Plaid Cymru's leader in Cardiff Council has been suspended by the party after posting comments on Twitter and Facebook that implied that certain organisations were "complicit" in child abuse for apparantly helping mothers breach court orders regarding access to children.
It's not as if he hasn't said something along these lines before. It's there in black and white in a Wales Home article back in July 2010. Why has it suddenly taken 18 months for McEvoy's views to make headlines?
Now I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan of Neil McEvoy - he does seem prone to foot-in-mouth incidents. The caustic nature of his remarks and subsequent suspension has overshadowed the big issue here.
On those wider issues, he's right.
The only thing he has to apologise for, is being offensive when describing illegal activity. The family court system in EnglandandWales is shambolic and - forgive me before I burn my boxers - discriminatory against men.
There are plenty of fathers out there who are utterly useless, violent and don't deserve children. Just because they don't want anything to do with their kids, it doesn't mean those who do want to play a productive role in bringing up their sons and daughters have to be tarred with the same brush.
Charities and the third sector shouldn't be exempt from criticism just because they do undoubted good work to protect women and children from abuse. If they break the law, they (and other charities) should be held to account. There is no "ends justify the means" defence to denying good fathers access to their children. If it's true and Neil McEvoy can back up his claims (I presume he can or he's going to look very, very silly), then it's illegal, and the practice needs to stop.
Just because children might be let down by both parents or one parent, it doesn't mean the judicial system and the voluntary bodies there to protect them have to let them down too. It's quite right that abuse against women and children is stamped out, however men increasingly need champions for our causes as well - especially in health, family law and domestic abuse.
Politicians that are quick to line up and condemn Neil McEvoy's comments would do well to remember that.
It's not as if he hasn't said something along these lines before. It's there in black and white in a Wales Home article back in July 2010. Why has it suddenly taken 18 months for McEvoy's views to make headlines?
Now I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan of Neil McEvoy - he does seem prone to foot-in-mouth incidents. The caustic nature of his remarks and subsequent suspension has overshadowed the big issue here.
On those wider issues, he's right.
The only thing he has to apologise for, is being offensive when describing illegal activity. The family court system in EnglandandWales is shambolic and - forgive me before I burn my boxers - discriminatory against men.
There are plenty of fathers out there who are utterly useless, violent and don't deserve children. Just because they don't want anything to do with their kids, it doesn't mean those who do want to play a productive role in bringing up their sons and daughters have to be tarred with the same brush.
Charities and the third sector shouldn't be exempt from criticism just because they do undoubted good work to protect women and children from abuse. If they break the law, they (and other charities) should be held to account. There is no "ends justify the means" defence to denying good fathers access to their children. If it's true and Neil McEvoy can back up his claims (I presume he can or he's going to look very, very silly), then it's illegal, and the practice needs to stop.
Just because children might be let down by both parents or one parent, it doesn't mean the judicial system and the voluntary bodies there to protect them have to let them down too. It's quite right that abuse against women and children is stamped out, however men increasingly need champions for our causes as well - especially in health, family law and domestic abuse.
Politicians that are quick to line up and condemn Neil McEvoy's comments would do well to remember that.
Do you think this neil will be thrown out of plaid and will affect his election chances?
ReplyDeleteAnon - Neil's comments were pretty strong. Whether Plaid will throw him out is entirely their decision but in my personal opinion, he should be given some sort of formal reprimand and issue an appropriate apology. I don't think he needs to change anything he said if he can back it up with evidence.
ReplyDeletePlaid should take the wider issue of father's rights and family court reforms seriously.
It is well overdue that somebody in "power" had the balls to actually stand up and state the facts!
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact that what Neil is saying is true and i ask "rather than throw there toy's out of the pram" if WWA believe they are innocent as charged why do they not hold an independant inquiry into these allegations ?
For the very reason they know these allegations are true !
He's told people the truth, no one listened.
ReplyDeletehe's shouted the truth and no one listened
he's finally pushed the truth in peoples faces and has now been punished.
Shame on Plaid.
Thing is, Neil McEvoy is now toxic, he has alienated huge numbers of people. Plaid are going to be crucified in Cardiff in next May's council elections with him at the helm. Plaid are better off without him.
ReplyDeleteI can only guess that the comment above at 08.02 was by someone from WWA.
