Conservative MP for Tottenham David Lammy has put forth a suggestion of A Modest Proposal-level brilliance: cut frustrated parents some slack by allowing them to use their children as punching bags. Lammy’s bold solution to the “real pressures of raising children… on the 15th floor of a tower block with knives, gangs and the dangers of violent crime [and] the realities of the typical single mum…” is to repeal the smacking law passed in 2004. “There’s a big difference between abuse and parenting,” Lammy notes, though making it legal for parents to inflict “bruising, swelling, cuts, grazes or scratches” would blur the line.
This might not appeal to well-fed liberals but what do they know about being a poverty-stricken single parent? Lammy instinctively grasps that something’s got to give, and since the Tories aren’t for changing, and unemployment is climbing, people need an outlet. Smacking the kids up is a time-honoured form of stress relief, as evidenced by the strong correlation between male unemployment and child abuse, so why tamper with a fine British tradition?
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