An Exercise in Absolute Futility

Why must getting a divorce mean losing your children? Why are parents who seek the help of the courts to resolve common family problems criminalised? Why was Baby P allowed to die? Why do social services snatch babies from their mothers at the moment of birth? Why are we in the grip of yet another panic about paedophiles? Why does the tax and benefits system brutally discriminate against two-parent families? At long last this controversial and thought-provoking book provides the disturbing answers to these questions. This extensively-researched, analytical and historical exploration of the factors which have contributed to family law and the family justice system in the UK takes you on a journey through the origins of the basic principles of family law and examines how and why the law has changed over the years, under the influence of feminism, falsehood and myth, resulting in the disastrous system we have now. It introduces some of the parenting organisations which have lobbied and failed to make the law more family-friendly. It speculates about some of the changes necessary to save family justice. If you are involved in any way in the family justice system, as a parent, lawyer, social worker or judge, this is essential reading.