Harm or no harm

Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh

Old Auchans View, Dundonald I was gladdened to hear that hitting children is to be banned in Scotland.

Advocates of violence towards young people use cuddly words like “smacking” and, apparently without irony, given their continued participation in this humiliating cycle, declare, “It never did me any harm.” Reverend David Robertson, from the Free Church of Scotland, speaking on the BBC’S Good Morning Scotland programme, uses a similarly ugly euphemism, “tapping their child on the hand”.

Religious support for corporal punishment seems to go beyond the well-known “spare the rod “prescription in Proverbs 13:24.

Could it be that those parents fear any sort of state protection for children might lead to further concerns about the religious lifestyle they had in mind for them ?

NEIL BARBER Saughtonhall Drive, Edinburgh

I seriously feel that the Scottish Government’s blanket ban on smacking is absolutely ridiculous. It is a wrong decision and totally disproportionate to ordinary family life in Scotland.

There needs to be a common sense approach on this issue. There is a world of difference between a tap on the hand,a clip round the ear or a light smack on the bum in order to bring a child into line

who will not take any notice of a parents authority, and violent physical abuse.

Since the belt in schools was banned teachers are leaving the profession because of the verbalandphysicalabusethey are subjected to because children now “know their rights”; this is one step too far. Where is the deterrent for bad behaviour at home, there is none now in schools? What next, will giving a child a telling off be seen as verbal humiliation? To the nanny state in Scotland I say leave parenting to parents, otherwise the police, courts and social services will end up in an even worse mess by having to police this nonsense

I was given the occasional smack as a child and I deserved it and it did me no harm. MR GORDON KENNEDY

Simpson Square, Perth

I can’t understand how the Scottish Government is unable to see that, by bringing forward this anti-smacking act, they are systematically undermining something that nature has put in place .... the family unit.

Of late once again, we heard that each child within a family was to have some sort of external “mentor” and now we hear that parents will not be able to chastise their children in the traditional way.

Dare I ask if our government thinks that this will leave a family happier or more satisfied with itself, or better off than it initially was?

Does the government not see that if the “no smacking act” comes into being, it’ll generate needless friction within a family; father might feel that traditional punishment is best for the child while mother screams that such a thing is now against the law!

No act anywhere is going to stop the rare cases where violence is used against a child; these should be reported and punished severely. What is