One of the areas which is attracting the most attention in our public consultation document (link below, pp 7 – 9) is domestic abuse / violence (‘DA/DV’):

130320 J4MB consultation document,

Some of the stories which have been sent to me by men who’ve been victims of DA/DV at the hands of women – some of them remain victims to this day – have been heartbreaking. The background information in the consultation document, and references to data available from the Office of National Statistics, were provided by The Mankind Initiative, which supports male victims of DA/DV http://www.mankind.org.uk. I urge you to support them with a donation, if you can. 40% of victims of DA/DV in the UK are men, yet while there are over 4,000 places in women’s refuges dedicated to women, just 33 places in refuges are dedicated to men, of which only 15 are dedicated to heterosexual men.

I was pleased to learn today of an initiative just launched on the highly influential men’s human rights website, ‘A Voice for Men’ (link below). I’ve just sent them The Mankind Initiative’s excellent analysis.

http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/domestic-violence-statistics-laws-and-information-for-men/

[Note added 12.5.15: This post was originally published in the spring of 2013.]

The day after my recent interview with Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2, I was interviewed by the respected journalist and broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer for her show on the leading London commercial radio station, LBC. She was very professional throughout and, impressively, she’d gone to the trouble of reading our consultation document in detail. The interview is here.

After mentioning a number of the elements in our consultation document, Julia stated the following:

I’m very surprised to say this, Mike, but I have an awful feeling you may have a point, scary as it is!

What a pleasure it was to be interviewed by someone with such humanity and integrity, a feeling I felt after the Jeremy Vine interview, but not after some other recent radio interviews. I end this piece with a request for donations to our party. None of the people associated with the party, including myself, obtain any personal income from donations. 100% of donation income is directed towards campaign costs. You can make a donation through this link.

Thank you for your support. We’re working hard to make the future brighter for men and boys, and the women who love them.

Mike Buchanan
PARTY LEADER

I recently wrote an article for the highly influential MHRM website, ‘A Voice for Men’:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/is-there-a-psychological-driver-behind-feminism/

As is often the case with AVfM, the comments which follow the article are at least as insightful and interesting as the article itself.

I had an interesting interview on BBC Radio Ulster this morning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M8cUeLKwn4

I was debating the reasoning behind establishing our political party, with a hyperactive young Irish lady, Niamh Horan https://en-gb.facebook.com/niamhhoran. She made Laura Bates – the young lady I debated with on Jeremy Vine’s BBC2 radio show last week – appear calm by comparison, no mean feat. In common with militant feminists generally, she appeared unable of engaging with rational arguments underpinned by robust research (e.g. Catherine Hakim’s Preference Theory) – or perhaps not so much unable, as unwilling? She had an interesting debating style, thinking that sniggering, laughing, and shrieking were appropriate responses to serious points I’d made about discriminations and disadvantages faced by men.

I then had the pleasure of a short exchange with the sneering interviewer, Stephen Nolan, at the end. I was given the last word, at least. I can’t recall that happening before. After the programme I had a number of supportive emails from the good citizens of Ulster, including several from women. One of the women wrote, ‘That screeching banshee made me embarrassed to be a woman! You made your points well under difficult circumstances. What’s the best way to send your party a donation?’ I pointed the good lady to the following link, and a generous donation came through two or three minutes later. A satisfying consequence of a hostile interview.

https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/donate/

I was interviewed this morning on BBC Radio Scotland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9YPKuEduk

I was called by the station after my recent BBC Radio 2 interview, asking me to appear on Call Kaye. The show’s presented by a well-known Scottish broadcaster, Kaye Adams, and I was informed I’d be debating with a feminist, and told her identity in advance. The intended tone of the programme became apparent even before I was contacted to contribute. Ms Adams said at the start of the programme:

‘Do we need a party fighting for justice for men and boys? I had a clenched fist as I was reading that line.’

Wow. Can you imagine the uproar which would result if a well-known male broadcaster on a popular radio show said the following?

‘Do we need a party fighting for justice for women and girls? I had a clenched fist as I was reading that line.’

So I wasn’t in the best of moods from the outset, and I expect this came across to listeners. Then it turned out (without my having been informed in advance) that the ‘feminist’ was the Scottish writer Alan Bissett. Now I could debate with militant feminists for hours without losing my cool, but male feminists? They make my blood boil. I’m sure in future I’ll be more able to keep calm in such situations, it’s all just part of the learning process.

