29 Jan 2014: J4MB candidate Ray Barry on 'The Alan Titchmarsh Show', talking about paternity leave
Ray Barry will be contesting the Wolverhampton South-West seat at the May 2015 general election. At the 2010 general election he stood for the political party he still runs, The Equal Parenting Alliance http://equalparentingalliance.org. On the popular ITV show The Alan Titchmarsh Show he was speaking in a personal capacity - the show had approached his as a spokesman for The Equal Parenting Alliance - and he was asked to argue for the position that men and women should get equal parental leave. His opponent was the journalist James Delingpole. J4MB has yet to establish a position on the issue of paternity leave, but we consider it unjust that women have a statutory right to 12 months' maternity leave, while men have a statutory right to just two weeks' paternity leave. There is, however, the potential impact of extended paternity leave on the employability of men in smaller businesses, so there's a fine balance to be made. Perhaps the right to extended paternity leave should only be available to men in companies with a minimum number of employees.