Ray Barry will be standing for J4MB at the 2015 general election. He leads both the Equal Parenting Alliance and Real Fathers 4 Justice, and supports fathers (and sometimes mothers) trying to gain access to their children in the family courts system.
He’s just posted an e-petition to HM government which I’ve signed, and I urge you to do so too. It concerns the issue of parental alienation (‘PA’) which can have devastating consequences for both children and their absent parents, but is not a criminal offence. Ray’s e-petition aims to bring PA within the scope of the law. The text of the petition:
Parental Alienation. To extend the cross-government definition of Domestic Violence and Abuse to include Parental Alienation.
Responsible department: Ministry of Justice
Parental Alienation is a phenomenon which occurs after parents separate; the children, under the influence of the parent they reside with, refuse to have any more to do with the other parent.
It is a subtle manipulation of the children by one parent who, for their own ends, poisons the children’s minds against the other parent. 24% of UK children have no contact with one of their parents and the primary cause is parental alienation by the resident parent. The alienated parent loses interest in life, and sometimes commits suicide. The rate of suicide among men is 3 times higher than among women, and parental alienation is a principal cause of this higher rate.
Including parental alienation in the definition of domestic violence and abuse is a first step towards criminalising this behaviour.
Please support Ray’s quest to have the government recognise the significance of PA and introduce legislation relating to it, by signing the e-petition (link below). It will take only a matter of seconds. Thank you.
