By Gabriel Princewill-
Labour leader, Keir Starmer’s call for England to outlaw the smacking of children is a copy cat idea from Wales that should be shunned.
Wales today made it illegal for parents to hit kids, rendering any type of corporal punishment – including smacking, slapping and shaking, illegal. Shaking is unarguably abusive, can lead to brain damage, and therefore has no place in any civil society.
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Labour opposition leader, Keir Starmer’s reception of the news changing the Welsh law was nothing but party politics, as the former director of prosecution exhibited what appears to be a typical level of partisanship to his fellow labour leaders in Wales That law has no real substance except to strip parents of their discretion in determining when a child should be smacked.
“What it does is give children the protection that adults already have, and that is the right thing,” Starmer told reporters of the new law. “I would like to see the rest of the UK step into line here, because I think, well, Welsh Labour have taken a lead here and they’re absolutely right to protect children in the way that they now have.”
Starmer’s judgement is patently erroneous, because the protection adults have from being physically smacked by other adults is completely different to that of children, who are under authority of their parents. The supposed parallel between the rights of parents and those he purports children should have is a poor and ill judged one.
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Welsh labour have not taken the lead, they have taken a backward step which should be scorned because of the flagrant weakness of the new policy.
The Conservative party should rightly ridicule this imprudent stance coming from a prominent man like Starmer hailing from a legal background. Starmer’s failure to foresee the potential consequences of his recommendation in a society already beset with countless badly brought up children is disturbing.
Britain is one of the few countries in Europe where some children under the age of 12 actually hit their parents. Yet, in Starmer’s world, it is the right of the child that should supersede that of the parent, not the other way round. The acute mind many times on display in Parliament seems to be dormant in this regard. The former lawyer needs to provide a justification for the stance he has adopted.
Scotland Ban
Scotland already brought in a ban against smacking in November 2020, but since when was Scotland a leader in world class policy ideas that should be emulated? Only as recently as last week, one of my colleagues wondered what world Nicola Sturgeon was inhabiting when she suggested that NATO should impose a no fly zone in Ukraine under the precarious circumstances of the war. The predictive consequences of her suggestion was not contemplated before she uttered the suggestion which even a lay man would be duly criticized for. The lovely inhabitants of Scotland are numerous, but at the pinnacle of the political structure, foresight is lacking to disturbing levels.
England And Northern Ireland Ahead
England and Northern Ireland currently lead the way when it comes to the laws of smacking.
A defense of “reasonable punishment” absolves parents of any legal culpability. Parents are prohibited from leaving a red mark on children, or using an implement like a cane or belt. The prohibition against excessive smacking of children has always been designed to prevent potential parental abuse of children, but is arguably even lacking to some degree. Successive governments have sought to avoid the potential for extreme violence in the family, but there may well be circumstances where a violent child may need forceful restraint or a bit of a smacking in cases where a child fights back.
Exploring alternative methods of disciplining children is preferable to smacking them, says Hortensia Daniels, researcher and former social worker. Children can have gadgets taken from them, put in isolation or time out, or be grounded’ . Smacking should be avoided at all cost, but ofcourse, parents should reserve the right to smack their children when the child’s actions reasonably demands it”.
”Not all children respond calmly to having their gadgets seized from them, or being subjected to punitive measures that confine them to the home for an evening or days. Some children defy all their parents rules and even violent with parents, thereby warranting a an assertive smacking, provided it is measured and appropriate.
Irresponsible
The idea of criminalizing parents for smacking children at all, smacks of irresponsibility on the part of any government, and lacks a great deal of insight. Children in many parts of the UK are ill- mannered and constitute a nuisance to teachers in school and parents at home. Depriving parents the right to smack their kids can be construed to be overly intrusive, despite any safeguarding objectives that may ostensibly underlie the new Welsh law.
It is intuitively driven at soothing the agenda of particular politicians or personnel who are psychologically combating specific historic abusers in their past lives, or the lives of other people they know.
Adults who may have been subjected to abusive caning by their parents or step-parents, or who have encountered parents who have crossed the line, could easily espouse the view that a blanket ban against smacking is the fitting law to implement preventative measures against excessive abuse.
Narrow perspectives of this type fail to recognize a proportionate level of smacking that may be necessary in some circumstances, depending on the specific facts of each case, and the age of the child.
A one size fits all is rarely a blue print for proceeding in many spheres of life, more so when it comes to the important aspect of smacking.
London teacher, John Hopwood told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”Despite a behaviour policy in every UK school which lists the rules of conduct for pupils before and after school, as well as during the school day, the lack of discipline in many homes spills over into the school environment.
”Smacking children should be used sparingly, but I think logic demands that parents reserve the right to smack their child with reasonable force up until a certain age. What constitutes reasonableness is a value judgement for parents to decide, and the law to judge should it come to their attention.
Parents should not have free rein to just smack their children as hard as they wish out of anger, but the law should be slow to intervene except where absolutely necessarily. I’m not sure the red tape of leaving a red mark is necessarily practical in every situation, bit it is certainly more sensible than a blanket ban against smacking children. I think the new law in Wales is massively off the mark”.
The Wales’ “smacking ban” was brought in under the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020.
It means children will get the same protection from assault as adults, and the law will apply to everyone, even those visiting Wales – as is the case with all Welsh laws.
Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it clear that children have the right to be protected from harm and from being hurt and this includes physical punishment.
“That right is now enshrined in Welsh law. No more grey areas. No more ‘defence of reasonable punishment’. That is all in the past.”
He added: “There is no place for physical punishment in a modern Wales.”
Deputy minister for social services Julie Morgan called the day a “historic moment for children and their rights in Wales”.
Viv Laing, from NSPCC Cymru/Wales, said: “Until now, children were the only group in our society who it was acceptable to strike in certain circumstances. We don’t allow the physical punishment of adults or animals, so it is absurd that we have for so long with children.
Teacher Hopwood said: ‘It is absolutely absurd to compare the prohibition of physical punishment on adults or animals to that of children. The reasoning here is highly flawed”.
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