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Fathers 4 Justice founder to enter Mayoral race
Evening Standard09.01.08
The founder of direct action group Fathers 4 Justice is planning to enter the London Mayoral race.
Matt O'Connor, who orchestrated stunts such as the powder-bombing of Tony Blair in the Commons, has vowed to bring "theatre and drama" to the campaign.
He plans to focus on the breakdown of families, which he believes is behind the huge number of teenage murders in London - 27 last year and two already this year. "One in two black children grows up without a father. One in four children grows up without a father. In London it's a real issue," said Mr O'Connor, 40, a father of three.
"We need to tackle crime and we need to tackle young offending. The role of fathers is absolutely integral to solving this problem."
Fathers 4 Justice was founded to highlight the difficulty many estranged fathers have in gaining legal access to their children but its publicity stunts have caused controversy.
Mr O'Connor almost committed suicide in 2001 when he considered jumping off Waterloo bridge after being barred from seeing his two sons from his first marriage.
He expects to launch his campaign on 14 February and stand for the English Democrats, who campaign for an English parliament because they believe that England loses out to Scotland in terms of public funding.
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Reader views (12)
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Mr O'Connor needs to spend more time fathering and setting a good example for his own three sons. .
- Penelope, Taunton, UK
He's only been in the party two minutes. Perhaps his campaign will start from the top of Nelson's column!
- Robert Parkhouse, Solihull, England
I agree, the role of fathers has been systematically undermined by government policies and social services over many years. There is an obsession with social experiments the results of which are only seen 15-20 years later; traditional judeo-christian values which have created what we cherish in British culture and a moral population, have been deliberately dismantled.
It is almost impossible to bring up boys in particular without a father figure. This government's particularly responsible for this problem, if MPs had to live on inner city council estates they would more carefully consider actions such as the slashing of funding for the marriage concealing service Relate and the disgusting decisions to support adoption rights for homosexuals.
All true statistics show that children grow up and do best in traditional MARRIAGES, yet there is very little support from local and central government for the institution.
Mr O'Connor has my respect.
- Jk Wieliczko, Warsaw Poland
