One of my favourite American anti-feminist lady bloggers has just released a new post. Enjoy:
Month: April 2013
Domestic violence: ‘As a man, it’s very difficult to say I’ve been beaten up’
Only a few days after a dreadful episode of Newsnight (a previous post refers) which all but ignored male victims of domestic violence – and gave a propaganda opportunity to Women’s Aid, a charity with income in excess of £2 million pa – it was good to see a sympathetic treatment of male victims in a piece written by Emily Dugan in today’s The Independent on Sunday:
Some comments in the article, by a spokesman for Women’s Aid, are interesting:
Alan Gibson, an independent domestic violence adviser for Women’s Aid which runs the men’s refuge in Berkshire that is helping Dave, said: “Four organisations phoned us today looking for places for four different men. They’ve been attacked and abused, but there is only one room available in the country and someone will have to decide which of those four men is most in need.”
I’ve just spoken to one of our supporters with deep knowledge of DV. While he has the highest regard for Alan Gibson, it’s his view that organisations such as Women’s Aid will seek ever more government funding to run men’s shelters, thereby providing militant feminists with ever more funding to campaign against men’s human rights. How can Women’s Aid resolve their public position that men use violence to subjugate women, with running men’s shelters?
Quentin Letts: ‘How the Left’s grip on Britain is tightening’
The Daily Mail journalist, broadcaster and author Quentin Letts was the first winner of our coveted ‘Winston’ award (there have been only two since, Philip Davies MP and Peter Lloyd, who writes for Mail Online). Yesterday, on my way to our party’s first AGM, I read a piece Quentin had written in the Daily Mail, titled, ‘How the Left’s grip on Britain is tightening’:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308301/How-Lefts-grip-Britain-tightening.html
The following extract struck me as particularly insightful:
Recent figures showed that more Labour supporters are working for public bodies under David Cameron than did so under the last Labour government. Mr Cameron loves to be thought Centrist, moderate, not a tribal fellow. The Left sees this and takes him for a fool.
The Prime Minister is foregoing control of organisations which are undermining his Government.
Virtually everything David Cameron does is left-friendly, and when the opportunity arises, feminist-friendly.
Janet Street-Porter v Swayne O’Pie, ‘The Feminists’ Nemesis’
Three weeks ago the militant feminist journalist Janet Street-Porter – winner of a ‘Harpy’ award – wrote a piece in her Daily Mail column arguing that non-violent female criminals shouldn’t be sent to jail:
When convicted of the same crimes as men, women are less likely to face prison sentences, and typically serve more lenient sentences. I’ve never heard a feminist arguing for ‘equality’ in this area, nor indeed in any of the many areas in which outcomes for women are better than for men.
I was delighted therefore to learn that the anti-feminist campaigner and writer Swayne O’Pie – author of Why Britain Hates Men: Exposing Feminism http://exposingfeminism.com – had written a letter in response to Janet Street-Porter’s piece, and the paper had published it (link below). He isn’t known as ‘The Feminists’ Nemesis’ for nothing…
Margaret Thatcher
I didn’t catch David Cameron’s speech about our recently deceased former prime minister Margaret Thatcher yesterday in the House of Common, but a supporter and generous donor, Gladys, emailed me the following:
David Cameron, in a speech in the House of Commons this afternoon, stated that Margaret Thatcher had ‘smashed through the glass ceiling’, or words to that effect. I almost dropped my cup of tea in disbelief at his feminist-friendly statement. Margaret Thatcher would have recoiled at the idea that any such thing as a glass ceiling existed. Nothing has been so damaging to female executives as the myth that a glass ceiling exists, or has ever existed. Talented and hardworking women have aways got to the senior reaches of business, and to the boardroom if good enough. The glass ceiling is a myth spun so as to justify driving poorly qualified women, often unwilling to work hard, into boardrooms. Many female executives today have an unbelievable sense of entitlement. The fact that almost all female FTSE100 directors are non-executives tell us all we need to know about the relative numbers of men and women qualified for FTSE100 boards.