After the programme I sent Alan Bissett the following email:

Alan, good morning. It’s come to something when misandrous militant feminists are represented by a man in their relentless battle against men’s human rights. I’ve just had a lengthy phone call with a woman who sent me an email (content below) after hearing this morning’s discussion. Several times she became distraught and broke down in tears during our conversation. What response would you give her, I wonder? A number of Scottish men will commit suicide today due to their treatment by the justice system and the social services system, both of which are 72% financed by men, and supported by people like you. Still, you’re presumably not suffering personally. So after those men jump under trains, or off tall buildings, you shouldn’t be ashamed of what you did this morning. I don’t imagine you’d have any sympathy for Tom Ball, either:

https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/man-walks-up-to-the-main-door-of-a-courthouse-douses-himself-with-petrol-lights-a-match-dies-tom-ball-rip/

The email sent to me by the lady I spoke to this morning:

My son, and also many of my male friends, have suffered grave injustices at the hands of social services – backed up by greedy solicitors and barristers, police and corrupt sheriffs and judges in the courts. My son has been imprisoned twice, but is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. Social services have attempted to destroy his excellent relationship with his daughter, and have fostered her relationship with the mother who did harm my granddaughter some years ago. They are also exposing my granddaughter to the new partner of this mother – against whom my granddaughter has made an allegation of sexual abuse. My son had a bright future job-wise, but this has all but been destroyed by the persecution he has suffered. Both my son and myself are also at the moment suffering from police harassment – practised by a police force who have blindly believed everything they have been told by social services.
A friend of mine was denied joint custody of his son, and prevented from protecting his son against abuse, by a social services system which protected the female abuser of his son. Despite much evidence in his favour, the courts did nothing to protect this child. Right now another friend of his is fighting in the courts for custody and contact rights with his daughters – who their mother maliciously and falsely accused him of sexually abusing.
The list goes on and on – and despite all these so-called law reforms – the courts continue to penalise fathers who simply seek to be good fathers to their children. The examples I have given above are simply three of many – as you will know from the media. I am not so naïve as to believe there are no bad men about, but there are many more good, honest and dedicated men who are being persecuted by local authorities – controlled largely by the feminists you obviously deplore – and this is what is destroying family life in the UK.

(Update 19.3.13: Alan Bissett responded politely and at length to my email, and we’ve had a courteous email exchange. However, I don’t see that the contents of those emails would be of interest to many people, so I have no plans to publish them. I hope to publicly debate with Alan one day.)

I was called after my recent BBC Radio 2 interview, by BBC Radio Scotland, asking me to appear on Call Kaye this morning. The show is run by the well-known Scottish broadcaster Kaye Adams, and I was informed I’d be debating with a feminist, and told her identity in advance. The tone of the programme became apparent even before I was contacted to contribute. Ms Adams said at the start of the programme:

Do we need a party fighting for justice for men and boys? I had a clenched fist as I was reading that line.

Can you imagine the uproar which would result if a similarly well-known male broadcaster on a popular radio show were to say the following?

Do we need a party fighting for justice for women and girls? I had a clenched fist as I was reading that line.

So I wasn’t in the best of moods from the outset, and I expect this came across to listeners. Then it turned out (without my having been informed in advance) that the ‘feminist’ was the Scottish writer Alan Bissett. Now I could debate with militant feminists for hours without losing my cool, but male feminists? They make my blood boil. I’m sure in future I’ll be more able to keep calm in such situations, it’s all just part of the learning process.

After the programme I sent Alan Bissett the following email:

Alan, good morning. It’s come to something when misandrous militant feminists are represented by a man in their relentless battle against men’s human rights. I’ve just had a lengthy phone call with a woman who sent me an email (content below) after hearing this morning’s discussion. Several times she became distraught and broke down in tears during our conversation. What response would you give her, I wonder? A number of Scottish men will commit suicide today due to their treatment by the justice system and the social services system, both of which are 72% financed by men, and supported by people like you. Still, you’re presumably not suffering personally. So after those men jump under trains, or off tall buildings, you shouldn’t be ashamed of what you did this morning. I don’t imagine you’d have any sympathy for Tom Ball, either:

https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/man-walks-up-to-the-main-door-of-a-courthouse-douses-himself-with-petrol-lights-a-match-dies-tom-ball-rip/

