20 October 2005: 13 minutes and 41 seconds of fame remaining

I was on BBC1 breakfast yesterday morning, with Anne and Sam, trying to talk about the proposed changes to paternity law, which will give fathers' rights to potentially several months of statutory paternity pay (£106 per week): what they won't do is give people any better right to paid leave. Who can live on £100 a week? After a 30 minutes interview, they've kept me and Sam, but cut my spoken part right down. There's some great footage of Sam, but I appear purely as 'interest': my story, not my argument.

The video's still up online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4355488.stm

It's odd being on telly. Lots of friends have called or emailed. If this is 1 minute and 19 seconds of fame, when can I expect the other 13 and a bit?

Keith Flett suggested a Socialist Historians' press release: 'I was thinking about your visual similarity to David Cameron, could be a strong angle'.

My boss Kate said 'you're looking tired'. It's not easy being socialist dad, not doing my share - that would be a lie - but trying to keep up. My question to her was: has it got harder? Thirty years ago, did women really find it this difficult - or are there things we're doing now which make it worse? 'Maybe it wasn't harder, maybe men weren't around and women just didn't complain.' Which made me think: the old slogan of wages for housework is far too modest, what we need is reparations for patriarchy.