The Rights Of Man

PARISH NOTICE: SELECT COMMITTEE APPEARANCE ON WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

The quite brilliant Mike Buchanan, along with the excellent Catherine Hakim and Steve Moxon have been invited to give oral evidence at The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee inquiry into Women in the Workplace inquiry into ‘Women in the Workplace’.

Mike reports that the three of them will be speaking at 11.00am on 20 November in the House of Commons. It is free to attend and open to the public so any support would surely be most welcome.

As well as the issue covered extensively on this site and on Mike's Campaign for Merit in Business, there are two additional significant issues at play.

Firstly, it shows that responsible and mature campaigning for male equality and against male discrimination is starting to work. 'Responsible and mature' are the key words. With organisations and campaigners like Mike and Swayne O'Pie (who also put in a submission) with academics like Catherine Hakim and Steve Moxon willing to put their head above the parapet but also campaign and lobby with the right positive tone and approach, these issues are no longer totally being ignored and going unchallenged.

Having such a platform at a Select Committee must be one of the few occasions that male equality issues will have been aired so explicitly in Parliament.

The second issue is bias of the Select Committee inquiry itself and their assumptions. For example, here is a few of the issues it wants to look at (my comments underneath)

 What has been the impact of the current economic crisis on female employment and wage levels? 

What about the impact on male unemployment and wage levels? The latest unemployment figures show that 1.44 million men and 1.08 women are unemployed.

How should the gender stereotyping prevalent in particular occupations, for example in engineering, banking, construction, and the beauty industry, be tackled

What about the stereotyping in the public sector, education, health, care, secretarial and other sectors?

Good luck to Mike, Catherine and Steve and it really is a great breakthrough.

Posted by Skimmington

 

HEAD OF BBC RESIGNS FOR ROLE IN SPREADING FALSE RAPE ALLEGATIONS

I'm sure i don't have to inform our UK readers of today's huge news story, but for the benefit of our readers elsewhere and the wider men's rights community it's worth repeating and putting into a men's rights context. To summarise the situation, last week the BBC's Newsnight programme smeared an honourable and elderly former Conservative politician with a false allegation of rape. Not just any rape, but that of the most vulnerable boys in a care home. Although the BBC didn't name the gentleman in question, they gave plenty of hints and effectively directed the audience to investigate online. Thanks to several high profile left-wing Twitter users, the name of the entirely innocent party soon quickly became identified as Lord MacAlpine with the "information" reaching a wide audience.

In the last couple of days it became clear that the BBC's story was false and based on mistaken identity. The shoddiness in the BBC's journalism has become plain for all to see, culminating tin the resignation of George Entwistle, the BBC's Director General, who whilst somehow unaware of the content of the programme, bears ultimate responsibility as Editor in chief. Furthermore, given the fact the other parities were far more involved in what occurred, more resignations or sackings appear certain to follow.

I can't recall a major news story in the UK having such a major men's rights angle in some considerable time and I certainly don't remember such a resignation before over a men's rights issue. In fact, the wider story is saturated with content that is key to our movement and everything we stand for. Not only have we seen a witch hunt of innocent men on multiple channels on the television, there's also the issue of a failure in investigate the abuse of vulnerable young boys, many of them almost certainly in such a position due to family breakdown and poor parenting. If anyone doubted the seriousness of false rape allegations and society's appetite for them, not to mention the need for anonymity for the accused then this case surely proves them wrong once a for all.

Although what has transpired here may at first appear depressing, the plus side is that major heads have rolled for once and false rape accusations taken seriously. Furthermore, there's the delightful prospect of Lord MacAlpine rendering those involved in the saga much less wealthy and hopefully unemployable too. Perhaps the only regret here is that your average man on the street suffering such horrific smears will never receive any sort of justice, let alone the most welcome outcome starting to transpire on this particular occasion.

by John Kimble

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA STILL UNDECIDED ON WHETHER ALL MEN ARE PAEDOPHILES OR NOT

Back in August you may have noticed a huge amount of international coverage and outrage of Virgin Australia's "all men are paedophiles" seating policy. The airline forced a firefigher of all people from his seat simply due to the fact he was guilty of the horrific crime of being male in the vicinity of a child he wasn't related to!

