Mark Brooks gives evidence to a Welsh Assembly committee

Yesterday Mark Brooks (chairman, Mankind Initiative) gave evidence to the Welsh Assembly’s Communities, Equality and Central Government Committee, with respect to the forthcoming Gender-based Violence, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Bill. The video is here, Mark’s session 1:32:48 – 2:17:00.

Giving evidence with Mark was Simon Borja, who heads The Dyn Project which supports male victims of IPV in Wales. His analysis of IPV is clearly a feminist one, and the organisation’s submission to this inquiry was a feminist one. Some months ago I was given a copy of one of Borja’s presentations, and it largely consisted of the sort of long-discredited nonsense you’d expect from Women’s Aid. At 1:36:11 in the video he uttered this gem with respect to the title of the bill which originally only mentioned women in its title (and will, we predict, do so again):

I strongly believe the term ‘violence against women’ doesn’t exclude men and boys.

Let’s use the term ‘violence against men’, shall we? After all, it doesn’t exclude women and girls, does it?

6 thoughts on “Mark Brooks gives evidence to a Welsh Assembly committee

  1. I honestly don’t know where they get the nerve to utter such tripe and have the expectation that they will get taken seriously. What a joker!

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  2. Simon Borja;
    ” I strongly believe the term ‘violence against women’ doesn’t exclude men and boys.”

    Mike Buchanan;
    “Let’s use the term ‘violence against men’, shall we? After all, it doesn’t exclude women and girls, does it?”

         What a good riposte!
    

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  3. Indeed. Sadly I can’t recall exactly the interview where a Women’s Aid spokeswoman opined that the “Girls” in Violence Against Women and Girls “of course includes boys”. It would be comical if it wasn’t that these people have power and influence.

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  4. We all know “girls/women” only means “girls/women” in any DV/abuse law currently put forward. This is deliberate and wrong. Where the money goes proves this. If any thing violence by women is recorded to be on the increase, while for men on the decrease.

    If they ever consult properly they will know that mothers are currently the most dangerous person to their children, even allowing for greater parental custody decisions. Weekly we hear of more mothers abusing and murdering their children. The sooner fathers are given proper respect the sooner the problems are reduced and the less money the governments will need to spend. Fathers have been scientifically proven to be vital to better outcomes for their children in worldwide studies.

    With correctly non-gendered policies they can target resources at the worst families with proper non-gendered support centres that do not seek to continue or worsen the problem. I trust Erin Pizzey knows more about the causes than the ideologues wasting money and parliament’s time at present. There are bad men and women out there but they come mostly from bad families. Help them or their offspring to be good people, not bigoted, revengeful or selfish adults of any gender, and things can get better. Carry on treating it as a gendered issue, and letting off at least half of the ones that are being more violent, and you have a useless policy and a complete waste of money.

    I hope the Welsh Assembly can be brave enough to tackle the root cause instead of funding a corrupt industry that has no interest in resolving the problem.

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