The Rights Of Man

PARISH NEWS - MEN'S NETWORK ON BBC RADIO 4 SHOW ABOUT MEN'S ISSUES

The Men's Network has reported that BBC Radio 4 are broadcasting a show on Saturday (07 Janaury at 11am) about the political importance of men’s issues. They are featured on it which is great news.

Posted by Skimmington

THE POLITICAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF MEN IN BRITAIN: A CHRONOLOGY

One of the key issues Britain's political class never want to talk about is how all-women shortlists, gender quotas, A-lists and special women-only courses discriminate against men wanting to stand for office and also the voting public who want to be sure they are voting for the best person.It is a theme well covered on this site.

In response, the following paper has been produced setting out what has happened, the key dates and the key people.

Download Political discrimination against men in Britain

Lastly, I would want to say that all those in the men's equality movement should pay tribute to Peter Law, Peter Jepson and Roger Dyas-Elliott - three men who fought against the injustice of all-women shortlists and have never recieved the credit and plaudits they deserve.

Posted by Skimmington 

CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL MEN'S DAY IN THE UK ON SATURDAY

With International Men's Day soon upon us, it is so good to see the increasing momentum being given and help so much by Glen Poole and his team at The Men's Network who coordinate the day in the UK.

The UK website for Saturday sets out the activities available and as importantly there is a letter signed by over 60 organisiations "inviting the Government to consider placing a greater focus on the issues that men and boys face. We recognise that there are many male voices in parliament, but there are very few male or female voices highlighting the specific needs of men and boys in the UK."

This carries on the theme from the recent conference and is about a range of organisations acting sensibly and rationally together to really start to push the agenda so the government and others start to understand that equality means equality for men too. Let's hope it gets some coverage.

It also shows the strength in numbers of the organisations now supporting men and boys issues. 60 is probably not all but no one can say there are not groups out there. We need more but 60 is a good number.

It is also being done in a non-aggressive rabble-rousing way which makes it far more difficult to dismiss (especially when so many women are actually signing the letter). It is perhaps where former men's movements have failed because they have been too aggressive. Bearing in mind the government consults on strengthening women's voices but doesn't even want to listen to men's at all it makes it even harder to dismiss.

Another comment is about the balance and maturity being displayed especially when you compare it to groups such as the Fawcett Society, Respect UK, Women's Aid, Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the myriad of other groups. There is no sense of women-hating, no sense that women are bad and they should be ignored. There is a clear sense that we need a create a society that it is fair and equal to bother genders. Those organisations mentioned actively agitate to hate and do down men, either directly, or indirectly by pretending they don't exist.

An example of the above can be seen by the Fawcett Society's deliberate decision to hold their Don't Turn Back Time jamboree on the same day as International Men's Day. That is the type of juvenile, immature and pathetic behaviour you would expect from that organisation. We need to rise above their schoolgirl antics.

Let's all celebrate on Saturday - International Men's day. 

Posted by Skimmington

PSjust by Googling I found this on the Guardian in March where they banned men from writing Comment is Free posts for International Women's Day - I bet they won't be making Saturday a men only day on Comment is Free!

SPECIAL PLEAS FROM WOMEN'S GROUPS TO ENSURE MEN ARE KEPT SILENT

As we know the government's equalities department proudly boasts about the fact that it is institutionally sexist against men by even admitting on its website that equality doesn't include men:

"We lead on issues relating to women, sexual orientation and transgender equality matters."

It isn't just the fact that they refuse to deal with inequalities against men, they do not even believe men exist.

It has also boasted that it wants to strengthen women's voices and not even feel men have a voice, a theme the site has raised before and also here. It's equality strategy (page 23) also says it wants to speak to women's groups but no mention of male groups which is why the Men's Network letter is so important. 

Amidst all of the the focus on Norgrove, the government's equalities department slipped out its response to the consultation on "strengthening women's voices in government".  

