Problems ignored
being proposed is yet another example of the wishful-thinking minority trying to force the people of Scotland into abandoning traditional attitudes that have served us all well down the years. It’ll turn into the “busybodies’ charter”.
What legislation is really being proposed here? Is the government actually implying that we need a court to tell us when a forceful pat on the bottom of a huffy child is considered to be a “smack”? ARCHIBALD A LAWRIE
Church Wynd Kingskettle, Fife
The arrogant interference in family life by Scotland’s political leaders is again on display as a recent Comres poll, reported in the Scotsman, shows them at odds once more with parents, this time in the matter of smacking children.
Having already ignored the will of parents and the Supreme Court by forging ahead with their State-usurping Named Person scheme, it seems the next step in eradicating parental authority is to criminalise so much as a slap on the hand or the leg of a child.
They say it’s all in the interests of child safety and wellbeing, a red herring argument backed with endless liberal psychobabble about how smacking can scar the mind of a chastised child for life.
These are the same politicians who dismiss traditional Christian moral teaching in State schools, choosing instead to rob Scottish youth of its innocence at a vulnerable and tender age through sex education.
That too is backed up with psychobabble despite a shocking decline in youth morality sincethealmightyswitchfrom God to government began in the 1960s. Well, I have some news for our politicians, it is that I was smacked countless times by my parents when I was growing up and I love them for those corrections. Children, like adults under the law, have rules to obey if they are to enjoy true liberty. Parents understand this and that’s why they enforce the rules with the threat of physical punishment if breached. It’s a tried and tested method both privately and publicly over many millennia by authorities who truly cared for their welfare. Holyrood hippies take note! MARTIN BLACKSHAW
Glen Road Deans, Livingston
West Lothian The Scottish National Party have been trying to look to the future of transport in Scotland by coming up with city centre bans for polluting vehicles (ie most of them), making everyone buy an electric car and turning Scotland’s highways all electric by 2032. Not for the first time they have rather unrealistic ideas. I refer to your report: “Roads backlog hits £1.6 billion (20 October). The dreadful state of many Scottish roads is self apparent, particularly in side streets. Instead of trying to fix current problems they are transfixed by pushing their ultimate aim of a utopian independent Scotland. They have not considered the here and now.
There is no energy producing capacity for mass electric vehicle ownership unless at least one new nuclear power station is started pretty soon, an anathema to the SNP. The infrastructure costs of electrifying Scottish roads utterly dwarfs the costs of repairs right now. Is this yet another tax looming?
The SNP have learnt nothing. You have to walk before you can run. At the moment we are just dodging the potholes on the roads and pavements alike. (DR) GERALD EDWARDS
Broom Road, Glasgow