Smacks of idiocy

John Finnie’s bizarre proposal, in the Scottish Parliament, to ban smacking shows the Green MSP is living in cloud cuckoo land.

While the Scottish Government is proudly backing a Bill to make it a criminal offence for a parent to smack their child, the wiser Scottish public is not. Why do they blatantly ignore the unambiguous wishes of Scottish families?

They were told, a few years ago, that Scottish families didn’t want the preposterous Named Person Scheme (NPS), which the Supreme Court wisely threw to the wind, and they have been, yet again, told they don’t want a Bill that will

turn fathers and mothers into criminals. Smack your son or daughter for being dreadfully naughty, and disobeying your instructions, and you will soon be charged with child abuse! Unbelievable.

As with the NPS, one poll after another has found almost three quarters of Scots are opposed to smacking being a criminal offence.

Under the existing law, parents in Scotland are allowed to physically discipline their children. This “reasonable chastisement” is already compatible with human rights laws, so parents are not free to beat their children as smacking opponents claim. Those shouting, like Mr Finnie, for a ban argue it will protect children from abuse, but they forget that child abuse is already illegal. It is wholly misleading to subtly equate smacking with child abuse.

DONALD J MORRISON Old Edinburgh Road, Inverness