) The government adopted the End Violence against Women & Girls strategy which has meant that male victims of rape and domestic abuse do not feature in government, police or local authority plans in tackling rape or domestic abuse. The outcome can be seen by the way the government handled its trials on 'stop' orders which were framed at female victims (thereby setting the tone for the way the police will handle the issue) or its Christmas campaign. For an example of how it percolates through the system, see a response the ManKind Initiative recently received from the Equalities Commission.

(5) Its continuing and deliberate misinterpretation of the gender pay gap, even though we now know younger women earn more than younger men. Plus resurrecting the issue that there are not enough women in the boardroom (1 and 2) and stating it has an aspiration to ensure 50% of appointees to public bodies are female.

Lord Mervyn Davies who is leading the taskforce looking at the female make up of boardroom has already declared "let's put women first for 2011". I kid you not. With this and the Equality Act, men are being shut out, make no mistake. Academies for female executives, board internships and now the 30% club.

Equality should mean the best people, now basing people on their gender but that is now what is happening and in many circumstances men (and of course that means their wife/partner or daughter as well) will lose out because good men will be held back to allow a woman with less skill to take their place. How can this be equality, gender is irrelevant.

Can Lord Mervyn Davies hand on heart say that a black boy from a run-down council estate attending a sink school has more chance of being on a board of a FTSE-100 company that a white girl living in Knightsbridge and going to a private school. Davies thinks so. 

(6) No action on boy's education, men's health (Prostate Cancer society article shows why) or suicide (80% of young people committing suicide are men).

(7) No one in Parliament (including the 232 new MP's - 35% of the total) and certainly no one in the Government is standing up for men and men's issues. It means the anti-male feminists in all parties are again riding roughshod over the true meaning of equality and doing all the can to marginalise men. 

(8) And finally - the coup de grace - the government's shiny new Equality Strategy - Building a Fairer Britain. At no stage (except fleetingly on Caribean boys)  does it ever mention men and boys or the isuses facing them. None of them in this post are ever mentioned. Nothing on education, higher rates of unemployment, health, suicide - just example after example on issues affecting women.

The Equality Strategy published this month, makes it completley clear - this governement is no better and no more interested than the last in tackling issues that affect men & boys (and consequently their mothers, sisters, daughters and wives/partners/girlfriends).

It actually wants to make things worse not just by the overt discrimination (see 1, 2,3,4 and 5 above) but the covert discrimination of discrimination by omission. And with Parliamentary terms lasting five years now, we have over four years of this to go.

There have been a few advances, equality of pesnion age, a family review still pending (who know what the result will be) and Mirko Fischer's BA win. Plus some organisations seem to be pushing more and more (Men's Network, ManKind Initiative, Prostate Cancer Society, Families Need Fathers, Parity, False Allegations Support Organisation, Men's Health Forum amongst others) and they will need to be encouraged by us all to continue.

However, looking back, the hopes at the beginning of the year have proved unfounded and it is clear that things have got worse in 2010 for men and boys.

Posted by Skimmington