This article was first published in The Guardian on 12 June 1974

Fathers need their families

Keith Parkin

It is time society decided that children need two parents, irrespective of whether the natural parents are married, separated, or divorced.

That such is the case would not be disputed by qualified experts or by laymen guided by basic human feeling. But cases concerning custody, care and control which come before the courts after a divorce usually meet with the private preconceptions of the presiding judge, against which the ritual of assessing the individual merits of the case is farcically irrelevant.

The forced removal of fathers from their children is hateful and it is done under the auspices of a law that is profoundly unjust. It is of course an oxymoron to have unjust law. It is also a moral nonsense and this law having failed will fall. It is your job to hasten that day.