MP's try to force ban on smacking choldren.

[Grumpmeister]

I'm the first to admit I'm dead against physical abuse of children but looking at the mobs of feral 'yoofs' roaming the streets I can't help but wonder if their parents have clipped them round the ear would they have turned out to be better behaved.

A cross-party group of MPs is attempting to force through a ban on smacking children in England and Wales.

Led by Labour's Kevin Barron, the campaigners oppose the current situation allowing parents to use the practice as a "reasonable punishment".

Some 28 MPs have signed an amendment to the Children and Young Persons Bill being debated later.

The government says it has tightened up protection for children but opposes making smacking a crime.

But more than 100 Labour backbenchers are said to be demanding a free vote on a total smacking ban.

Mr Barron, chairman of the Commons health select committee, said: "We must act now to end the legal approval of hitting children.

"It is the responsibility of Parliament to ensure that the physical integrity and human dignity of every person is respected.

"The current law allowing so-called 'reasonable punishment' of children is unjust, unsafe and unclear, and must be abolished once and for all."

The amendment, signed by 28 MPs, calls for children to have the same protection against assault as adults.

Law tightened

Campaigners said 111 Labour backbenchers had signed a private letter demanding a free vote on smacking, with some warning they were prepared to defy the whips if ministers did not back down.

But the government and opposition front benches say they want to focus on the main functions of the bill, which do not include dealing with corporal punishment.

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said while it did not condone or encourage smacking, the government did not want to criminalise it.

She said: "If we put a ban on smacking into legislation it would mean in practice that a mother who gives her child a mild smack on the hand when they refuse to put back sweets picked up at the supermarket checkout could end up facing criminal charges."

She added that a survey suggested fewer parents were smacking children and the law had already been tightened to give children greater protection from assault.

The last attempt to impose a full ban on smacking was defeated in 2004, although 49 Labour MPs rebelled.

A compromise was agreed, tightening the law by outlawing punishment which left physical marks or caused mental harm.

Last December, Northern Ireland's children's commissioner failed in a High Court attempt to force the government to outlaw the physical punishment of young people.

[Nick]

I am in favour of corporal punishment for MPs! 

[Snoopy]

There is a world of difference between abusing a child and smacking it. If these arseh*les know so much better than most parents they can borrow my three for a month ~ that'll teach them what real parenting is about

Sometimes there is no sensible alternative to a smack. Without a final deterent there is no discipline.

Sometimes a smack just makes me feel soooooooooooo much better. That is the wrong reason but without it I might well strangle them.