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”
j.d.troughton
No, an incitement to the gender equivalent of genocide is my concern here (and we’ve not spoken about superlatives, so what the “biggest” problem is is irrelevant, besides also being a simplistic way of thinking about any set of issues). Women have killed men explicitly for being men as well, and they don’t get harsh condemnation for it.
Stiggie
Thank god, brittain could use some sense.
fmf
You’re right, comparing stuff is nonsense. Every problem should get the exact same amount and type of attention, no questions asked. Someone broke your leg? To hospital with you, have surgery and a cast and a bandage and crutches. Someone threatened to break your leg? To hospital with you!
Citation please for that last claim.
fmf
My boyfriend agrees with you.
I agree, ban the mutilation of babies, but they are done in different cultures and for mildly different reasons, so a blanket approach won’t work effectively, the current FGM laws aren’t effective, it all needs better work, but being more general isn’t going to help at all with real change. Laws do little. I’m not going to distance myself from the campaign to end male GC (genital cutting), but I’m not going to put myself and FGC in the center of it either, because they are different cultures and need different counters.
fmf
Excuse me, where the fuck are any of these pictures from???? How would you even get these??
I don’t really feel comfortable looking at a load of unknown contextless babies penises, so I really don’t feel comfortable reverse google image searching to find their original sources.