Thanks to Mr Muir sharing his experience and some excellent journalism from the likes of Bridie Jabour, Virgin Australia began a "review". I'm all for carrying out thorough assesments of any possible change in policy, but there's also such things as common sense, basic decency and gender equality, and one would have thought this would have to be the shortest and easiest review any company has ever had to undertake.

Alas this is not the case, and the "all men are paedophiles" policy remains in place whilst Richard Branston and his collegaues assess whether or not you, I and every single man out there present a serious risk to children every time we take a flight. Given the preference for seating chidlren with females, they will also be considering whether all the countless female child absues out there who murder, molest, rape and kidnap chidlren actually exist or not. Alternativley, perhpas Virgin Australia have discovered new evidence that all the Rose Wests, Myra Hindleys and Vanessa Georges of this world all suffer from chronic aerophobia and thus will never set foot on a plane?

I wish Virgin Australia the best of luck with these tricky question which has now taken them almost a quarter of a year. Given the fact that they're clearly struggling with this issue I do have my concerns about their ability to carry out other tasks. If they can't get this call right then I'm doubt they'd be capable of crossing the road, nevermind flying huge metal machines though the sky at hundreds of miles an hour.

Please share your thoughts with Virgin Australia on their blog and whilst they deal with this conundrum I'd advise you to chose an airline that knows their left from right, and right from wrong.

by John Kimble

INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION AT THE EQUALITIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Just a quick post but if anyone ever wanted an example of the institutional discrimination endemic at the laughably titled Equalities and Human Rights Commission this is it.

The report 'The impact on changes in commissioning and funding commissioning women-only services' is paid for by the taxpayer to Cambridge Policy Consultants.

Its interesting reading as it looks at whether changes in funding and commissioning had a disadvantageous effect on women-only services.

While at face value the main area of discrimination would be the fact that there is not an equivalent report for men. It's worse.

The report (page x or page 14 of 100 if you look at it this way) explains how awful it is that some women's groups have to either open their doors to men or had to share funding to help support men's services. The complaint is that the law provides for services to disadvantaged groups but this is on the basis of women being placed at a disadvantage not in the context that men are group who may also need support hence why women-only groups are being asked to support them too. That is not recognised - men are swept under the carpet.

Complete bias but what do you expect from the anti-male Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

Posted by Skimmington

PS Debate on closing the Equalities and Human Rights Commission

PS PS Only three of its 14 governors are male - that's equality for you

HELP GRILL THE POLICE COMMISSIONERS ABOUT EQUALITY FOR MEN

Police and Crime Commissioners – English & Welsh Elections

On the 15^th November 2012, there will be elections for the Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales in the 41 regional constabulary areas. It is the first time we have the chance to influence who directs the local agenda for policing in our regions. Anyone who wants to know a bit more about the role of these individuals should follow this link

So will any of them know anything about Men’s Rights?

A small group of English MRAs are working together to make them aware of the issues, and to see if our process of making them aware gives us some feedback on their potential sympathies.

We are developing a series of 5 questions which will be sent to each candidate along with a letter introducing the idea of Men’s Rights Activism. These questions will require more than a yes/no response; they will be designed to make the person reading them think about their position on such
issues as the reciprocity of domestic violence.

How can English and Welsh MRAs help?

The minimum – get registered to vote. You can register to vote until midnight on the 31^st October.

 

Come over to AVfM forum and help us develop the questions and letter.

Contact us if you can help with getting together lists of candidates in your area collating responses. The more the better!

If you are “out” as an MRA and have any media experience, we might get lucky and need a talking head – would you be willing?

Vote. All indications are the expected turn out will be somewhere between poor and plain awful. So we have the chance to have a voice. If there are no good candidates, you can always exercise your right to deface your voting card. What matters is your participation.