I couldn’t agree more. Gladys’s email reminded me of one of Mrs Thatcher’s quotations:
I don’t want to get to a position where we have women in senior roles because they’re women, we want to have women because they are able and as well-equipped as men and sometimes better.
A remarkable woman, whatever you might think of her politics. Will we ever see her like again?
‘I’ve got a clenched fist…’
On 18 March I was interviewed for BBC Radio Scotland by the well-known Scottish feminist broadcaster Kaye Adams. Click on the link to the file here:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhX1c3ow6BrzdzP3ydpeZQ/videos
Ms Adams said at the start of the programme (after 0:38):
Do we need a party fighting for justice for men and boys? I’ve got a clenched fist as I’m reading that line.
During our discussion I said the following to Ms Adams (after 17:03):
You said at the beginning of the programme, ‘I’ve got a clenched fist as I read the words, “Justice for Men & Boys”.’ How would you feel about a male presenter of a major radio show who said, ‘I’ve got a clenched fist as I read the words, “Justice for Women & Girls” ‘?
Ms Adams:
I don’t think I’d have a problem…
Myself:
Really?
Ms Adams:
OK, it may have been a crass comment, but it’s a very striking name for a party. If it had been ‘Justice for’ ANYTHING, I think I’d have said the same thing.
After we put up a post about the programme, we had plenty of comments from people who’d been similarly angered by the ‘clenched fist’ remark. I considered making a complaint to the BBC about the matter, and also about the fact that while I’d been assured I’d be informed in advance of the identity of the feminist I’d be debating with, I wasn’t. The feminist turned out to be an ultra-left-wing Glaswegian writer, Alan Bissett. But I concluded that these were minor matters in the grand scheme of things, and didn’t make a complaint.
Yesterday I was intrigued to be informed of a comment on the associated YouTube comment thread:
Hi Mike. I received a response from the BBC regarding a complaint I made regarding the presenter’s attitude during this interview. It mainly concerned a comment during her introduction regarding her ‘clenched fist’. I want to e-mail it to you, as the producer of the show is saying that she was showing solidarity with you, which is plainly not true. If you could send your e-mail address to either my YouTube or Facebook account I will then forward it on to you. Keep up the good work, sincerely yours.
I sent the gentleman my email address – mb1957@hotmail.co.uk – and this morning received an email from him, with the content of the BBC’s response to his complaint:
Reference CAS-1992791-5HHSSC
Thanks for contacting the BBC.
Your comments were passed to the Producer of ‘Call Kaye’, who has asked that I forward his response as follows:
“Thank you for your comments regarding ‘Call Kaye’ which broadcast on Monday the 18th of March, hosted by Kaye Adams, which asked the question: Do we need a political party for Men and Boys?
This was because Kaye was interviewing Mike Buchanan the founder of the Justice for Men and Boys party later in the programme.
I understand that your complaint is with Kaye’s use of the phrase “I have a clenched fist as I read this” whilst she was reading through the agenda for the party. And that you interpreted that as angry bias on her part and that she was ‘willing to use violence’.
I can only apologise if that was your impression as context and tone are key here. Kaye was in no way advocating that she was in angry opposition to the party she was instead indicating that she was ‘clenching her fist’ – raising her arm in the political sense, as an age old sign of solidarity and brotherhood in emphasis of the line “Fighting for Justice for Men and Boys”. It was an unscripted line that Kaye said in the moment and in the tone of the statement.
What she actually said after a clip of Mike Buchanan outlining the need for such a party was: “Is he right? Has the pendulum swung too far in favour of women’s rights to the detriment of men’s? Do we need a party fighting for Justice for Men and Boys?…I’ve got a clenched fist as I am reading that line there…Would you vote for it? 0500929500”
There’s no trace of indignation or anger in Kaye’s delivery and I think when you hear it in context it makes sense.
The aim of ‘Call Kaye’ is always to allow the listeners to make their own minds up from a broad spectrum of opinions and experiences.
