Blog #2.

Father's Day - 20 June 2010.

I thought I'd write a few more words today (I've spend all afternoon writing more of my new masterpiece, working title 'Gender'). Ok so I know that Father's Day is a commercial rip-off, orchestrated by the military-industrial-pharamceutical-oil-football loving-creationist-repressive-dark side- complex on behalf of the Thatcherite Junta ... where was I? Yes, Father's Day. Well, I'm a father. Not everyone knows that. Lots of people tell me that I'd make a wonderful father, in fact. The reason that not everyone knows that, and the reason I didn't get any cards today (like last year and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and and and ...) is down to a few factors.

It would be too easy to say that it's all down my psychotic ex-wife, the mother of my children. She's certainly a huge factor, of course. If she'd put the children first, instead of being warped and twisted about the whole thing, then everything would still be fine, and I'd have had some cards today. I'd probably have seen them too (it's been nearly ten years). But here's the thing - she shouldn't have been ALLOWED to get away with it. And the reason that she's allowed to get away with it is because the British (or at least English) legal system is complete crap.

{Necessary reading, 'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens, and the case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce}

In this country, first of all there is an assumption that the mother is always right; that they love their children more than fathers do; that children love their mothers more than they love their fathers; and that fathers are really unimportant when it comes to bringing up children.

Secondly, we have an organisation (sic) called CAFCASS (it's not an acronym) whose job is to ensure that fathers don't see their children if the mother doesn't want them to.

Thirdly, we have the "law". Now, this is tricky. We don't have a constitution, we don't have rights, as such (although we do have responsibilities), so it's all based on precedent. It's also based on something called The Children's Act which was drafted by psychotic mothers. It says that fathers shouldn't see their children if the mother doesn't want them to.

Of course we also have an adversarial legal system, where justice is secondary to the team with the best lawyer.

Finally, there are things called Judges. These people inhabit a parallel universe, literally. Remember the one in the 60's who'd never heard of The Beatles? I think he's the Big Cheese Judge now. If he isn't, it's someone like him. Judges don't actually care about justice, they care about what time they can get home and will the cleaner remember to polish the antique vases and they really must pop down to the apple orchard at the bottom of the garden (they haven't been there for months) and see how the cider press is coming on.

So, if you live in England and you split up from the mother of your children and she doesn't want you to see them, sadly you've got no rights at all. None. And you'll probably never see them again. Like me, and thousands like me.

Happy Father's Day ☺