A child fearing violence as a punishment from a parent is abhorrent.

A parent who uses violence to chastise wrongdoing is as guilty of physical assault as anyone who hits another and should feel the strong arm of the law like every violent offender.

It’s obviously unacceptable and a nonsense to believe otherwise. However, in England and Northern Ireland, if a parent can claim that hitting their child was “reasonable punishment” it is fine, apparently.

When hitting out is never reasonable, how does that work exactly?

Our woolly vague law gives carte blanche to parents to continue to abuse their children in the name of reasonable discipline.

It’s clearly a scandal yet on it goes. 

The Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health is demanding urgent action to outlaw it. 

These doctors see the result of parental violence on their children, sometimes once a week in their surgeries.

One senior paediatrician said he regularly saw two to 18-year-olds who have been psychically punished on their legs, arms, back and bottom, sometimes with an implement.

He said belts, spoons, phone cables and laptop chargers as whips were used to cause bruises, open wounds and fractures. It is inexcusable.

In the 1970s, a hairbrush or a Scholl wooden clog were the parent punishers’ weapon of choice, while teachers used rulers and canes. How is this still tolerated?

It humiliates children and contributes to them feeling confused and worthless at the hands of people they deserve to love them unconditionally.

The pro-corporal punishment brigade uses the word ‘smack’ to make punishment sound more trivial and insignificant than a violent act.

I cannot imagine anyone standing up and arguing to have the right to hurt their child.

It’s no wonder a children brought up by parents who hit suffer poorer mental health, substandard educational achievements, are confused, anxious and with lasting problems.

Children deserve the same protection from assault as adults. Why is that not happening?

Nothing positive comes from violence but we hang on to the ancient vestige of striking children when 65 other countries – with another 27 committed to banning it – have outlawed it.

Perhaps as it comes under the same “it does no harm” banner of hanging on to the offensive words of Rule Britannia.

Wanting to hurt a child shows a nasty vengeful character and carrying it out will have harmful and lasting consequences. 

There is no such thing as “just a little slap.” The threat, fear and pain that comes with it can wreck a child’s mental and emotional health.

For those shouting “woke” and “a clip round the ear never did me any harm”, I’d beg to differ. Anyone putting forward a cogent argument about why hitting children is the way forward needs to take a long hard look at themselves.

When there is logic in a calm decision to hit a child, it is a disturbing indication of power and control; sinister motivation to be in charge.

For those who resort to violence in fits of temper, the loss of control is just as bad, all adding up to a clear violation of children’s rights, failure of parental responsibility and plainly criminal.

As well as a child’s immediate feelings, lasting lack of self-worth can lead to them being aggressive and using violence themselves by learned behaviour. 

It must be banned now. Every party must a commitment to ban it in its manifesto.

An almighty cop out

“I did my best.”

The most irksome phrase of the moment taking the crown from “my bad”.

It’s used by people who have been caught out use to wriggle themselves off the hook.

“But I did my best,” they claim, whatever their misdemeanour. Clearly not.

The latest to plead her best was given despite an almighty mess up was Angela van den Bogerd in this week's Post Office inquiry.

Van den Bogerd is described as having known more than anyone about the failed Horizon system than anyone else.

She told the inquiry she said she didn’t “knowingly do anything wrong.”

“…with the evidence I have and the parameters of my role at the time, I did the best I could to the best of my ability.”

The thing is, saying “I did my best” is to garner sympathy and make the issue all about that person.

What they are doing is doing their best to lead people down the cul de sac of distraction. They have nowhere else to go so opt for an easy get out.

Who knows what their best is and if they did it? 

In short, it’s an almighty cop out and an insult to all those people whose lives were devastated by the scandal.

One word is not enough

We could all probably come up with one word to describe the government’s backing for Ofsted to keep its controversial single-word judgments.

No school is outstanding in every respect – like no school can ever say there is no bullying. No school will either be wholly inadequate.

But that’s how they are billed after spot inspections. 

Teaching demands special people. Clever, intuitive, nurturing, selfless. Fewer special people will join if they fear their long hours planning, working with scarce resources, the stresses and pressures to be summed up by one word.

No one else in any other profession would accept it, so why should people in one of the most important jobs in the land?