Surely Cherie's not saying that fathers aren't important too?

[Yorkie580]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1 265449,00.html

How about all innocent people get locked up so that they are safe from criminals. That way, the human rights of criminals don't get infringed, and innocent people don't become victims.

Nice to see that someone who sentences people has such well-adjusted, non-discriminatory and modern views.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Hmmm... To an extent I agree with you, but since women are often the primary carer for children, is it really that unreasonable to say a child would suffer more if from the loss of that parent? I say this without meaning to undermine the importance of fathers at all - it would be cutting off my own nose to do so.

There is an additional factor here, which is that women are disproportionally imprisioned for certain types of crime - a major one is failure to make credit repayments - than men. Certainly there shouldn't be any discrimination on the grounds of sex.