Expert opinion: what they think of Blunkett
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Your support makes all the difference.The muddle here is between a father asserting his rights, rather than his responsibility.
Beatrix Campbell
The muddle here is between a father asserting his rights, rather than his responsibility.
David Blunkett wants this woman and this child is a way of having this woman. It may be he wants to be a father, in which case he needs to sort out a relationship with a woman in which he could be a father - and organise his life in a way that a woman would want him to be a father.
Claire Rayner
A child has every right to know who his or her father is. If they didn't know, as soon as they are old enough they start making searches. There is no reason why they should not be told. However rough a father is, a mother who refuses to allow supervised contact is not serving the child well. Children are not stupid. They will soon find out if he is unsuitable.
Kim Beatson, chairwoman of the Solicitors Family Law Association
Generally speaking, the law applies the best interests of the child. On the whole, it finds that it is in the child's interests to know who the father is. This is based on what we know of children's psychology. When they are teenagers they need to know where they come from and their background in order to have an understanding of who they are.
Philip Hodson, fellow of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy
If Mr Blunkett was in therapy, the therapist might be trying to get him to put the best interests of the child first, which requires him not to make this noisy intercession while offering to negotiate some necessary role of concern, attachment and responsibility. He should then shut up.
Matt O'Connor, Fathers 4 Justice
The way this case has been treated in the media demeans the roles of a father. It's as if you can change fathers as if they are light bulbs. I cannot believe that people believe he should walk away emotionally and support his child financially only. Kimberly Quinn is a sperm bandit and is treating David Blunkett as though he is an inconvenience father.
Diane Abbott, Labour MP
Some women MPs really raise an eyebrow at the idea of a man taking a woman who is seven months pregnant, and not having an easy pregnancy, to court this way. It doesn't suggest much concern for the welfare of the unborn child. I can't imagine anything more nightmarish than what David Blunkett is doing to Kimberly Quinn at that stage in a difficult pregnancy for a woman in her forties.
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