Today is Father’s Day and so I’ve been reflecting, not just as a father myself, but as a Councillor, School Governor and someone who working in the NHS, cares about the long-term health of our society. In the eddy of public debate about families, rights, welfare, and gender roles, one figure has gradually become politically inconvenient – the father.

In too many conversations, fatherhood is treated either as optional, expendable, or worse, problematic. We hear plenty about absent fathers, but very little about present ones. And yet we know, from both data and everyday experience, that active, loving, and responsible fatherhood has a profound impact, on educational outcomes, emotional wellbeing, community safety, and economic resilience.

The political class rarely wants to say it outright. But I will: fathers matter. Not just as accessories to parenting, but as moral anchors. As mentors. As models of how to face the world with strength and gentleness together.

This isn’t a call for patriarchal throwback. Nor is it a denial of the reality that many families function in complex ways – often admirably so!

But it is a defence of something that is quietly foundational.

Too quietly, perhaps.

I believe that one of the reasons our politics has become so erratic, our communities so fragmented, and our young people so uncertain, is because we’ve become embarrassed to talk about the importance of stable families—and within that, of fathers.

Policy should support them. Not in abstract terms, but practically:

• Better paternity leave, yes—but also a culture that doesn’t treat hands-on fathering as a novelty.

• Support for separated fathers who want to stay involved in their children’s lives.

• And a welfare system that doesn’t penalise the formation or maintenance of two-parent households, especially in low-income communities.

If we want to tackle youth crime, loneliness, and social drift, we won’t get far without strengthening families – and that means empowering fathers to be present, respected, and equipped.

It’s not fashionable to say so but I believe it is necessary to say it.

This Father’s Day, my hope is that we move past slogans and stats and reclaim the simple truth: that dads who stay, who love, who lead quietly by example, are not just good for their families.

They’re essential to the future of our society.