Wakey Wakey Mr Blair: On Friday 21st October 2005 Fathers For Justice held a march – or rather ‘Pyjama Protest’ – calling for children to be allowed to stay overnight with their fathers after families have separated. They met in Green Park and marched to a rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Here is what I wrote about it in 2005 with some of the pictures from My London Diary and a link to more.
Applying law to families that have broken up is difficult, and currently often results in a raw deal for fathers. Even where they are granted access, there is often no way of achieving it. I don’t think there are any easy answers; when relationships break down, people are often very bitter and irrational and any normal relationship can be very difficult to establish.
There does need to be an enforceable legal framework based on the best interests of the children concerned, and where both parents want to be involved in their future this must normally be for their good. Quite how this can be done is hard to see, and sometimes family courts seem to need both the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job.
What is very clear is that many fathers (and a few mothers) get a raw deal at the moment, and the children involved are short-changed too. Fathers 4 Justice are a very media-savvy organisation and have in the past pulled off some clever stunts to bring attention to their case.
The demonstration on Friday 21st October, ‘Wakey Wakey Mr Blair’ was in support of overnight stays for children with their dads after separation. Advertised as a ‘Pyjama Protest’, those taking part were asked to wear their ‘jim jams’, slippers and dressing gown, and bring their hot water bottles, teddy bears and even their beds.
It poured on the morning of the march, which perhaps put a few people off coming, and there were only just over a hundred demonstrators all told, with just a sprinkling of pyjamas and beds, but the good publicity had resulted in a reasonable amount of press interest, both on the march and, rather more waiting for their arrival at the Royal Courts Of Justice in Strand.
I limped along with the march [still suffering from my knee injury a month earlier] which was led by a hired open-top double-decker bus, going the whole distance and taking a few pictures en route, but the arrival outside the Law Courts was disappointingly unorganised.
After listening to the address from the top of the bus for a few minutes I decided it was time to catch a bus.
More pictures from the march and rally begin here on My London Diary.
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