Our thanks to Patrick for pointing us to this. While Ms Harmer’s knowledge of the history of the Suffragettes is flawed – they delayed female emancipation, for one thing – elsewhere she’s right on the money. Excerpts:

It was all over the news recently; a group of feminists held a protest during the red carpet event for the newly released drama Suffragette. The group, who were allegedly protesting against domestic violence against women, threw themselves onto the red carpet and laid there in protest, basically throwing a childish tantrum at an otherwise classy event…

Let me just say that I researched into this protest quite a lot before I aired my views online because I realise that what I say may offend and I wouldn’t want to offend people with ill-informed opinions. I wanted to know why these women were protesting and what for. Digging deeper it seems that the issues they are protesting against run a lot deeper than simply protesting against domestic violence.

They were protesting because of budget cuts to many of the women’s refuges in the country that have been set up to house and care for women escaping violent partners. Wonderful, what brilliant charities and if the cuts and consequent protests weren’t so damn hypocritical, I’d be angry along with them.

But then we get to the reason for the cuts; equality law now says that in order for the government to continue to fund these refuges, they need to start opening their doors to male victims (who make over 40% of domestic violence victims might I add) in order to offer equal support to victims of domestic violence.

These charities shunned this, and in their refusal to treat men and women equally they’ve had some of their funding cut. They would literally rather have their funding cut than allow male victims to come to them for support.