Posted by daviec on Thursday, 22 February 2007 10:54:08

What about encouragiing mothers to include fathers in the children's life. I, like many other fathers, had to fight to remain in my kids life after they were taken from me by their mother who felt she'd be "happier" with someone she had met once previously.

So my kids were taken from me against my will, but with the tremendous help I gained from online support groups I now care for my kids 60% of the time. I've had to combat emotional abuse of both me and my kids, and blackmail in the form of threats to remove me from my kids lives completely. And to maintain my contact with the kids I have to pay child support, even though I am technically the main carer.

I have had to do all of this outwith the courts as to enter that system is to accept the outragoues gender bias that favours a mother, and sees dad as simply a wallet to bankroll a child's upbringing.

When our society accepts and values a father's role in the family, then and only then can we start to see changes in the issues we face.

I would suggest that the idea that many fathers abandon their families is wrong and that in many situations they are actually forced from the family by a vindictive mother with no incentive to maintain the family given the state of the current system.

Posted by skegy on Thursday, 22 February 2007 19:36:03

Mr Cameron is finally showing us what he thinks, and like Blair, hates men, everything is the “man’s” fault. Men have turned to genetic testing, findings around 40% of tests show the man on the birth certificate is not the father. Men get trashed in the divorce courts, trashed as bad father, trashed as wife beaters and trashed as a man.

Now Mr Cameron has jumped on the bang wagon waving his feather duster at dads.

Posted by Henry2 on Wednesday, 28 February 2007 22:53:46

And how about the fathers who are excluded by the deliberate actions of their former partners?

Posted by jessica on Thursday, 01 March 2007 15:41:58

Bring back marriage tax allowance - so father's can afford to support their offspring.

It's unfair that a family with a single income of £20,000 a year should have to pay more tax only to claim it back in tax credits!

I don't think fathers or mothers want to live separately but this government makes it financially impossible for them not to (the financial support for separate couples is greater than for couples living together).

Why should father's contribute to their children growing up when they know that the government/tax payer will keep their children and ex-partner clothed, housed and fed for them? The cost to social services in re-parenting these children is also down to the government's stupidity in abolishing marriage tax allowance/right to claim your partner's tax allowance and crippling businesses with rules and regulations making them impossible to sustain themselves. If a single income family was given a 9,000 plus tax allowance a year instead of a 4,600 one - surely it would be the same benefit as tax credits/child benefits with less administrating costs in running the 'tax credits and child benefits scheme'.

Also I think mother's would be more interested in allowing fathers rights to their children, if they had to depend on their partners and not the tax payer! We have to accept that not every woman or man can earn £20,000 a year each and sometimes its fairer to let the higher earner go out to work and the lessor one to stay at home with the children. Besides there are still plenty of jobs around the house - cleaning, tidying, washing shopping etc that a higher earning partner would be glad to hand over to someone else. I think our generation is working harder than our grand-parents - for lessor rewards and this isn't right! Its not wonder, with all the demands and pressure put on us that so many people are suffering from anxiety disorders, stress, high blood pressure and depression - the government can't tax enough to pay for it! In fact they should take tips from http://themoneysavingexpert.com and realise saving money is the equivalent of a pay rise - for them and for us! If this government started saving money - it probably start making £1bn a year to increase their lavish lifestyles, instead of only making half a billion from taxing more!

We need to go back in time a bit. Some ideas in the 50s and 60s were bad, but others were good and its about time we thought about bringing back the good ideas that were abandoned by this government.

I and many others would be happy to pay the Prime Minster and his colleagues £1 million pounds a year in salary from our taxes for a more economical and cheaper to run tax system, better communitys, stronger families, better housing and better health service! If he freed up the red tape that costs so much to run, sorted out violence in hospitals, the over-crowded and expensive to run prison service and eveything else - the money he'd save would probably make himself £2 million a year and make us all alot happier as well.