ISUPPOSE it is inevitable that in these feverish, pre-election days, Britain should suffer one of its periodic fits of moral panic.
However, when people begin seriously to contemplate returns to barbarism in the name of discipline it is time to speak up.
Nothing is more grossly offensive than the language of these moralistic barbarians. 'A loving smack' is perhaps the most repulsive product of the current bout of phrase-making.
The only humanly forgivable reason for hitting a child is that one has suffered a loss of temper and fallen below proper standards of parental behaviour.
To combine one's violence with the pretence that it is a loving act is the morality of the sadist.
The argument against hitting children has been long stated but appears to need constant re-statement.
It is simple. Hitting people is wrong and unnecessary as a way of dealing with social difficulties.
Children are people. Therefore, hitting children is wrong.
BILL GRAY, Hawthorne Road, Burnley
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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