3:32pm Tuesday 18th December 2007
By Simon Angear
DADS' rights campaign group Fathers 4 Justice launched its third publicity stunt in Sedgemoor in less than 12 months this week - and this time their protest gimmick has a festive feel.
After previously targeting the Willow Man and the M5 at North Petherton, the daredevil lobbyists this time struck all along the M5 corridor, at North Petherton, Edithmead and Sedgemoor Services.
Those behind the high-profile stunts daubed paint slogans on agricultural bales, hung banners from motorway bridges and left behind scarecrowds dressed as Santa Clause - all to promote their seasonal slogan: "Put the Father back into Christmas."
This is to spread their message that family laws governing parental access to children need to be balanced to be fair to fathers.
And although police moved quickly to remove traces of the group's actions, a South-West spokesman for the movement warned that more could follow over the Christmas period.
He spokesman said: "This Christmas, at least one million children in this country will be denied access to their parents or grandparents by the flawed family system that allows children to be exposed to a succession of mum's fleeting boyfriends, lovers and stepfathers with whom they have no biological connection, but gives no automatic rights of access to their real dads of grandparents.
"Dads only want the same right of access as mum's latest boyfriend.
"We as dads and grandparents love our children and just wish to spend time with them. Dads are angry at being treated like cash points by "Flash" Gordon Brown's Government.
"This (latest round of stunts) is just a taster of what you can expect and is just the beginning in the lead-up to Christmas."
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