The father's right to be recognized? Dream on...

The Daily Mail (UK) announces a government plan to, as they put it, "force mothers to name fathers on birth certificates". Why? Predictably, to "make the collection of maintenance easier where disputes arose". There is absolutely nothing interesting about the article, it contains all the usual crap about deadbeats, threats to mothers' rights and a complete lack of concern for fathers' and children's rights. The more interesting part is the reader comment section. If ever there was proof that there's an issue of fathers' rights in the UK, it's here. A few are concerned about children of affairs destroying marriages (as if she hadn't pretty much done that already), others worry about women giving false names, some want mandatory DNA testing, a suprising number highlight the situation when she doesn't know who the father is (now there's a problem for our times), many ridicule the plan as unworkable.

There are a significant few who think that fathers are irrelevant:
"This is a blatant attack on mothers rights of privacy." - Ben, Cape Town.
"I think it is the choice of the mother and not the government." - Thierry, Basildon.
"As long as the mother is willing and able to support the child [...] then why should he be named?" - Kath, Belfast.

Actually, that Ben guy has more to say: "fathers are being given a disproportionate amount of control over the mothers and that is nothing less than the most despicable form of sexism." One wonders exactly how being recognized as father of your children is being given too much control over the mother and what Ben might think if the mother of his children decides she wants to see the back of him and won't let him see the kids.

Overall, the readers are concerned about the mother first, the children second and hardly at all about the father, all the government cares about is the f***iing money.

Same old, same old.


P.S. I have discovered two more excellent blogs. Check out Pook's Mill and Heretical Sex. Also, a reminder: I now run a feed of news items, but you have to go to my blog to see it (i.e., it does not appear as part of the main RSS feed), and have javascript turned on.

Technorati Tags: fathers' rights, children, birth certificate, UK