Full of courage, a real man's man?

I have spent some time reading the words of the conservative government on two separate, but related issues.  Firstly on Sunday 19th June David Cameroon personally delivered a father’s day message to absent fathers.  This is what he said:

"I also think we need to make Britain a genuinely hostile place for fathers who go AWOL.  It’s high time runaway dads were stigmatised, and the full force of shame was heaped upon them.  They should be looked at like drink drivers, people who are beyond the pale. They need the message rammed home to them, from every part of our culture, that what they’re doing is wrong"

Leaving aside the fairly obvious point that if the courts gave more fathers custody of their children (it’s called equality you know) there would be fewer absent fathers and rather more absent mothers.  Cameroon really should apologies to the tens of thousands of absent fathers trying to maintain contact with their children.  They heroically battle not just against their ex-wives and girl-friends but against a legal system that is heavily biased against them.

Cameron clearly either knows nothing of or cares not a jot for the pain, heartache and abuse heaped on absent fathers trying to obtain and enforce contact orders.  Shame on him for delivering such a cheap shot on what for so many fathers is one of the saddest days of the year.

Turning now to a rather different type of absent father; I refer to service men returning from military service in Afghanistan - no not those marching proudly down the high street - but those who currently return via Royal Wooten Bassett.  They have become rather an embarrassment to this government so in future aircraft bearing the mortal remains of Britain’s finest will be routed via RAF Brize Norton instead of RAF Lyneham; where rather than leaving by the main gates, hearses will be ushered out of a side entrance and via back roads away from towns and villages  to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Andrew Robathan, government minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans explains.

"The side gate was seen by the Ministry of Defence and the police as the most appropriate way to take out future corteges.  I am not sure taking coffins in hearses past schools, past families, past married quarters is necessarily the thing that everybody would wish to see .  .  . the focus must be on the families of the dead service personnel.  They are the people who care most. That is where our focus is."

What a pathetic excuse for a government.
Best Wishes
Will