What is always the most enlightening about these documents is not the government's response but the special treatment pleas from women's groups. Not only do they want to protect the special treatment and positive discrimination they receive they want more - all to ensure they keep men and male issues of inequality out of the picture. The aim is to dominate the whole sphere and stop men's group's from even having the crumbs off the table let alone a place at it.

The most telling paragraph for me is number 31:

A number of organisations supported the proposal from the National Association ofWomen’s Organisations and the Women’s Resource Centre that they be funded by government to develop a UK "women’s hub".

Although not the same, this proposal does chime with the option of consulting consortiums to provide expertise on specific women’s issues, as outlined in the consultation document. The main distinction is that the "women’s hub" would have more independence from government.

More special treatment and more funding, making it even harder to have the voices of men heard. The question would be if the government did fund such a group and then refused to fund a "men's hub" it really is time to go to law.

Posted by Skimmington

LIB DEM CAMPAIGN FOR GENDER BALANCE IN PARLIAMENT - MEN NEED NOT APPLY

As we now enter party conference season it is always worth looking at what is happening on the promotion of women, anti-male propaganda and also the purposeful ignorance of male related issues (sexism by omission).

At the Lib Dem conference, we can see the Campaign for Gender Balance, which is trying to bring in sexism and special treatment in the selection of candidates - an issue that Labour have been using for years (all women-shortlists) as have the Conservatives (A Lists, quotas, hand picked candidates).

The Lib Dems don't go as far as those two parties but nonetheless they have women-only training, extra financial support and mentoring. They also had a whole raft of special sessions at the conference on political campaigning and training which were for women-only.

This of course from another party that talks about fairness and equality but actually practices sexism against half of the population.

The conundrum that must face any Lib Dem though is that in their minds a 'working class' boy with a poor education living on a run down council estate has more opportunities of becoming a Lib Dem candidate and Member of Parliament than a female barrister brought up in Fulham who went to Rodean public school. This proves how sexist this nonsense is and how it just means there is no equality in British democracy.

Posted by Skimmington

PS: Coming next week - Labour bans men from conference hall for women-only debate. 

AN EQUALITIES MINISTER WHO PROUDLY HATES HALF THE POPULATION

If ever anyone raises the question that men are not discriminated against and modern-day feminism is about the hatred of men, then all you have to do is to point to the extraordinary rant by the laughably named Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone.

At the Liberal Democrat Conference, her twisted hate for men was uncovered - and it sounded like she  wanted to out-Harman Harman as being the UK's manhater-in-chief. She has form remember.

The first thing that strikes you about her speech is the fact that despite being the Minister for Equalities, there is no mention of the challenges facing men - unemployment, education, health (especially cancer), suicide, family justice and the lack of recognition in areas such as domestic abuse.

The other issue is that her hate-filled venom was not kept for the main stage, it was kept for a fringe meeting away from the glare of the national media. So she thought. As reported widely (see end), and to paraphrase, she not only said men were to blame for everything she also said that women had to grab the levers of power to be superior to men.

Reverse the genders and you could hung drawn and quartered, but people like Featherstone feel comfortable saying it.

One outcome and maybe it continues to be wishful thinking is that there seems to be a gradual increase in the number of people (both men and women) who want to ridicule the anti-male Marxist men-hating stance of people like Featherstone, Harman, Flint, Cooper etc.

Four Conservatives MP's do so as does Anne McElvoy in the Standard.

The point though is surely how can you have a Minister for Equalities who so obviously hates 50% of the population and is proud to say so.

Posted by Skimmington

Media coverage - The Sun (the headline should not be Lb Dem MP, but Government Minister!), Daily Mail and Evening Standard

TOM MARTIN ANSWERS BACK IN THE GUARDIAN

It is not often this site is charitable to The Guardian but fair's fair, they allowed Tom Martin to respond to Jonathan Dean's piece about Tom's case.

You are left though with a sneaky suspicion they thought he would shoot himself in his foot when he of course is to on his mettle to fall into that trap.

