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
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.


398 Responses to “He thinks feminists are ‘obnoxious bigots’: meet the new justice minister”
Rex Duis
No, you’re rude AND child-like. Who the hell said I had authority over you?! Where are you getting this?! What is WRONG with YOU that your mind thinks this way?!
Jesus. We are just two people on a bloody internet forum having a difference of opinion on a social issue… how did you magic that into ‘oh he’s trying to have authority over me’.
Yes you behaved like a troll, yes you showed ignorance. If you dislike being called out on poor behaviour then don’t behave that way! Simple! It’s got nothing to do with ‘authority’. Saying you refused to read the reply I wrote you simply becuase too long was bloody rude… now you’ve changed your tune and it’s because I lacked the ‘authority’ to ‘lecture’ you. You’re head is so far up your a**e. I’m done with this. Go stay miserable in your cave, hating men… loathing yourself for having been a man and then turning into a women and losing your ‘man privileges’ along the way. Why? Why? Oh, it’ll be ‘dat Patriarchy’ again, of course. Let’s just crush all the menz and take their treasure…. honestly it’s like teaching Reception children all over again with you.
fmf
Step one: post essay
Step two: say someone’s disrespecting you by not reading it.
Step three: continue to demand a high level of respect whilst insulting the person who doesn’t provide it because they dared to call out how rude you were being.
Step four: live happily ever after in the cloud of your own ego and arrogance. You’re definitely in the right here, of course you are, you have a right to be angry.
Rex Duis
Sorry but you just sounded like a gay again when you started with ‘Step One’.
Get your emotions under control woman or man or whatever you think you are. Stop projecting them onto me. Own them, they are yours not mine. I’m done with you.
Rex Duis
(I’m gonna put a spin on a standard Feminist response here because it’s too delicious not to)
Jane, the reason men are automatically accorded respect and women aren’t is because of your post.
(ie pulling the victim card as a response – just in case you couldn’t work it out)
Rex Duis
Just one month after you posted this, Sir Tim Hunt criticised women for being uncritciseable and his whole universe imploded.