My View: MP cries foul, but TV sexists show it's still not a level playing field

Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton, said men were flagrantly discriminated against these days, blamed for the banking crisis, unfairly treated for parental leave and retirement, and ignored by the child custody courts. He's suggesting an uprising.

"Maybe it's time men started burning their briefs, to put to an end, once and for all, to what Emmeline Pankhurst used to call 'the double standard of sex morals'," he wrote for the politicshome.com website.

Bless. This from a man who works in a career heavily and unfairly dominated by men – just over one in five MPs is female – although the irony of this may well be lost on Mr Raab and his ilk.

These, I suspect, are the sort of people who rail against any kind of positive discrimination in favour of women, while wilfully disregarding the indisputable fact that men have benefited from discrimination in their favour for thousands of years.

It's not long ago that girls were required to achieve a higher pass mark in the 11-plus than boys, on the basis that boys "matured later". Schools entered girls for fewer qualifications because it wasn't worth the expense as they were only going to get married. All well within living memory.

Just 10 per cent of executive directors of top FTSE 100 companies are women, but this doesn't stop Mr Raab from pulling out a statistic that obviously bothers him far more.

"According to research for the Institute for Economic Affairs, women in their 20s earn one per cent more than men," he said. Big whoop. Men earn a whopping 27 per cent more than women in the 40-59 age group. Doesn't that merit a mention? Apparently not, because, according to Mr Raab, men work longer hours, enjoy their jobs less, commute further, are more likely to get the sack, die earlier but retire later than women.

He has a point about the retirement age, which is being equalised, although not fast enough for Mr Raab. "That won't be fixed for another seven years," he complains. Tut tut. Patience, dear.

He's right, too, that maternity/paternity leave should be split equally between new parents. But, with all his talk of the pay gap lessening and boys being disadvantaged at school, Mr Raab sounds disingenuous and rattled, not like a man who genuinely wants to see equality in all aspects of life between the sexes. He sounds to me like a man who really wants to see men back in control of everything, including children, with women pushed back into their place. And he's not alone in his views.

If he understands the offside rule, there might be a sports presenting slot up for grabs.