I hope that this goes some way to answering your query and that you will continue listening to the programme in the future.”
Further to this response, your comments were also registered on our audience log. Audience reaction is crucial to the BBC and this log is an internal report of feedback which we compile daily and make available to all channel executives, including the BBC Executive board.
Thank you again for taking the time to get in touch.
Kind Regards
Audrie Wilson
BBC Complaints
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
So the feminist presenter was ’…raising her arm in the political sense, as an age old sign of solidarity and brotherhood in emphasis of the line “Fighting for Justice for Men and Boys”.’ Priceless. Simply priceless. That creative explanation is hardly consistent with her remark, ‘OK, it may have been a crass comment…’, is it? It must be a hoot working in the BBC Complaints department…
‘Women on Boards’: latest annual report
This morning the government published its second annual review on ‘Women on Boards’:
Soon after the Conservative-led coalition came to power in May 2010, David Cameron appointed the Labour peer Lord Davies of Abersoch to report on how (not whether) to increase female representation on boards. The resulting Davies Report (February 2011) was full of claims that increasing gender diversity in the boardroom (‘GDITB’) would lead to improved corporate financial performance, whilst providing not a shred of evidence for the claims. Campaign for Merit in Business (‘C4MB’) has since gathered overwhelming evidence to show that GDITB leads to declines in corporate financial performance. Our latest briefing paper on the matter:
C4MB has been very active in challenging the government over its GDITB initiative. Can we see any evidence of our impact, when we look at this latest report? In my initial review of the document I cannot see a single claim that GDITB will – or even may – result in improved corporate financial performance. This is a major about-turn, and is effectively an admission that GDITB is nothing more than a social engineering exercise. So has the government taken the logical next step, and withdrawn its threat of legislated gender quotas on boards? Of course not. On page 9 of the new report we find:
Enlightened companies really are grasping this issue and doing their utmost to change the face of British boardrooms. However, they are being let down by others who feel that they can ignore this issue. The time has come for them to realise that they can’t. This is not an issue that is going to go away. Our initial strategy recognised that all companies are different and gave them the freedom to tackle this issue in their own way, making the right decisions for their companies. We still feel that this is the right approach for UK business. However, there is a very real danger that those companies who refuse to act now, by failing to put in place targets and polices, will force the hand of Government into imposing burdensome regulation upon all businesses.
I see that among the signatories of this new report is Professor Susan Vinnicombe, who leads Cranfield International Centre for Women Leaders. She was also a signatory to the original Davies Report. Surely the good professor would claim a causal link between GDITB and improved corporate financial performance? Er, no. I refer you to her admission to a House of Lords inquiry in 2012:
Four fat chicks walk into a bar, looking for a good time…
An insightful new post by one of my favourite American female anti-feminist bloggers, which starts:
Police in Toronto are on the hunt for four heavyset women in their 30s who sexually assaulted a young man in a parking lot after he left a bar in their company and accepted a ride from them.
The link:
http://judgybitch.com/2013/04/09/four-fat-chicks-walk-into-a-bar-looking-for-a-good-time/
Gillian Dale Jefferies, we salute you
I recently had a short article published by a respected website:
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2013/03/06/comment-why-britain-needs-a-pro-male-party
Little of the piece’s content will come as any surprise to those of you familiar with this blog. But I’d like to draw your attention to the comment thread which follows it, because it seems to me to be indicative both of anti-male feeling – among both men and women – and the growing public consciousness and concern about assaults on men’s human rights.
I mention in the piece that the vast majority of homeless people (in the UK) are men. Towards the end of the comment thread is an insightful comment from a lady who I’ve not managed to track down through a Google search, but she posts a photograph and what I presume is her real name, Gillian Dale Jefferies. She writes:
As a social worker if I have a female homeless on a Friday I can get housing, money, food and clothes. If I have a homeless Male I can get nothing and they are relegated to the streets. More men should read ‘Men the Disposable Sex’ and start to fight for their own equality. Mike is very correct with all the services to people men are marginalised.
