Father's Day

London Art News tends to stay aloof from the mucky world of politics, but when I read PM David Cameron's bigoted, arrogant, pig-ignorant diatribe against absent fathers on Father's Day, I can't help thinking that we need an Arab Spring in the UK to sweep loud-mouthed ex-public schoolboys from political office.

I wasted an entire decade of my life trying to gain my two sons their human right of access to me. Every inch of the way I was beset by feminists whose only interest was the rights of the mother and to hell with the needs of the child. I succeeded in sacking three female lawyers and winning some piddling compensation from each of them. The case ended in a two-day trial in the Family Division of the High Court, during which the judge and I were the only ones who didn't commit perjury!

There are many cases like mine. A court welfare officer told one father who was undergoing a divorce that he should let things calm down before he tried to see his children (advice many solicitors will also dish out). When the case was heard, the court welfare officer told the court that dad hadn't made any effort to see his children and clearly wasn't interested in them!

What happens if the court does grant access to Dad? He gets to meet his child once a fortnight in McDonald's for a burger and learns that Mum is poisoning the child's mind against him. He has no say in how his child is being raised. So he realises he is no longer Dad, but ex-Dad. After a few months of this torture, perhaps a year at most, he abandons his ex-child. Stigmatize that runaway dad, screams Cameron, ignoring the fact that getting rid of dad is what the ex-wife had been working for all along, because she wants him completely out of her life.

What about maintenance? Hound the father if he isn't paying, cry the politicians. So the state chases ex-dads for their money. Some countries have a far more enlightened approach: the children are cared for by the breadwinner irrespective of gender. That gives the children security, cuts out legal battles over maintenance and helps lower the benefits bill. But Britain can't go down that road, because it might be unfair to women!

The legal system in this country is pro-women, anti-men and most appallingly anti-child. You'll discover that for yourself, Cameron, when your children are denied access to you. It hurts. You owe a lot of ex-dads an apology, but you lack the wisdom and acumen to perceive that fact. You're a donkey braying at the moon.