ReplyDeleteI know from personal experience that Neil is 100% correct and truthful in what he stated, and in fact he could have gone a lot further with his comments on the family justice system in this country and the allied agencies.
IF this issue is investigated properly then there will be a lot of people eating humble pie when it is discovered that Neil is telling the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I for one, as a dad fighting to see his child will be happy to stand in a court of law and swear an oath to give evidence in supoort of N|eil McEvoy. I have been thwarted by lies at every turn, to child services, the police, the courts, Cafcasss etc. If there was anyone else to lie to, my ex-partner would lie to them, but WWA still support her and in fact encourage her to make these false alleagtions against me.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAnon 08:42
ReplyDeleteAccusing a political opponent of threatening elderly people with violence and being 'out of control' drug users is a new low for Welsh politics. Do you have any evidence to back up your, very strong, accusations?
What Neil said is right. OK, he should have used the usual jargon we read everyday but he's still right. Charities which are funded by tax payers are stopping fathers from seeing their kids.
ReplyDeleteHe's had the guts to say something the politically correct in Plaid and Labour have been quiet about for fear of 'offending' people.
He's a good councillor, he gets things done, he's said a few things in unpolitic ways but I'd much rather that than Labour councillors who equate Welsh medium education with apartheid or some councillor who does and says nothing for 4 years.
Anon 08:42's comment has been deleted for being "slanderous, libelous or otherwise illegal" as stipulated in my comments policy.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've had to delete a comment since starting this blog and it's not something I want to make a habit of.
I realise feelings may be running high on the issues but keep it civil please and take the personal comments elsewhere.
Owen, can you tell us whether the deleted post was for or against Neil?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Neil is that he does not do himself any favours. As a father myself, he tries to help fathers but there are some bad fathers out there, for which he listens to, doesn't get the full story, doesn't get the facts right, and then can't back up the evidence when asked. I know this from experience and he has done the same on many issues in the past. If you are a good father and he is helping you then good luck, but some of the fathers he is trying to help are doing him no favours. He needs to get all the facts right first, and then ditch the bad fathers. Only then can he properly support the good fathers.
ReplyDeleteAnon 00:03 - do you have any evidence for this? What I saw of Neil's comments were entirely consistent with my own experience as an absent father. Being separated from my children broke my heart and my spirit, and I was not a bad father.
ReplyDeleteAs a member, I am deeply disappointed in Plaid's response to complaints (from whom is not clear) - for the first, and I hope, only time in my life I would say that it is 'Political Correctness gone mad'!
If Neil has helped a good father then that person is going to see the statement consistent with that experience. The problems stem from where Neil has recently been getting involved in some cases where his clients are not telling the whole truth. Neil is taking his clients statements as fact, and in return accusing the WWA. The WWA are asking for the evidence but Neil cannot supply it as his client's information is not based on truth. Both Neil and the WWA are obviously aware of the individuals they concern/involve, but they are not known to the media, for obvious security reasons. I am friends with both parties involved, experience firsthand what they are all going through but then see how some untruths erupt further problems, and in return does not help the cause for fathers. But as a separated father i am also very closely aware of the previous work Neil has done and those involving bad fathers where the facts are not entirely correct. This is why i say Neil is not doing himself any favours by helping bad fathers unless he gets the facts correct first.
ReplyDeleteSorry - come again: "There are plenty of fathers out there who are utterly useless, violent and don't deserve children."
ReplyDelete??????
No there aren't. And the notion that there are many parents like that, or that's it's anyone else's god-damn business whether a family is perfect or not, is what has led to a totalitarian state, with lawyers and welfare officials abducting kids willy nilly from poor homes, mad, bad, child abusing scumbags terrorising parents in the 'family court' in secret, and massive sexist corporate charities like 'Witches Aid' - an entirely appropriate nickname - getting millions from the Government and mugs in general just to spread the myth that women are all defenceless poor abused little girls who need the state to step in for them against some mythic neandertal who never bloody existed except in the minds of hysterical feminists. Wake up - smell the coffee - do the math. There are NOT plenty of fathers out there who are utterly useless, violent and don't deserve children." There are a tiny smattering of crap PARENTS - mainly women, who commit infanticide, and abuse.
Man-hating feminism degenerated into false allegations child abuse.
ReplyDelete