Social skirmishes

● Social workers’ favourite MP, John Hemming, sang in the Commons recently:

“The boys they say that they won’t talk to their mom,
The judge says foster care is what must be done,
Dad says it’s wrong by writing a book,
He’s put in jail ‘cos somebody looked.”

Not quite the blues, John, but maybe a musical is in the offing.

● One of London’s failed mayoral candidates, Matt O’Connor, is better known as the founder of Fathers for Justice, those abseiling warriors for dads’ rights. Matt disbanded the outfit when it was infiltrated by extremists. Distancing himself from all forms of extremism, O’Connor stood for the English Democrats, replacing professional Londoner Gary “Gaz” Bushell, who had gained BNP backing as a second choice.

Sadly, Matt resigned a few days before the election. The English Democrats accepted, gallantly claiming Matt had “alcohol problems”. A fine English political tradition and rather hypocritical as the Democrats’ manifesto urges government to “encourage the minimum use of ‘recreational’ drugs and reasonable use of alcohol” – one man’s reasonable is another man’s vice.

Matt hit back by saying that the outfit did not share his “clear vision”. A question of double-vision then? Maybe the Democrats’ manifesto pledge to “tackle family breakdown” brought back all the hurt leading to a dance with the bottle.

Matt received 10,000 votes for mayor, coming a credible second from last. Even sadder, my computer spellcheck insists on replacing his name with the word “Gonorrhoea”.

E-mail your stories to keith.sellick@rbi.co.uk