If we had a league table of commenters, weighted to value both quality and quantity of comments, “Groan” would be surely among the leading ones, if not the leading one. It’s always a pleasure to read his contributions (and he’s a consistent and generous donor, too). A few hours ago I posted a piece titled Clarification on consultations. Groan has just sent the following insightful comments:
Thanks. The information published so far is very important. It has long been the success of the feminist lobby to have focussed on the people producing policy and guidance, probably to a greater extent than on politicians. As we saw with the Police in both the concealment of evidence in sexual assault cases (whistle blown by barristers ) and the creation of huge spurious “political” historical abuse cases in which fantasists were used to mount campaigns against public figures it is often how the Law is implemented that is the problem not the law itself. In the case of Stephen Cobb it is clear he has been stopped once by knowledgeable interventions. I think anyone interested in simple justice for men has to try to fathom the complexities of the semi shadowy links between lobbyists and the civil servants/public officials.
Having worked most of my working life in public services I know how easy it is to deflect complaints and interventions from the public. The first hurdle is for the right part of the public services to be approached (pretty hard in fact) and in my experience most complaints fall at this first hurdle. The next is that it identifies the correct persons and uses accurate jargon. It is important to try to understand in order to launch accurate attacks. Government consultations similarly are intentionally difficult to find out about, civil servants make sure those people or organisations that are in favour are invited to comment but they certainly don’t want wide circulation as this increases the risk of contrary evidence coming to light, disturbing a plan already in place which the consultation is to confirm.
In recent weeks one has despaired at the triumphs of the VAWG lobby however it’s important to note positive moves, such as the first government statement on male victims of Domestic Abuse, or indeed the undermining of the “believe” guidance for the Police and the review of Police practices in concealing evidence from courts and defence. These rely on people finding and shining lights on the hidden world of collusion by civil servants and public officials with lobby groups.
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