Domestic violence is back on the

political agenda. Yes, there is an election coming up.
Both sides of politics are promising to spend more on the issue. They seem however to be promising to do so in distinctly different ways.
One side is saying that it will provide lawyers and money that can be spent on rent and other sorts of practical assistance. The other is saying that they will provide much the same sort of practical assistance with less emphasis on lawyers and more on education.
I think I prefer the latter approach. 
The Senior Cat is one of those people others describe as a "gentleman". He could no more commit an act of domestic violence than fly a fighter jet and drop bombs. His friends are the same. 
They were brought up in a generation where men opened doors for women and walked on the outside of the pavement as a matter of course. 
Yes of course there was domestic violence when they were young. There has always been domestic violence. 
Has it become worse - or are people just more aware of it?  I suspect it is both. Women's "liberation" didn't help. It was the wrong approach. "Equality" hasn't helped either. That's been mistaken as "same".  Equal doesn't necessarily mean "same". It can mean "different" but treated with the same respect. Two people doing the same job with equal competence should be paid an equal amount but they may do it in different ways. 
Yes, we all know those things.
I don't think the answer to the problems of domestic violence is to make more lawyers available. They may be useful but it isn't going to tackle the actual problem of violence. 
It would be a great deal more useful if domestic violence awareness and respect for one another could be taught. That's hard to do, very hard. 
I have been reading two books written by people who finally left  abusive sects. One escaped physical violence as well as the stifling nature of her upbringing. The other was not subjected to external physical violence but subjected herself to it internally in the form of an eating disorder and, at one point, admits to punching her partner. 
These people didn't need lawyers but they did need help of other sorts. I know other people who have been in similar situations and say the same thing. They want someone to talk to, perhaps someone who can issue an order for the former partner or some other person not to approach but a lawyer is not going to sort out the physical and psychological mess which is domestic violence.
It seems to me that one side has gone for the populist approach of "Look, we will spend all this money and a lawyer can get you what you want". The other side has gone for "Yes, we will spend money and make some legal services available but you will have to do some of the work yourselves."
I know which side the public will go for - and it won't be the most effective one.