This drew a comment from Janette McGrory, who’d posted one or two comments earlier in the thread:
Perhaps because women are more readily vulnerable than men in this instance? Homeless women are an easy target for predatory men….not so much homeless men?….
Ms McGrory not only fails to comment on the fact that homeless men in these circumstances ‘get nothing’ – while homeless women ‘get housing, money, food and clothes’ – she even manages to throw in a nasty comment on ‘predatory men’.
The British state effectively tells men in distress to go and hang themselves. We shouldn’t be surprised that so many of them do.
Gillian Dale Jefferies, we salute you for your humanity towards homeless men.
I’ve just Google searched ‘Janette McGrory’ and find she posted a comment on ‘The Rights of Man’, a useful British website http://therightsofman.typepad.co.uk. The original piece dates back to February 2012 and the launch of my third book about feminism, Feminism: the ugly truth, while her comment is very recent:
I listened to ‘Woman’s Hour’ this morning on Radio 4 where Mike Buchanan was attempting to promote his male-dominated ‘political party’…’Justice for Men and Boys..and the women who love them’. Thankfully there was another man on the programme – John O’Farrell – to talk sense around the issues. Listening to Mike Buchanan, the overriding sense one gets is that he must have been dealt some serious blows in the past by the women in his life because he has such hatred for us! He actually thinks that feminists are the ones with the hatred! You only need to look at the cover of his hateful book on feminism to see what his true feelings are! My question is….what is he so scared of? If he knows anything about feminism at all, then he will know that feminists do not hate men per say (sic), they hate the system (usually run by men) that for hundreds of years has attempted to make them out to be less than men in every sense of the word. Feminists just want to be treated with equal respect, have equal opportunities, and to be considered, first and foremost, to be people with a brain and not just objects with breasts and a vagina! When the day dawns – and it will – when men and women are treated with equal fairness and respect in every area of society – our society will be a happier, safer place to live in and free from such vitriol as Mike Buchanan obviously feels justified in promoting.
Her comment hardly needs a response from me. My book, which she condemns but has surely not read, is a 400+ page response to feminists of her ilk. 24 hours after the death of Margaret Thatcher, for many the finest peacetime prime minister of the 20th century – of any political party – I’d simply like to note that John O’Farrell, who Ms McGrory believes to have talked ‘sense’ in our recent Woman’s Hour discussion, wrote in Things Can Only Get Better (1998) of his regret that Britain hadn’t lost the Falklands War (255 British servicemen died in that war, many more were severely injured), and his disappointment on hearing that Margaret Thatcher hadn’t been killed in the IRA bombing in Brighton.
An update, an invitation, an appeal
Good afternoon. I’ve appeared on ten radio programmes in the past four weeks, nine of them BBC radio programmes, the latest being Woman’s Hour. Public consciousness about the discriminations and disadvantages faced by men and boys in modern Britain is rising fast. All the programmes are downloadable here:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhX1c3ow6BrzdzP3ydpeZQ/videos
We plan to contest the top 30 Conservative marginal seats in May 2015, as I explained in an open letter sent to David Cameron a month ago:
https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/our-open-letter-to-david-cameron-march-2013/
I invite you to comment on our public consultation document (link below). If you’d like to do so, please let me know, and I’ll email you the ‘Word’ version.
https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/our-public-consultation-exercise-2/
We’ve seen a steady increase in the number and average size of donations being made to the party, but there’s still a long way to go. Those associated with the party (including myself) draw no income from donations, which are used to cover costs associated with campaigning. We’ll need £15,000 to finance the deposits for 30 seats in the 2015 general election, and a lot more than that to run effective campaigns. I should like to appeal to you for a donation (link below) to help make the future brighter for British men and boys, and the women who love them. Thank you for your support.
https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/donate/
Finally, I should like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a happy Easter.
Mike Buchanan
PARTY LEADER
JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS (AND THE WOMEN WHO LOVE THEM)
Justice for Men & Boys 