2008 Campaign
The Local Government Elections on 1st May 2008 were another opportunity for us to test the water. Ray Barry stood in his home Ward of Tettenhall Wightwick in Wolverhampton, and polled a respectable 101 votes, 2.4% of votes cast. He wasn’t too far behind the Labour and Lib/Dem candidates, who each polled less than 500 votes. He was even closer to two Green Party candidates in adjacent Wards, who polled 189 and 151 votes, and his 101 exceeded that of some UKIP and Green Party candidates in the Region!
“This is a big step forward from last year. It shows that even now, where we put effort into local campaigning, we can hold our own alongside well-known national parties. As always, it’s not about winning; it’s about using the electoral process to put the issue of a child’s need for 2 parents on the political agenda, and when we attract voters in these numbers, we can be sure that we are succeeding”.
“What we really need now to make this take off is funding, donations from people who have seen in their own lives the harm which the present Family Law policies are doing to our children, and who see in the EPA a way to turn this around”.
My Personal Manifesto
I am standing for election in my home ward of Tettenhall Wightwick in Wolverhampton on 1st May 2008. The present Conservative holder of the seat, Joan Stevenson, is a fine councillor, but she is not part of the Labour controlling group, and so cannot influence council policy directly.
I believe I can.
After 30 years in the Civil Service, I know how to get things done inside the Civic Centre. As a seasoned Fathers 4 Justice campaigner, I know how to get things done outside it as well; peaceful publicity stunts are a powerful tool for change in the modern world.
So, what will I do, if elected? 70% of youth crime is committed by youngsters growing up without their fathers. Labour's family policies mean a quarter of all fathers have no contact with their children, and these are the children causing trouble on our streets.
Vote me in on 1st May and I will make Wolverhampton Council implement a programme to allow separated fathers back into the lives of their children, so they can keep them out of trouble.
A 3-step programme for Wolverhampton children whose parents are separated:
1/ Publicity and outreach, promoting the benefits of allowing both parents, and both sets of grandparents, to continue to love and care for their children, even after they separate.
2/ A free mediation service, providing a calm environment away from the cauldron of Family Courts and lawyers, where parents can agree arrangements for caring for their children after they separate.
3/ Naming and shaming. Half of all contact orders, which provide for the non-resident parent to see their children, are broken; when they are, courts rarely enforce them, and that parent simply drifts out of their children's lives. As usual it is the children who suffer when this happens. As well as the carrots in steps 1 & 2, therefore, this programme will also have a stick: a register of parents who break contact orders, whether it be a father who no longer wants to see his children, or a mother who prevents him doing so.
The churches and other faith communities have an important part to play as well. This is after all as much a moral issue as a legal one. I am a theology graduate who has trained as a priest, and I believe I can bring faith leaders on board this programme.
Elect me and work with me, and I will make a difference to the things that really matter - our children, our families, and our streets.
