Tom Golden, Lisa Britton, David Maywald, Hannah Spier, James Nuzzo: “The Relentless War on Masculinity” (video, 1:05:19).
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Justice for Men & Boys 
I’m inclined to say to the women of “the west “yes we do live in a man made and maintained world; you’re welcome !” . And maybe have a banner of Camile Paglia’s “If civilization had been left in female hands we would still be living in grass huts.” Possibly a load of T shirts with it on.
On a serious note a shout out for the “Women’s march for men” in Belfast
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Men ‘too embarrassed’ to seek help ignoring potentially serious health issues – The Mirror
The usual “narrative”. Yet reading it there’s some different reasons “one in five actively dodge visiting the doctor during the festive season to avoid putting a downer on things for others and prioritise Christmas prep” And now I’m retired its pretty obvious one big reason, not mentioned, working full time makes it difficult to get to heath service when they only work “office hours”. Particularly as men generally have much longer journeys to work and their health provision is usually near home not work. Nor do they have the many “routine” checks given to women, who typically work P/T or lower hours when F/T and work much more locally. Meaning they can “pop out”. So its good to see a Firm offer services to men at their work. What is interesting is that this not focussed on even though its the obvious thing.
Also interesting that the list men have is perfectly sensible and easy to deliver.
General health risk assessment
Blood pressure
Cancer risk
Stress risk
Weight and BMI
Cardiovascular risk
Heart age
Body fat percentage
Stroke risk
Physical activity risk
Now I’m retired,finally I can get to my local “clinic” and GP when their open.
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I had to get an occupational health report in order to get time off work to see the doctor. I even offered to owe them the time at their convenience, but got fobbed off. I only got the occupational health referral after going off long term sick on full-pay. Well, that was productive of the company.
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I, too, am retired. My wife, who is three years younger, still works for a local housing association. Part-time, of course, just as is the case with her (much younger) colleagues, all of whom are female. Since Covid, this has all been ‘working from home’, giving me the opportunity to observe and overhear the ‘work’ being carried out on zoom calls and the like. This does my blood pressure no good whatsoever. Work is treated as some kind of social network, with ‘catch ups’ where gossiping about one’s family, plans for the weekend, etc, form a protracted preamble for processes which could be easily streamlined, and budgeted for more efficiently. On screen, in the background, there are young kids crawling and toddling around, or running around during school holidays. ‘Work’, so it seems, is being part of a fairly well-paid creche, where outcomes which favour ‘customers’ and ‘clients’ is entirely secondary, and often optional.
And so our decline into the ‘low productivity’ economy which has our leaders scratching their heads continues inexorably.
Aided and abetted by vast imports of unskilled non-Anglophones.
Oh well, at least the latter will soon be providing a few problems for the underemployed ladies of the housing associations, once the ‘asylum seekers’ from war-torn France are forced to renounce their sojourn in hotels at taxpayer expense.
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On the topic of housing. ‘My family tragedy after fleeing a violent home – my brother was too old for the refuge’ – The Mirror The first thing I noted was that the “Refuge” was in fact the first one founded by the brave Erin Pizzey. Who by the time of this story had been chased out of the charity she founded in Chiswick by the feminists who hated her for her attempt to open the first Refuge for men. In fact both Refuge the charity and Womensaid exclude boys often from 12. As the article points out this often gives families either the choice of not being housed or having teenage sons placed in residential care or fostering(though teenage boys are the least likely children in care to be fostered). Well over a decade ago now, during supposed “austerity”, Councils began shifting their budgets from the refuge Charities (Refuge and Womensaid) to more generic housing associations (“RSLs”) to better address the lack of accommodation for men and their dependents fleeing DV and keep Women and their families together as a unit (in both cases partly because this saves money in having to find separate services).
This prompted a backlash from Refuge and Womensaid with the result that their lobbying in Government meant the Coalition issued “guidance” to Councils telling them not to transfer funding to other organisation. As guidance many tended to ignore it and so there was a £300,000,000 government fund specifically to fund the two big charities. This was one of the very few “ringfenced” findings because the austerity “deal” to councils was that generally all funding was transferred to their decision to sweeten the pill of no increases overall, Councils could make decisions on their own priorities as austerity hit.
This ring fencing continues to this day and remains one of very few direct controls from central government. What may not be understood is that both Refuge and Womensaid (like many other national charities) are a form of franchise with small local organisations. Which can often mean they’re very varied in style, competence and effectiveness. And often very ideologically driven. With the result that they tend to be rigid and not useful. Often spending money on campaigning rather than service delivery.
It is a tragedy that Erin Pizzey’s first Refuge in Chiswick and her pioneering work in identifying the complexities and intergenerational drivers, outlined in “Prone to Violence” was taken over and effectively buried. By the early years of this century it was plain to many in councils that what was needed was far more flexible responses to the actual needs presented to them. But the ideological lobby has hobbled attempts to change, with the result many areas find themselves funding refuges that exclude and women’s centres that do little of use. The power of that lobby to get national guidance and over £300 million ring fenced when everything else lost ring fencing, and have it continued and grow over more than a decade is an object lession in the power of feminist lobbying in the Westminster Village.
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“Work is treated as some kind of social network, with ‘catch ups’ where gossiping about one’s family, plans for the weekend, etc, form a protracted preamble for processes which could be easily streamlined, and budgeted for more efficiently.” Sounds familiar with what I saw in the NHS and Social Services over 20 years as a “joint appointment”. The WFH normalised by the “lock downs” seems to have accelerated this and I’m not surprised some councils and the civil service are pursuing four day weeks. As you say “where outcomes which favour ‘customers’ and ‘clients’ is entirely secondary, and often optional.” The supposed evaluation of Cambridge’s experiment says it is a success. But actually reading it it says that staff are happy and recruitment is up, but the research on “customers” shows satisfaction down and lots of complaints about the difficulty even communicating with the council let alone getting service. Rather like the NHS is often quoted as high in the league of health services by a formula that favours staff satisfaction however is in fact near the bottom in terms of “health outcomes” (i.e. getting people well) . As a colleague used to quip “ensuring everyone has equal access to mediocre”…… it seems this is the aspiration of all our public services. Years ago the “Town Clerk” (it became CEO when he retired) travelled around the Council’s services, asking “and what have you done for the citizens of ………. today?” Which kept one constantly thinking of an answer and the impact of our services on people. I expect were he to be alive today he’d be sacked for bullying!
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For information. The debate in Parliament. Though not happy about all its content it does remind me of the former MP Philip Davies who secured the first debate despite the scoffing of Jess Philips. International Men’s Day – Hansard – UK Parliament Also good that the day before there was a Men’s Health Strategy published. Non of it a leap forward but given the fight Philip Davies had even to get a debate (in a Committee room not the chamber) its pretty surprising it now happens each year.
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