The email sent by the lady I spoke to this morning:

My son, and also many of my male friends, have suffered grave injustices at the hands of social services – backed up by greedy solicitors and barristers, police and corrupt sheriffs and judges in the courts. My son has been imprisoned twice, but is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. Social services have attempted to destroy his excellent relationship with his daughter, and have fostered her relationship with the mother who did harm my granddaughter some years ago. They are also exposing my granddaughter to the new partner of this mother – against whom my granddaughter has made an allegation of sexual abuse. My son had a bright future job-wise, but this has all but been destroyed by the persecution he has suffered. Both my son and myself are also at the moment suffering from police harassment – practised by a police force who have blindly believed everything they have been told by social services.

A friend of mine was denied joint custody of his son, and prevented from protecting his son against abuse, by a social services system which protected the female abuser of his son. Despite much evidence in his favour, the courts did nothing to protect this child. Right now another friend of his is fighting in the courts for custody and contact rights with his daughters – who their mother maliciously and falsely accused him of sexually abusing.

The list goes on and on – and despite all these so-called law reforms – the courts continue to penalise fathers who simply seek to be good fathers to their children. The examples I have given above are simply three of many – as you will know from the media. I am not so naïve as to believe there are no bad men about, but there are many more good, honest and dedicated men who are being persecuted by local authorities – controlled largely by the feminists you obviously deplore – and this is what is destroying family life in the UK.

My thanks to a supporter for bringing this tragic story to my attention. Across the developed world the suicide rate among men is several times higher than among women (in the UK, about three and a half times higher – it’s especially high among disadvantaged men in mid-life). One can only speculate on how many men commit suicide because of their harsh treatment at the hands of the justice system. A system which is 72% financed (in the UK, at least) by men’s income taxes, and only 28% by women’s income taxes, along with the rest of the state system.

Feminists have the gall to whine about the proportion of MPs who are women, a phenomenon attributable to the small number of women wishing to enter political life. Male MPs have long danced to feminists’ tunes, and haven’t passed even one piece of legislation favouring men over women in 40+ years. A great deal of pro-female legislation has been passed over that time.

Tom Ball’s story:

http://hypervocal.com/news/2011/update-man-who-set-himself-on-fire-on-courthouse-steps-did-so-in-name-of-fathers-rights/

Earlier this evening, the most influential MHRA website in the world – ‘A Voice for Men’ – published my article about three prominent British militant feminists:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/kat-banyard-laura-bates-finn-mackay-the-noisy-handful/

My thanks to Petronella for keeping me updated with comments made by feminist bloggers and their followers, in response to my appearance on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 show recently. Most of the comments are predictable and tedious, but every now and them a gem emerges. One such comment refers to the photograph taken of me by a BBC employee working for the show’s production team, just before the discussion.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhX1c3ow6BrzdzP3ydpeZQ/videos

I think it fair to say I won’t be the poster boy of the men’s human rights movement any time soon… I look like Nigel Slater after two months on a cabbage soup diet. I digress. My only reason for inflicting this image on your retina is that it was referred to by someone leaving a comment on the blog http://blushinginger.tumblr.com/. The blog is the creation of the following nice young lady:

The comment was the following (honestly, I’m not making this up – look at the blog for yourself, if you don’t believe me). It was posted by someone with enough sense not to reveal his or her identity – (s)he posts comments as ‘Anonymous’:

I agree that the bloke is clearly horrible and mentally deranged. However, I do agree with the point he is making in the sign in the picture you posted. And although men are clearly not oppressed in any way, there are ways in which men are discriminated against.

‘And although men are clearly not oppressed in any way, there are ways in which men are discriminated against.’ Priceless. I feel the need to repeat myself – I’m not making this up.

Last night I had the pleasure of engaging in a discussion on Radio 5 Live with the feminist blogger Holly Combe (link below). Within an hour of my appearance yesterday on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 show (6 – 7 million listeners) I was called by people working for three other radio shows. The first was for a late night programme on Radio 5 Live, the second (about 09:30 today) a regional BBC radio show, and the third a leading commercial radio station, lunchtime today. I’ll be putting all the pieces up on our YouTube site, but for the moment here’s the discussion with Holly from last night’s show, from around 52:05 – 1:00:00:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r55v1