In an editorial in this week's Spectator, the magazine's editor Question Time regular Fraser Nelson says David Lammy MP is 'brave' to talk about the importance of fathers in his book Out of the Ashes: Britain After The Riots.
Mr Lammy was brought up by his mother, and a line of argument in the book (which I haven't read by the way - and I'll wager Mr Nelson hasn't either) is, apparently, that the absence of fathers from many young boys' lives probably goes some way towards explaining why the riots happened.
According to Mr Nelson, such a claim could 'cast him out as a heretic' from his own party.
Poppycock - politicians of every hue talk about 'absent fathers' all the time. What marks Lammy out is that a) he has, having been born black and brought up in Tottenham, a very personal perspective on the rioters' issues, and b) he puts his money where his mouth is by heading up the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood, which goes some way towards putting fathers and fatherhood on Britain's political map.
If that's bravery, let's commend it!
Mr Lammy was brought up by his mother, and a line of argument in the book (which I haven't read by the way - and I'll wager Mr Nelson hasn't either) is, apparently, that the absence of fathers from many young boys' lives probably goes some way towards explaining why the riots happened.
According to Mr Nelson, such a claim could 'cast him out as a heretic' from his own party.
Poppycock - politicians of every hue talk about 'absent fathers' all the time. What marks Lammy out is that a) he has, having been born black and brought up in Tottenham, a very personal perspective on the rioters' issues, and b) he puts his money where his mouth is by heading up the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood, which goes some way towards putting fathers and fatherhood on Britain's political map.
If that's bravery, let's commend it!
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