 

YVES MERSCH SHOULD SUE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FOR SEXISM

As the news emerged this week that the European Union were having to abandon their hideously sexist gender quota targets, the news had emerged that " a parliamentary committee - in a resolution passed by 21 votes to 12, with 13 abstentions - called on the European Council to withdraw the candidacy of Luxembourg's Yves Mersch for the ECB executive board. It said his appointment would mean that the board would be all male up until 2018."

Yes that's right, not because he has not got the skill, talent or experience, its because he is a man.

In this warped anti-male world we live in, people like sexist Sharon Bowles MEP believes to ban a man from a position because he is a man is equality (she is a main opponent of Mersch and wrote a sexist diatribe here). It's worse of course that people like EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding who desperately wants quotas live off the backs of us who work for a living - like all of the 'equality' industry.

The full story can be seen here (BBC, Reuters and Daily Telegraph)

But what should Mr Mersch do? Should just shrug his shoulders and get on with it, or is he brave enough to sue for sexual discrimination. Perhaps his wife and any daughters (if he has any) should encourage him because the discrimination being done to him is supposedly for their benefit of them as women.

 If he has any balls, he should sue, that's what he should do if he believes in equality.

Posted by Skimmington

Editors Note - Running coverage from Mike Buchanan

 

WILL MEN HAVE TO FIGHT THEIR BATTLE FOR EQUAL PAY IN BIRMINGHAM

The landmark victory for female workers in Birmingham has played out against a backdrop of the usual radical feminist  man-hating.

 If you read the headlines and the way the story has been represented you would have thought
all of the men at the council got bonuses, whilst women did not. This is not true of course because it was about the roles not the gender.

Some women in the roles that qualified for bonuses would have got them, and any men in the non-bonus roles would not. But it has all been about women which is similar to previous portrayals. Will this men in a similar state as these men were in and will have to fight the courts for their equality!

 Any man undertaking the roles that the women won the claim for should also now sue but because of the publicity I bet many will feel the judgement does not apply to them when it does. And actually if you read between the lines of what the BBC said, it says 'mainly women' but then other media just say all women.

 As the solicitors who won the case, Leigh Day and Co,  have said they have 1,000 cases ready to go - let's see how many of them are men, have they tried to find male claimants or just woman and are they trying not to. Answers are needed.

Posted by Skimmington

Other coverage - Guardian (Chris Benson), BBC and Daily Mail

NEWS UPDATE - THE CRACKS ARE STARTING TO SHOW

There has been a substantial amount of coverage on men's issues this past ten days and below is a summary of the main articles. The cracks are just starting to show in the war against men.

Employment and boardrooms

Mike Buchanan - Angela Epstein receives a Maggie and the coverage on Sunday Morning Live. Mike and friends have launched the Winston, Maggie and Harpy awards.

Parliament (Women and 'Equalities questions) - Debate on women on boards and Philip Davies MP stands up for equality and meritocracy.

Third Sector - FTSE boards view female third sector executives as toxic (Jenna Pudelek) More scaremongering without any factual foundation.

TUC - Black boys have experienced sharpest rise in unemployment during recession: The TUC proves itself wrong. 

Daily Telegraph - Female quotas 'negatively affect' business, says minister (Rowena Mason)

Daily Telegraph - Equalities Minsiter says women need to challenge themselves and play a wider role in society (Rowena Mason): What is significant here is that this and the above article show that some women are now challenging the myths and hypocrisy of quotas which we know are solely being advocated as a discriminatory measure against men, meritocracy and equality.

