In the middle of last week I was invited by the BBC to be among those to possibly appear on the first episode of the new series of Sunday Morning Live, to speak on issues including men’s rights, following the government’s rejection of most of the recommendations in a report by the Wimmin and Equality Committee on fathers in the workplace. Of course I agreed, and had extensive discussions, but late Friday evening I learned I hadn’t been chosen to appear.

The full programme is available on iPlayer, and accessible to BBC licence fee payers for the next 29 days – here. The section on “Are Men’s Rights Neglected?” is over 39:40 – 52:30. So, what were the ideological leanings of those contributing to the discussion on men’s rights, either in the studio or via video?

FEMINISTS (5)
Laurie Penny, toxic feminist
Gavin Shuker MP (Labour, Luton South)
Ally Fogg, mangina journalist with The Guardian
Grace Barrett, co-founder, Self-Esteem Team
Sean Fletcher, presenter

NON-FEMINISTS, OR NOT OBVIOUSLY FEMINISTS (3)
Nick Ferrari, presenter, LBC
Mark Lehain, Director, Parents and Teachers for Excellence
Ella Whelan, writer and journalist (notably for Spiked)

ANTI-FEMINISTS / MEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS (0)

Balance is a fine thing.

An excellent piece by Kathy Gyngell, posted today by TCW.

We wish fathers everywhere, including those denied access to their children by the corrupt Family Courts system, a Happy Fathers’ Day.

I’ve just bought a ticket (£27.00) for the Families Need Fathers conference (only FnF members can attend the subsequent AGM) next Saturday, 23 June, in London. The keynote speaker will be The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice McFarlane, President of the Family Division from 28.7.18, following the retirement of Sir James Munby. Contributors to the event who are well known to followers of this blog include Martin Daubney and Vince McGovern.

Only 19 tickets remained on sale after I ordered mine. Details of the conference, and a link to ordering tickets, here.

The irony of someone with my BMI posting this piece isn’t lost on me. It’s probably a hormone problem, completely unconnected with my enthusiastic appetite for pies and beer, pizza and wine. Our thanks to Emma for this piece in today’s Times by David Sanderson, Arts Correspondent:

A theatre magazine has been forced to apologise for describing the Derry Girls actress Nicola Coughlan as overweight.

The critic Philip Fisher called her character an “overweight little girl” in a review of the acclaimed production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at London’s Donmar Warehouse.

Coughlan, 31, said that the remark, made in The British Theatre Guide, was “cruel” and pointed out that there is no reference to the character’s weight in the text for the production, which is based on Muriel Spark’s 1961 novel. The character, Joyce Emily Hammond, 16, is introduced as a rich “delinquent” who wants to be part of Miss Brodie’s “set” of schoolgirls.

“Philip Fisher, I know you are a theatre reviewer and your body had no relevance to your job but maybe you’d like me to cruelly review it for you and post it online,” Coughlan said. “#TimesUp on reviewing women’s bodies, when you should be reviewing their work.” The British Theatre Guide apologised “unreservedly for the offence caused by the wording of this review” adding that the “offending words have been removed”.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

A tip of the hat to Tim for this (video, 45:58).

Times caption: Nicky Morgan said that unflattering lighting in BBC studios had fuelled abuse online. Sky was “a bit better”, she said

The ever-accelerating dumbing down of TV current affairs programmes, caused by the inclusion of female “experts” who are nothing of the sort – and invariably less expert than the best men available – is set to get much worse. A piece in yesterday’s Times by Matthew Moore, Media Correspondent, focusing on a woman with a face better suited to radio than television:

The former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan has said that she refuses to be interviewed in regional BBC studios because the bright lights are unflattering and she has been insulted by social-media trolls as a result.

Ms Morgan, 45, instead requests that broadcasters send a film crew to her if they want to conduct an interview. [J4MB: A toxic mix of narcissism and idleness, common features of feminist MPs.]

The former education secretary and prominent Remain campaigner was speaking at a diversity event in London after figures showed that news programmes still featured many more male than female “talking heads”. She suggested that many women were too humble to put themselves forward. “Sky’s a bit better but BBC Millbank [in Westminster] — you sit there in a kind of small cupboard with a camera pointing straight at you,” she said. “It is deeply unflattering in how you look and . . . I just get a whole load of social abuse afterwards about how ugly I am.” [J4MB emphasis]

Our thanks to Chloe for this. She writes:

So the reason most cheating women are unfaithful is the same reason most cheating men are – sex. What a perverted double standard we have here. Women find a reason to make their infidelity laudable, while still criticising men for their infidelity. Sometimes I’m ashamed to be a woman.

Our thanks to Mike P for this piece by Quentin Letts in today’s Daily Mail. An extract:

There is a profoundly worrying problem with this tyranny of the minorities. By insisting every minority has preferential rights, you end up denying the majority their rights.

Imagine that you are applying for a job. You have all the qualifications and the necessary experience. But, as per that memorandum from Penguin Random House, you do not help the company ‘to reflect the UK population’.

Apologies, say your prospective employers, we can’t give you the job as another candidate has a disability/sexual preference/skin colour we haven’t yet ticked off our staff lists. We’d have loved to hire you, we really would, but our diversity policy means we need a one-legged Latino goat-fancier.

Our thanks to Mike P for this.

Our thanks to Danuta for this, published shortly before Fathers’ Day in 2013.