Angry father hand-cuffs himself to Government minister

[j.m@talk]

LONDON (Reuters) - A disgruntled father has handcuffed himself to a government minister in a bid to draw attention to a campaign for divorced fathers' rights.

Campaigner Jolly Stanesby pounced on Minister for Children Margaret Hodge at a conference in Manchester on Friday and snapped on a set of metal cuffs. Police freed the trapped minister with bolt cutters after half an hour.

Fathers 4 Justice, which has staged a series of similar high profile stunts this year, claimed responsibility.

The group is campaigning against what it says is a court bias towards mothers in determining how much access divorcing parents should have to their children.

In May, they breached security at the House of Commons and pelted Prime Minister Tony Blair with flour-filled condoms.

In September a member of the group dressed as Batman climbed a ledge on the Queen's Buckingham Palace residence and unfurled a campaign banner.

[ukulele]

If he tried that on Bush the SS would have just his arm off long before the bolt cutters arrived.