Our readers back dads' rights group

EVENING Post readers have backed dads' rights group Fathers 4 Justice in its campaign for a change in family law.

Four out of five readers who responded to a telephone poll - launched in the Post on the day thousands of F4J members took to the streets of London - backed the group's campaign to raise the profile of fathers in the legal system.

Controversial tactics employed during the 18-month campaign have included bringing Bristol's traffic to a halt by scaling the Clifton Suspension Bridge, storming the offices of family solicitors, embarking on a hunger strike and pelting Tony Blair with purple flour-filled condoms during Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament.

News of Post readers' support was welcomed by the Bristol F4J group co-ordinator, Jeff Skinner.

He said: "I think the first thing the results tell us is that we are going about it the right way.

"We have grown so much over the last 18 months, and with it the awareness of what we are campaigning for and why has also grown significantly.

"We are pleased that Evening Post readers are behind us, as it means a lot to have public support.

"We've also had a lot of public support out on the campaigns and, when we tell people why we are doing it, they are always gobsmacked that the system can be so unfair. Bringing these issues to light has been long overdue and we now hope that further campaigns, coupled with F4J's Blueprint for Family Law reform, will see a positive change in the system." At a national Day of The Dad march in London on June 18, two days before Father's Day, members of the group handed their blueprint for family law through the security gates at Downing Street.

The 52-page document, making recommendations for wholesale changes to the way custody and contact cases are handled after the breakdown of relationships, took three years to draw up and marks the next step in the group's campaign. The Bristol Fathers4Justice group will hold their next meeting on July 12 at the Beaufort Hunt pub, Downend Road, Downend, from 7.30pm.

F4J welcomes new members and also to its Purplehearts group for mums, girlfriends, grandparents, friends and relatives affected by contact disputes.

For more information about Fathers4Justice and Purplehearts, visit www.fathers-4-justice.org" twww.fathers-4-justice.org