Domestic Violence - part of the Big Lie for our time

Prologue

Once upon a time a man called Adolf Hitler wrote a book called 'Mein Kampf'. In it he developed his ideas for the future. One of these was his 'Big Lie' theory. It goes like this,  "Small people tell small lies all the time, so if you are in charge of the country and tell a small lie, then people may not believe you, as it would be the sort of thing they would lie about. But, small people are too scared to tell Big Lies, so if you tell the people a Big Lie, then they will believe you!". Hitler died 55 years ago, but his Big Lie theory is still practised enthusiastically by politicians everywhere. It is practised right now in New Labour's Britain.

Read on .......

The Home Office Research Report No.191, published Jan.2000 announced that men are equally likely to be victims of domestic violence, the British Crime Survey 1999 also indicated near parity. As have other reports that are produced across the Atlantic. Despite this the Government devotes virtually all its propaganda and funding to female victims. Why is it that the government is so determined to ignore its own research showing that men are just as likely to be victims ?

The situation in the new Scottish Parliament is even worse. �18.3 million pounds has just been announced for Domestic Violence, all of it targeted on women as victims.

Men, it seems, are to be demonised, despite all the evidence. The Minister in charge in Edinburgh is one Ms Jackie Baillie, MSP, Minister for Social Justice. She has a background working in voluntary organisations like Women's Aid, so she obviously isn't approaching her brief with any pre-conceived ideas (sic!)  A look at the Scottish Executive website (both 'Press Releases' & 'Publications') is revealing.

They now have a new National Strategy on Domestic Violence. This follows on from the "work" of the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Abuse. Both documents and the press release which trumpeted their arrival have been posted on the Scottish Executive's website. We find these documents to be very disturbing on a number of counts. The language is entirely sexist. Apart from a minor 'sop' on the second page of the Strategy section, the possibility that men are also victims of domestic violence is not acknowledged. This document contrasts badly with the comparable Home Office website section on Domestic Violence. A glance at the H.O. site confirms that the language is only fleetingly sexist, men are acknowledged as victims and, further, they post a helpline number for male victims of domestic violence (although provision for male victims is minuscule compared with that provided for women). Given that �18.3 million pounds of public funds have been allocated to this National Strategy, we regard this as sex discrimination against men, a misuse of public funds and maladministration by Scottish Executive ministers.

Domestic Violence TV Adverts

A series of adverts has just started. It will run till late January 2001. There are a number of points which need to be made regarding this.

• The ads state that 1 in 5 women lives with the 'constant' threat of Domestic Abuse. This is very strange assertion to make given that the Home Office Research Study No 191 states that only 4.2% of women AND 4.2% of men had been physically assaulted over the previous year.
• While it is true that 23% of women claim to have been assaulted by a partner at some point in their lives, 15% of men also claimed that they have been physically assaulted by their partner at some point in their lives. However, this does not constitute a 'constant' threat or anything like it
• If the Scottish Executive was to pay for a series of TV ads stating that people were under 'constant' threat of becoming murder victims every time they set foot on the streets , it would be condemned, and rightly, as scare mongering. It would be technically true since a small, but measurable, percentage of people are murdered on the streets every year.
• Alternatively, the Executive would be as well commissioning a series of ads stating that people were under 'constant' threat of being run over by cars every time they set foot on the street. Again, this is technically true since a small, but measurable, percentage are killed on the roads.
• Jackie Baillie's press release, as well as the TV ads, mention the statistics regarding women. Strangely, no attempt has been made to quote the figures from H.O. No. 191 regarding male victims. We insist, in the name of equality, that the Scottish Executive commissions a further series of TV ads, quoting the 15% of male DV victims.
• We recommend that you also highlight the figures for families facing financial stress, 12% of male victims vs. only 10% of female victims. This shows that should a man lose his income through redundancy etc. then he is at greater risk of being attacked by his 'supportive' female partner.
• It is instructive to compare the above situation, where men are ignored with that prevailing in the Fire Brigades (or many other traditional male occupations).  At present there are exactly 5 female full-time fire-fighters (cf. 2182 male full-timers) in Strathclyde Fire Brigade. Are these 5 women ignored since they comprise only 0.23 % of the force?  Oh no, in fact, by contrast compared with their numbers, the Fire Brigade is forced to spend far more on them ensuring they have adequate toilets, shower, and dormitory facilities. In the Fire Brigade, 'mainstreaming equality', & 'overarching principle of equality', are the buzzwords. Only when men are the lower profile victims in Domestic Violence, do we see that these high-flown concepts are ignored by New Labour.

from UK Men's Movement (Scotland)

Comment : When will governments tell the truth ?