Each year, some 85,000 families with children under 16 undergo divorce. Each year the officers of CAFCASS, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, prepare welfare reports on some 10% of the nation's birthrate.

In 2001 CAFCASS had replaced the Family Court Welfare System (FCWS) which had been disbanded after a wave of public activism had highlighted the scandalous state of that organisation. The charges included that staff were untrained and that the Service had been unable to produce its guidelines on what sort of recommendations its officers should make as there had been almost nothing to train officers in. The service lost any credibility when it was made public that induction courses that had been brought in were irrelevant in relation to divorce and in any event lasted for less time than that given to train Parking Wardens.

CAFCASS was established to supposedly safeguard and promote the welfare of children; give advice to the court about any application made to it in such proceedings; and provide information, advice and support for children and their families.

By 2003, protests by fathers dragged CAFCASS failings into the media, and a parliamentary Inquiry lambasted CAFCASS.

Blair's response was unfortunate. He brought in Margaret Hodge, who has a long anti-father track record as is evidenced in her failed Sure Start Program, which systematically excludes men and fathers.

Hodge belongs to the School of London Radical Feminists who want to get all mothers with young babies back to work in order to make mothers independent of fathers. Three weeks ago this dogma was betrayed by another radical feminist in the Cabinet, Patricia Hewitt, who said: “We have given the impression that we think all mothers should be out to work, preferably full-time, as soon as their children are a few months old. The starting point for getting it right is to make clear we value and will reward time spent with families as well as time at work.”

Margaret Hodge:

Margaret Hodge is now hailed as the saviour, but her record is disasterous. She is going to fail. In her youth she ducked responsibility for the Islington disaster. She will now be adept enough to duck responsibility for the coming disaster in the organisation that replaces CAFCASS.

In the short term, what she will do now is throw money at CAFCASS, but she will will not replace the ignorant or radical feminist staff.

What this means is that she will continue to push ahead with well established patterns of outsourcing service delivery to subcontractor organisations controlled by radical feminist women employing only women, with a few men from ethnic minorities thrown in to demonstrate commitment to diversity. Surestart is careful to avoid employing white heterosexual men. The headcount statistics of her creation demonstrates that, for her, men and fathers are excluded from her brand of "helping families".

Margaret Hodge - Islington

Mrs Hodge made her political reputation at Islington, where she was leader for 10 years from 1982. A moderniser before New Labour was created, she was a close neighbour of Tony Blair. Her second husband, Henry Hodge, was a solicitor who gave Cherie Blair her first brief as a barrister. She was leader of Islington Council during a period when Islington schools sank ever lower - she was much critised when against Labour Party policy she paid for her own kids to be educated in private schools outside Islington. With her in charge, Islington schools practiced equal opportunity measures where boys sat in the back of class rooms during math lessons in order to to raise girls' standards in maths. Today the performance of boys in Islington is catastrophic.

Islington Council was in the forefront of radical transformation of local government. The red flag was flown over the town hall when elsewhere communism was falling apart. Grants were given to purchase gym mats for lesbian groups, and the council was ideologically committed to a pro-gay employment policy. At the same time the council pushed ahead with large scale spending that forced the council to enter into massive loan arrangements, making Islington one of the most indebted councils in the UK.

UPDATE:

Ms Hodge's desire for a unified Childrens Service leads to appointment of inappropriate head of inquiry

22 October 2003: Ms Hodge is criticised for not appointing a child welfare expert to review the management board of the controversial agency charged with protecting children in the family courts system. A devastating parliamentary inquiry into Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) had concluded that the agency's management had too little experience of the child welfare and family courts system yet Ms Hodge appoints Sir Clive Booth, a former chairman of the Teacher Training Agency, who has insufficient experience of child custody cases, or the court guardians system.

Hodge attacks victim of abuse!

12 November: In a letter to the top brass of BBC4, Ms Hodge seeks to gag a planned Radio 4 programme after learning that it was investigating claims that an abuse victim had contacted her in 1985 to inform her of sexual abuse he had suffered in a children's home in Islington in the late 1970s. Ms Hodge, who maintains she was not told of his charge, was leader of Islington Council from 1982 for a decade - a period in which children in the borough's care homes were molested, raped and driven into prostitution.

Hodge's letter describes the planned investigative program as 'deplorable sensationalism' and she describes a of former child abuse victim, a philosophy graduate and government consultant, as "an extremely disturbed person" which may lead to her being sued for defamation.

House of Commons Leader Peter Hain said Mrs Hodge had helped put together "the most rigorous and radical policy protecting children's rights ever from any government in this country".

13 November: The Guardian Editorial urges Magaret Hodge's to battle on as Minister for the Family in spite of writing in another section that :

"Hodge is "dismissive of those who criticise her and Islington Council for their past failings to protect children. All she said was that she's "learned lessons" and that her experience equips her "better than most ... in thinking about how we create a safe environment for those children at risk". Her horrific smear on Demetreous Panton suggests she's learned nothing at all - unless it's the dirty tricks of abusers"."

13 November: The Independent and the The Daily Telegraph call on Hodge to resign:

Margaret Eve Hodge was born Margaret Oppenheimer 59 years ago in Cairo, the daughter of a millionaire German Jewish high-Tory steel trader and his Austrian wife. Educated at Oxford high school for girls, and the London School of Economics, she chose not to work when her four children - now 32 to 22 - were young. Mrs Hodge made her political reputation at Islington, where she was leader for 10 years from 1982. A moderniser before New Labour was created, she was a close neighbour of Tony Blair. Her second husband, Henry Hodge, was a solicitor who gave Cherie Blair her first brief as a barrister.

She was leader of Islington Council during a period when Islington schools sank ever lower - she was much critised when against Labour Party policy she paid for her own kids to be educated in private schools outside Islington. With her in charge, Islington schools practiced equal opportunity measures where boys sat in the back of class rooms during math lessons in order to raise girls' standards in maths. Today the performance of boys in Islington is catastrophic.