Daily Telegraph - Companies to be forced to publish gender audits of employees (Louisa Peacock): does this count for the public sector which is dominated by women? The comment in the Telegraph comments section sums it up:

"Yet more discrimination against my white English husband who supports his family and has never been unemployed in his life"

Feminism

Netmums - What does feminism mean to the modern women: The research showed that only 17% of women described themselves as feminists (though more young women did which shows their radicalisation), that modern-day feminism did not represent them and that 28% felt it was too aggressive with 17% thinking it was anti-male. This landmark research has had the feminists blogs apoplectic as it damages their whole reason to be. Coverage in The Express, Telegraph and Daily Mail

Politics

Guido Fawkes - Quota of the Day

The Times - We do not need a Minister for Women (Ruth Porter): Subscription only

Family Law

Daily Mail - Why I stole my children (Ian Gallagher)

Daily Telegraph - Female breadwinners losing out (John Bingham): Staggering hypocrisy of the "want their cake and eat it kind". Pannone can be added to the list of anti-male organisations in the UK.

Prisons

Parliament - Download Prison Sentence Inequality - UK Parliament 16 Oct 2012 (2) (Philip Davies MP) : Again the MP excels himself by bringing into Parliament the myth that sentencing is far harsher for women than men. The Men's Network summarises the story. Thanks you to James Williams for circulating far and wide.

False Accusations

Teeside Gazette - Middlesbrough man hounded after being cleared of rape

Health

BBC - Prostate cancer barcode tests: Unless there is 'compulsory' organised screening for prostate cancer on a national basis like there is for breast and cervical cancer then there can be as many tests as you like but until that is in place things will not progress as they should.

Hanna Rosin book - The End of Men

Daily Mail - Is the male of the species now redundant (Bev Mooney)

Daily Telegraph - Interview

The Guardian - Cardboard men (John Harris)

The Guardian - It's not the end of men (Ally Fogg)

The portayal of men

Daily Telegraph - The descent of men (William Leith)

Education

Daily Telegraph - Young boys stuggling to write their name (Graeme Paton)

Domestic Violence

One in Three Report - Gaps in services revealed

General

Daily Mail - Why men love bossy women (Cosmo Landesman)

Daily Telegraph - BBC to draw up top 100 female power list: More Opus Dei-like self-flaggelation from the Beeb.

 Posted by Skimmimgton

 

Thanks to those that send links over

LATEST JOHN TAYLOR COMPLAINT TO CANCER RESEARCH UK

Please find the link (Download CRUK CHMN 13th October 2012) to John Taylor's complaint to Cancer Research UK about Race for Life.

Posted by Skimmington

JOBS FOR THE BOYS

I was speaking to a male friend over the weekend who imparted an interesting story which sums up the predicament modern men find themselves in and how selfish and unreasonable the
majority of modern women are.

He had come home from work on the Friday as had his wife and both were shattered as they had endured hard days at work. No sooner had my friend sat down then he was ordered (not asked)
to take out the rubbish – as he was tired and didn’t see the urgent need he said he’d do it later or she could always do it if she was that bothered by it. Now to the main point of this tale , her reply , which was “I’m not doing it , it’s a man’s job”. 

As you can imagine this response confused my friend as in this age of equality there are supposedly no
such things as men’s and women’s jobs. When he pointed this out he was dismissed out of hand and his wife said if he was too lazy to do it she would get the next door neighbour over to help as he was a real man?! This sums up perfectly the attitude a lot of modern women have to equality between the
sexes.  They demand it and impose it when it works in their favour (that is, not having to do all the bad jobs round the house) but would not dream of accepting it the other way round.

As an example of the way this works we shall look at is the response my friend got when he pointed out he would do the bins (and check the car , mow the lawn, walk the dog and all the other ‘mens’ jobs) when she did the washing up and ironing and cleaning as they were ‘womens’ jobs.  She practically ripped his head off for being so sexist and unreasonable and expecting her to skivvy after him and his kids (it’s always his kids when she needs to make a point) all day when he was out at work enjoying himself. She expected , nay demanded,  the right to spend her days as she pleased as this was her right as a modern, independent woman.

And this sums up the hardship faced by modern man – we are expected to work all day to provide for
our family, come home and do all the jobs round the house and then lavish the last of our energy and attention on our spouse before collapsing into bed to do it all again tomorrow.

Posted by Anthony Humphreys