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Chris Barton's Sketch

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All rights reserved.
Date:10 MAY 2010

Chris Barton Common assault er... the loving smacking of little people too small to hit back is in the news again. The Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Ms Boer-Buquicchio says that "Prohibiting all corporal punishment is a legal imperative and I hope the United Kingdom will take that essential step urgently". Cue outbreak of  media/taproom big-gobbery (‘No foreigner can tell us...A good hiding never did me any harm... Common sense... PC Brigade...' etc etc). But spare a thought for these people. Since the Children Act  2004 lowered the limit of parental violence to common assault its defenders have had to extol the irreplaceable benefits of a  mere tap. It was so much more defensible when it was the cuts and bruises of actual bodily harm. And in any event - without it how can one possibly grow up to enjoy S'n'M in adult life?

According to a Servants Quarters' tabloid at Sketch Mansions yet more...

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