Work and Pensions secretary James Purnell, will this week announce a new crack-down on absent parents. He intends to give officials of CMEC, which replaces the Child Support Agency, the power to ban parents from driving or travelling abroad if they do not pay child support.

Work and Pensions secretary James Purnell, will this week announce a new crack-down on absent parents. He intends to give officials of CMEC, which replaces the Child Support Agency, the power to ban parents from driving or travelling abroad if they do not pay child support.
Since my 3 children were taken from me 8 years ago, I have meticulously paid child support, much as it has galled me to do so. The payments are, after all, not made to my children, but to the person who took my children from me. Nevertheless, …

Issued 17th February 2007
Amidst the concerns of escalating gun violence among young teenagers in south London, it has passed as an unchallenged statement of fact that black fathers are abandoning their offspring.
No-one can deny the link between the absence of fathers and youth crime, but can it be assumed that these fathers simply walk away and want nothing to do with their children?
There is little government funded research in this area, but what information we do have suggests a different explanation. Around 2 in 3 divorces are initiated, not by …

Issued 22nd February 2007
Today, 3 men dressed as the Flintstones climbed on top of Stonehenge.
Such actions have become so familiar over the last 3 years, that no-one need ask what the protest is about; climbing, dressed in comic outfits, has become an icon of disenfranchised fathers. Dads protesting about access to their children and the sense of injustice they feel as a result.
Of course, Stonehenge is a national archaeological treasure which no-one wishes to see put at risk by stunts such as this, but the protest begs one …

Issued 26th February 2007
While survey after survey shows that children who are raised by two married parents fare better in life than children raised in other types of family unit, the present government continues doggedly to ignore this simple fact, and to praise the benefits of single-parenthood.
This week-end we heard Harriet Harman, whose own record suggests she is driven by the rights of mothers rather than the welfare of children, telling GMTV on Sunday: “Often it’s two parent families, not just one-parent families, where things are going wrong.” Meanwhile, …

Issued 18th March 2007
On BBC’s Sunday a.m. the would-be Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne described the tax incentives which a future Conservative Government would create in order to encourage marriage, because statistics show marriage is the best environment for children. So far, well done! It is refreshing to hear a politician base family policy on fact rather than prejudice.
However, Mr Osborne then added the rider, which is almost obligatory these days, that many single mums do a heroic job, and more should be done to pursue absent dads. Single …

Issued 19th June 2007
How do you know a bloke is lying? His lips move. How do you stop a bloke from drowning? Take your foot off his head. If you enjoy anti-men jokes, you can find these, and dozens more like them on the web-site of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, right next to Princess Anne’s Young Carers Lifeline appeal, which she launched yesterday.
Is bloke-bashing out of place alongside this appeal? Maybe not. For increasing numbers of women, single-parenthood is a career choice, made in the full knowledge …

Issued 22nd June 2007
The Government propose to require mothers to name fathers on a birth certificate. Until now, mothers have been able to leave the father’s name on a birth certificate blank. This proposal has provoked a quite predictable controversy.
One detail has escaped much attention, however, if the father is a rapist, or has been violent towards the mother, then the mother will not be forced to name him. This detail reveals the fundamental flaw in the whole debate: that it focuses upon the mother instead of …

Issued 26th June 2007
In an astounding demonstration of just how stupid, unfair and contemptuous of children our child support laws are, a father who co-operatively shares equal care of his children with their mother was yesterday jailed for failing to pay child maintenance, despite her protests.
The jail sentence was opposed by the child’s mother and the children, who were present at the hearing. The mother had told the court that if he was imprisoned she would have to give up her job to look after the children full-time, and …

Issued 1st February 2007
Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton announced this week that the government hopes to alleviate child poverty by encouraging lone parents back to work.
Many parents, for all sorts of reasons, find themselves literally ‘holding the baby’ and coping with bringing up children alone and needing extra support. However, the uncomfortable reality is that many lone parents are only ‘lone’ because they have chosen to eliminate the other parent from a child’s life after they split with their partner.
The vast majority of children of ‘lone-parents’ already have two …