 As ever, the article is illuminating and so are the comments.

One thing I noticed in the comments was the lack of anti-male feminists coming to the fore to take Tom on. Maybe it is because they know he is right and also because that is not the sort of tactics they employ. They prefer to fight on their own territory rather than have a discussion with those who disagree with them (when do you see the feminists argue against Dr Catherine Hakim on her gender pay gap critiques).

Lastly, it is great Tom is taking this on and also in his article he linked through to this site (resulting in 365 individuals hitting the site) - hopefully many will stick around.

Posted by Skimmington

THE SCANDALOUS GOVERNMENT HYPOCRISY OVER THE GENDER EDUCATION GAP

This week the government published the SATs results (officially known as Key Stage 2) for primary school children which test their ability to read, write and add up at 11, just before they go to secondary school.

While the headline figure shows that one in three don't make the grade (level 4), the report also highlights:

There is still a worrying number of children performing at a very low level. One in 10 boys leave primary school with the reading age of a seven-year-old and one in 14 boys leave with the writing age of a seven-year-old.

The government minister (Nick Gibb) said: "We are determined to raise standards of reading. There will always be some children for whom reading is a struggle. However, we can and must do much better for the one in 10 boys who at the age of eleven can read no better than a seven-year-old."

The results in detail are:

• English 81% (86% for girls, 77% for boys)
• Reading 84% (87% for girls, 80% for boys)
• Writing 75% (81% for girls, 68% for boys)
• Mathematics 80% (80% for girls, 80% for boys).

This shows there is a clear gender education gap in English, reading and writing (not Maths) and whilst at least this government recognises it, it is doing absolutely nothing to remedy it. It says it is an issue and then walks away.

As shown, many schools are not bothered and also we know that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the Government's joke Equalities Department are not interested.

But more so when do you see the Department for Education running a massive study into why it is happening and then bring in policies to remedy it?

The government is bothered about the alleged gender pay gap and the alleged gender boardroom gap but does absolutely nothing to tackle the gender education gap.

It proves beyond all doubt that men and boys remain firmly second class citizens in the UK and it is a situation the government is quite happy with.

Posted by Skimmington  

WILLETTS MUST TAKE ACTION ON SOCIAL MOBILITY FOR BOYS

Yesterday, I lambasted the government for failing men and giving them false hope even though there are MP's on the Conservative benches who wish to stand up for them. I mentioned Brian Binley and Charlie Elphicke on shared parenting, Dominic Raab on feminism (he has been quiet on it recently) and there were Conservative backbenchers who wanted anonymity for rape defendants.

Then last week Universities Minister David "Two Brain's" Willetts said that feminism had reduced social mobility for working class boys (Daily Mail and Telegraph).

The government seems to be split between those MP's who just want equality and fairness and then people like Theresa May and Lynne Featherstone who do not think it applies to men and boys.

The issue that Willetts should be looking to address though is that it is the aggressive female fundamentalism that is crushing boys. Equality for girls and ensuring there are opportunities for them is of course no problem. But the feminist fundamentalists have taken it a stage further. Not only do they want to give special treatment to women from all backgrounds (including the already 'privileged' middle class women that Willetts alludes to) such as the hideous Section 159 of the equalities act but they actively stop anything from being done to help social mobility.

Education results show that boys are around six years behind girls when it comes to exams results and that fewer boys go to university than men (51% women and 40% men) but there is no public policy response. Not anything even in the government's laughable 'equalities' strategy.

So there is no point Willetts pointing this out unless he is going to do anything about it. We wait to the social mobility report he alludes to and what it will say.

Posted by Skimmington 

Postcript - the usual backlash from the fundamentalists: Suzanne Moore (Daily Mail), Barbara Ellen (Guardian) laughably calling Willetts ludicrous!, Guardian news story and BBC,

Great article on feminism by Christine Odone (Telegraph)

BBC article

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