FIRST the Scottish Government proposed to protect children by the Named Person proposal, and now it is making smacking children a crime and encouraging anyone, including presumably the smacked child, seeing a smacking to phone 999 ("Scots are told to dial 999 if they see child being smacked", The Herald, October 13). If a subsequent criminal trial is successful, could that result in the child (and any siblings?) being removed from the parental home, like it or not?
It all seems like a continuation of what appears to be the relentless mission creep of this Government to drive a wedge between parents and their children. It reminds me of the stark warning by the UK Supreme Court in a case in 2016 which stated in Article 73 that “the first thing that a totalitarian regime tries to do is get at the children, to distance them from subversive, varied influences of their families, and indoctrinate them in their rulers’ view of the world. Within limits, families must be left to bring up their children in their own way. So to follow that case, it depends on how you chose to interpret "within limits". I consider it is no more than common sense that smacking is an acceptable family discipline, whereas the Scottish Government considers it to be an act of criminality requiring punishment. What next?
Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.
SO our SNP Government seems determined to pursue its role in the creation of a nanny state, having failed with its Named Persons project. Now we are told to contact the police if we witness a child being chastised with a smack.
The concept of "reasonable chastisement" is to be consigned to the legal dustbin. We are at the same time presented with something of a non sequitur by Maree Todd. For those who do not immediately recognise the name, she is the Children and Young Persons Minister. She observes: "I assure members that our intention is not to criminalise parents."
What is next one wonders? Are parents to be accused of ill-treatment by bullying if they raise their voices in annoyance or frustration at the behaviour of their children?
Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel