Quote:
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Divorced fathers are to be denied a legal right to a relationship with their children in a review of family law due to be published tomorrow.
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So claims the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/88...-children.html
Some months ago I heard the founder of Fathers 4 Justice talking about why it'd had all been very quiet on that front. Had they gone away? Given up? Seen the light? Grown up even?
No, they'd simply kept their promise to stop what some had seen as silly stunts and enter into proper debate with HMG about the role of fathers in the welfare of their children. Perhaps they were hoping that the outcome of this review would provide some light at the end of a very long, dark, tunnel but if that's the case and the above article is correct, it seems they've been sold a pup.
As I type this I'm listening to the radio and a succession of distraught absent fathers reporting how they're routinely and cynically prevented from having access to their children. As a man it's very hard to hear another crying but that's what these guys are being driven to. For those with the money to pursue it through the courts even that route rarely prevents a bitter ex. from making a mockery of the whole process and using the children as a bargaining chip at best and a weapon at worst.
If the Met was institutionally racist, the family law system is institutionally sexist and it's shocking that this state of affairs is allowed to persist. On the one hand men are frequently told they're rubbish at being parents and absent fathers are a major factor in youth crime etc. but, on the other, the system prevents those who want to take that role as responsibly as it should be from doing so by denying them any enforceable rights to see their children. Catch 22 or what?
I really fail to see how anyone can dispute the need for children to have proper access to both their parents and preventing that right being recognised and enshrined in law is as unfair as it is bizarre.
