In August we were interviewed by George Galloway for RT Sputnik Radio's 'The Mother of All Talk Shows' and later on his television show 'Sputnik Orbits the World with George Galloway'
Having just become a father for the sixth time, former MP, George Galloway rekindled his interest in the work of FNF and invited us to discuss with him the much ignored problem of fatherlessness 'the elephant in the room ... contributing to social malaise'.
The interview gave us the opportunity to highlight a range of points.
- A problem of epidemic proportions
- 65,000 children each year involved in new court applications; 10% of births
- 36% of parents separate before children reach 16 years of age
- Most very much want to remain parents to their children
- Prisons full of young men who grew up without their fathers
- The state picking up the bill - the result of poor outcomes to wellbeing of children and parents
- A not fit-for-purpose adverserial family justice system
- Over 7,000 applications for enforcement of orders made in children's best interest, with hardly any of them resulting in enforcement action
- Damaging delays
- No helpful support
- Harm to children's and parents' health
We also discussed solutions such as:
- A rebuttable presumption of shared parenting rather than 'contact'
- Proper system of parental leave that supports joint care from the start
- Early interventions (to resolve disputes without having to go to court)
- Child-appropriate timescales for court action
As George said, some of the problems and solutions are a 'statement of the bleeding obvious' yet politicians fail to grapple with them and they don't even have a coherent strategy for the huge number of separated families.
You can watch the interview here.
George Galloway also interviewed us on 9th August for his "The Mother of All Talkshows - Episode 60". You can listen to the interview at 92:40 or watch it on youtube at 1:42:00.
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