Fathers' pressure group doorstep PM's home

A pressure group campaigning for fathers to have equal access rights to their children after break-up or divorce met at the weekend in Witney in an attempt to convince residents to lobby David Cameron to change the law.

On Saturday, July 24, about 25 members of New Fathers 4 Justice met up on Wood Green, outside the Three Pigeons Inn, before taking their protest into Witney town centre. Dressed as comic book superhero characters, they toured the town with loudspeakers and horns demanding that the Prime Minister come out and met them to discuss their grievances.

Nigel Ace, the spokesperson for New Fathers 4 Justice, said: “The government is not giving fathers equal status in order to see their children after separation or divorce. Basically, if mothers stop contact, hundreds of thousands of dads each year are stopped from seeing their children. That can lead into protracted court cases that can go on for years. One of the people I came up with today has been fighting since 2004, another chap has not seen his daughter since she was one, and she has now turned 18.”

Witney Town Council had warned the group that camping on the public green in Woodstock Road would be breaking the law, but they threatened to disperse across the area and “cause mayhem” if they were stopped from camping. On Sunday the protestors, escorted by the police, went to the Prime Minister’s house in Dean in the morning and made declarations over a loudspeaker. It is not thought the PM was in at the time of the visit.

Samantha Haynes from Wootton, was one of a number of women who also attended the event, dubbed ‘Witney’s Glastonbury festival of Fatherhood’. Dressed as Wonder Woman, she said: “I’ve got four children, and I’m allowed one of them full-time, the other three I see 18 hours a year. So I’m a great believer in New Fathers 4 Justice and think we should have equal status, as two parents are better than one.”


Organiser Nigel Ace also leafleted the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association office at Waterloo House wearing a David Cameron mask, and said the protest could be organised on a monthly basis in the future.

Activists Visit PM David Cameron's House in Dean

Video at

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=471746899017

Dad response to MP's 'Wet Blanket' action on Family Law reform

Activist have once again visited the Alconbury home of Justice Minister Jonathon Djanogly. New Fathers 4 Justice feel that he is about as much use as a wet blanket on the issue of fathers rights and Family Law reform. In fact every coalition MP should now look to their rooftops as fathers feel betrayed.

Dads picket MP’s home in fight for courts shake-up

Julian Makey Cambridge News
04/06/2010 10:13

Fathers campaigning for equal access to their children will demonstrate outside the home of Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly.

New Fathers 4 Justice has targeted Mr Djanogly following his appointment as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, where he will have responsibility for family courts and legal aid.

The protesters, dressed in superhero costumes, plan to pitch purple justice tents outside the MP’s home in Alconbury on June 12 and hope he will come out to discuss their campaign, which includes an open family court system.

Captain Equality, from New Fathers 4 Justice, who declined to give his real name, said: “We will go round in our usual peaceful, tragic-comic state and we will be asking him to meet us.

“If he doesn’t come out and say something, there will be rooftops involved at a later date.”

Captain Equality, who was involved in a rooftop protest at Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman’s home, said the protest at Mr Djanogly’s home was one of several planned in the run-up to a demonstration at Prime Minister David Cameron’s home on July 24.

He said the group was not linked to the former Fathers 4 Justice organisation, which hit the headlines when members dressed as superheroes climbed buildings to draw attention to their campaign for legal access to their children.

It was wound up after an alleged plot to kidnap former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s son Leo in 2006.

Captain Equality, who said he had a two-year battle for access to his daughter, said: “We want to see the secret family courts brought into the open like magistrates’ courts and Crown courts, where they are open to the public and the media.

“We feel they should bring the family courts into line with the other courts for the sake of transparency.”

He added: “We are campaigning for equality for fathers so they can see their children when they want to.

“We don’t have equality – we are the last in line.”

Mr Djanogly was unavailable for comment.

New Dads for Justice stage a demo

DENNIS the Menace, Bananaman and Captain Equality were among the superheroes who travelled through Oxfordshire as part of a New Fathers for Justice demonstration.



About 40 fathers – and some mothers – from across the country gathered in the centre of Oxford on Saturday.

The group travelled the streets in two battle buses before heading to Witney to Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s constituency off-ice, where they met Henry Bellingham, Conservative shadow spokesman for justice, who spoke to them for 30 minutes.

The protesters also held placards and brandished David Cameron masks.
New Fathers for Justice national co-ordinator Nigel Ace, from Bristol, who was dressed as Captain Equality, hailed the event as a success.

He said: “We had a lot of people coming up to us and saying they are all facing these problems, so we had a good response.

“It got a bit hot under these suits but it was worth it.”

New Fathers for Justice campaigns for fathers to have more equal access to their children following family breakdown. Members have staged a number of high profile protests in Oxfordshire.

In November, campaigners dressed as superheroes held two demonstrations, one in Oxford and one in Witney.

They protested outside the court building in St Aldate’s, and at least one protester attempted to scale the side of the building. They later gathered outside Mr Cameron’s office in Witney, where they brandished an effigy of Gordon Brown but were prevented from setting light to it by police.

And in June 2009, two dads dressed as a superhero and a court jester climbed Carfax Tower, unfurling banners at the top during a three hour demo.

The original Fathers for Justice disbanded in 2008 and New Fathers for Justice took its place. They dress as superheroes because they believe that is how fathers should be treated.

FATHERS TALK TO SHADOW JUSTICE MINISTER IN WITNEY

Oxford Protest