Dominic Raab is no more keen on the Equality Act than he is on the Human Rights Act
Esher and Walton MP Dominic Raab has just been made justice minister alongside Michael Gove.
Raab is a longtime critic of the Human Rights Act – this appointment looks like David Cameron’s way of saying he is serious about scrapping it. In January 2014 Raab voted to allow human rights grounds to be used to prevent a foreign criminal being deported only in cases where there would be a breach of right to life or the right not to be tortured.
In 2013, he voted to remove the duty on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights to work to support the development of a society in which people’s ability to achieve their potential is not limited by prejudice or discrimination.
And in 2013 he also voted against making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of caste.
Raab also took an unusual stance on gender equality in 2011, when he expressed his fears that ‘from the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal’. He attacked the ‘obnoxious bigotry’ of feminists and complained that men work longer hours than women (no mention of pay gap etc).
“While we have some of the toughest anti-discrimination laws in the world, we are blind to some of the most flagrant discrimination – against men.”
Seeming to have fallen at the first hurdle – assuming that feminism is anti-men – Raab also suggested that men start ‘burning their briefs’, presumably as a long- overdue retaliation against the feminists of the sixties (who did not, in fact, burn their bras.)
Raab’s diatribe continued:
“Britain’s not perfect, and we will never eradicate all human prejudice.”
This is especially true when we do not understand that prejudice. Another interesting choice from David Cameron.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
398 Responses to “He thinks feminists are ‘obnoxious bigots’: meet the new justice minister”
Cedric D
I am FAR from a Tory and I fear for the future of this country under a majority Tory government. But he’s right about feminism. I doubt he “assumed” feminism is anti-men, there’s evidence of it everywhere. Btw, the pay gap is a myth, much like most feminist propaganda.
Cedric D
Holy fucking shit did you really just say that? Feminism, ladies and gentlemen.
Keith M
Guess what – the MOJ is now the Ministry of Injustice. With this bunch of w*nkers in control – god help us.
Rex Duis
Flicking through your comment history I see you are transgender… so you are definitely not a good example of what the average woman is capable of. You were born male and lived part of your life as a man. Don’t make out like you are a normal average woman. You will never represent that. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it’s a fact and it only needs to be said because you’ve positioned yourself as a normal average woman in your statement. It’s funny, cos I did feel there was something off about your writing style as you sounded more like a gay man than a woman and commented on it and I guess I wasn’t far off.
Transgender people need to understand that just cos they change gender, doesn’t mean they are truly 100% the gender they’ve adopted. It’s a painful and very difficult situation to find oneself in I imagine, and from those I’ve spoken to I know they struggle with their identity forever, even after they’ve completed a transition. In order to ease that pain, wouldn’t it be great if everyone else became androgenous? What if gender was simply a social construct? Sounds like the core theories of Feminism in a nutshell. Well it doesn’t work like that. People who are hurting aren’t making things right by changing the world around them and hurting others. Gender is more than a mental identity, it is a part of our biochemistry and our DNA and instinct too.
h0tr0d
Feminists are no longer fooling anyone. All it takes is minimal research and it’s quite easy to determine that feminism (the political movement) is nothing more than a special interest group looking to use the government to extract more free stuff. I called myself a feminist for 30 years….and completely support the dictionary version of feminism. That is not at all reflected in the hate movement that is feminism today.