At the moment in the UK there is yet another blitz on domestic violence. Once more the air is thick with hysteria and false statistics. A newspaper has embarked on a naming and shaming campaign and the television is full of dramas and talk shows, all depicting horror stories of brutal deranged men who batter women. Women's groups are demonstrating outside jails trying to get women who killed their allegedly abusive husbands out of their sentences despite the public will as expressed by a jury. Naturally, men who suffer domestic violence also get a mention. A small aside that usually goes something like this: "While we know that 95% of all victims of domestic violence are female, we should say that some men also suffer." I think this is supposed to give those of us who have been on the receiving end of this violence a small warm feeling in the heart that we have been noticed. Well, it does not. What it does give us is a huge pain in the rump! For a start, the figure is a lie and those who repeat it know it is a lie. I will not go into detail here about the largest domestic violence study ever carried out in Britain proving that men and women suffer equally in the home when it come to abuse. Neither will I rant and rave about the huge amounts of studies world wide that have shown the same. Instead I decided to write and ask the head of Britain's police forces to explain why his officers seem intent on ignoring male victims also. The letter I wrote to him is below. Perhaps those of you reading this, and in possession of a conscience, would like to write to this man and ask him similar questions? In case I manage to stir anyone from their apathy I have included his e-mail address.

Sir John Stevens QPM

As commissioner of police can you tell me why the police in your employ constantly refuse to give male victims of domestic violence justice, refuse to arrest and prosecute female perpetrators, give poor, misleading and false advice and actively talk men and boys out of pressing charges against women who commit violence against them? All behaviours that guarantee the figures of reported crimes against female perpetrators remain low?

I would like you to be aware that this organisation, along with several others, are keeping accurate details of the men this policy is affecting and serious questions will be asked of the police about this behaviour in the future. We regard this manipulation by the police, that masks the reality of domestic violence between the sexes, as most sinister and, at best, a huge dereliction of duty. As commissioner we hold you responsible for the over all behaviour of the officers under your authority and we hereby make a formal request that you act immediately to stop this outrageous and sexist behaviour. Furthermore, we demand that when male victims contact your domestic violence officers they are given valid advice and their cases are investigated as rigorously as any other person, irrespective of their age or gender. We would like to remind you that the police are public servants and their duty is to serve and protect the whole of the public and not just 50% of it. Abused men and their children need and deserve the same amount of protection under the law as anyone else. While we at man2man support and applaud your current campaign against domestic violence we deplore the fact that, yet again, you fail to point out that men are suffering also and at a level on a par with women. (See the largest domestic violence survey ever carried out: 1996 BCS for the evidence).

Please do not bother to reply with the usual PR spin that the police are gender neutral and always act in a professional manner. We have mounting evidence that this is a false view and if it is one you believe then we suggest you are dangerously unaware of what is happening in your own police stations around the country.

man2man and its members await your reply with interest.

Sir John's e-mail address is: commissioner@met.police.uk

Feel free to drop him a note asking him about this behaviour. Who knows, you may change things for the better for thousands of decent men.

The question remains, why are the police acting in this way? Have they been programmed at some secret brainwashing camp to hate their fellow men by ranks of radical feminists dripping drool and carrying severed penises? Maybe senior police officers are all masons and their political masters indulge in ritualistic hypnosis sessions, making these normally august public figures loathe and detest any statistic, study or event that shows some women are violent? Possibly, and though I doubt it I cannot discount it entirely. The Masons are a very weird bunch and so are radical feminists. I think it is more likely that these things happen over a gin and tonic in a golf club bar.

A man contacted me recently and told me that the police and a judge in court both told him that his complaints about domestic abuse from his wife had no relevance to the fact that she had changed the locks on his house while he was at work and refused to let him back in. Now forced to sleep on his mothers couch he telephoned me in a state of utter bewilderment. He explained that he had photographs of his injuries and doctors reports detailing the abuse he had suffered for years. Apparently his lawyer also felt they were irrelevant and advised him not to submit them to the judge. He did so anyway but the evidence seems to have cut no ice. Being a man in the 21st century seems to be a distinct disadvantage.

The good news is that men everywhere have had enough!

Since the newspaper began its vitriolic campaign my telephone has not stopped ringing. Man after man has called saying, "Why are we being left out and what are you doing about it?" One man, aged 80 years old even promised to leave my organisation £250,000 in his will to help with the fight. Men are getting angry and angry men are capable of achieving anything. Once their apathy has been shaken off they can and will do whatever it takes to win back the initiative. Some men will act stupidly and that worries me deeply but, most will act responsibly and with great restraint and those are the men I welcome.

The days of this official denial of the rights of man are coming to an end. Let all those responsible for these outrageous and unjust abuses of power learn to tremble.

They will be held to account and they will pay.

George Rolph, London, October 2003.

George Rolph is webmaster of Man2Man