He thinks feminists are ‘obnoxious bigots’: meet the new justice minister

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”

  1. Ed

    Nice try – he’s a really unpleasant piece of work. Go and research what he said, and come back with a substantive defence if you think there is one.

  2. Ed

    Since ‘feminist literature’ comes in a variety of different forms, this just confirms that you can’t really cope with women being equal. Never mind.

  3. Ed

    Drivel. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence.

  4. Ed

    ‘It’s the truth’ – no, it isn’t. Meanwhile women are paid less, more likely to be raped, have fewer pension rights, suffer more sexual harrassment, are very unlikely to get rape convictions etc etc.

    Stop rehearsing your prejudices and go and look at some evidence.

  5. Janet Wilkinson

    Feminism is about equality for *all* people

    Bullshit.

    The rest of your post is just feminist propaganda that has been debunked so many times its not even worth talking about.

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