Assembly Members have voted against a ban on smacking children in Wales at a vote in the Senedd.
Julie Morgan, Labour’s Cardiff North AM proposed an amendment to the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Bill to remove the defence of “reasonable punishment”.
The amendment, that would have made it illegal for parents to hit their children in Wales, fell by 36 votes to 16.
South Wales East AM, and Plaid Cymru councillor, Lindsay Whittle has long supported a ban.
At the debate he said: “There is overwhelming evidence that hitting children inevitably leads to those children accepting that violence is an acceptable method for children to get their own way.
“When we introduced this amendment we were told it was not the right bill to consider such an amendment and that there would be another opportunity to introduce it.
“This bill is not just about protecting women against violence. it’s about domestic abuse and hitting children is without doubt a form of domestic abuse.
“I know that the Welsh Government and all members of this Assembly have as one of their most important priorities the need to protect vulnerable people – the elderly, women, disabled people. Why not children?”
Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews said: “There are many good arguments for ending the defence of reasonable punishment but the government has been clear that this bill is not the right place to address this issue and we remain strongly of that view.”
But the Welsh Government conceded no change to the law on the smacking of children will be made before the next Assembly Elections.
A call to make schools offer lessons on healthy relationships in a bid to reduce domestic violence was also defeated.
I suppose they have supported the beating of children then?
I suppose they have supported the beating of children then?
There’s nothing wrong with smacking a child as long as it’s used as a last resort, a short sharp shock is sometimes the only thing a badly behaved child will understand or take notice of. Children are not the equal of adults and should never be treated that way, once again the nanny state is interfering and trying to bring in laws to legislate for the idiotic minority. Naughty out of control children need to be taught that there are boundaries that they must not cross, this liberal wet attitude to child discipline has only led to the increase of poor parenting syndrome or ADHD as it’s more commonly labelled.
At least you and the majority of all party politicians at the Assembly agree then?.
Yes thank goodness common sense prevailed, now as has already been pointed out these people need to start justifying their obscene £10k pay rise and tackle some real problems in Wales like child poverty, unemployement, education ( or lack of it), depravation, the farcical M4 relief road, rather than telling folk how to bring up their children, smoking in cars and putting sprinkler systems into new build homes.
There’s nothing wrong with smacking a child as long as it’s used as a last resort, a short sharp shock is sometimes the only thing a badly behaved child will understand or take notice of. Children are not the equal of adults and should never be treated that way, once again the nanny state is interfering and trying to bring in laws to legislate for the idiotic minority. Naughty out of control children need to be taught that there are boundaries that they must not cross, this liberal wet attitude to child discipline has only led to the increase of poor parenting syndrome or ADHD as it’s more commonly labelled.
At least you and the majority of all party politicians at the Assembly agree then?.
Yes thank goodness common sense prevailed, now as has already been pointed out these people need to start justifying their obscene £10k pay rise and tackle some real problems in Wales like child poverty, unemployement, education ( or lack of it), depravation, the farcical M4 relief road, rather than telling folk how to bring up their children, smoking in cars and putting sprinkler systems into new build homes.
Let’s hope that AMs get on with their job, in future, and desist from telling people how to bring up their children. Right decision, carried overwhelmingly. Next on the agenda; why is Wales such a poor country and what are we going to do about it?
Answer: Backward looking, socialist attitude of the Labour party who has been in control at the Welsh Assembly in one way or another since day one. They have had too many chances to improve Wales but they fail every time.
Solution: Elect a different party, stop having ‘equality’ drive the government agenda, construct an image for Wales in 10 year’s time, dump the Welsh language, force councils to cut council taxes, leave the EU, turn Wales into a tax haven for companies and wealthy individuals.
I agree with some of that, though keeping the Welsh language is sensible, if for no other reason than a youngster who is bilingual is more likely to be able to learn another language. English people are notorious for being unable to speak anything but English, I like to think the Welsh have better developed language skills. On tax haven status I would like to see everyone paying less tax, not just the wealthy, most of whom use avoidance schemes anyway.
I am not a fan of pushing bilingualism if I am honest. English is the dominant language by a long way. If someone in China wants to do business with someone in Iceland they use English. If someone in Palau wants to do business with someone in Japan they use English. If someone in China wants to do business with someone in South Korea they use English. The status of English as a lingua franca means we should push it as much as possible.
Provided the tax rate in my tax haven Wales is less than the rate of tax after avoidance PLUS the cost of taking part in the tax avoidance scheme, businesses will not have an incentive to use tax avoidance schemes.
Look at this simplified example. Currently companies should pay £30m in tax but use a tax avoidance scheme costing £10m to pay £15m in tax, saving £5m. If Wales had lower tax rates where the company should pay £20m in tax they will happily choose to do so as it works out cheaper for them. The government is £5m better off, and the company is £5m better off. We all win with the only losers being accountants and offshore banks.
welsh speakers also run out of consonants quickly when playing scrabble
That’s true, no use for K or V we do have double consonants like “Dd” and “Ll” to play with though. We should have a scrabble set with tiles for these letters!
Let’s hope that AMs get on with their job, in future, and desist from telling people how to bring up their children. Right decision, carried overwhelmingly. Next on the agenda; why is Wales such a poor country and what are we going to do about it?
Answer: Backward looking, socialist attitude of the Labour party who has been in control at the Welsh Assembly in one way or another since day one. They have had too many chances to improve Wales but they fail every time.
Solution: Elect a different party, stop having ‘equality’ drive the government agenda, construct an image for Wales in 10 year’s time, dump the Welsh language, force councils to cut council taxes, leave the EU, turn Wales into a tax haven for companies and wealthy individuals.
I agree with some of that, though keeping the Welsh language is sensible, if for no other reason than a youngster who is bilingual is more likely to be able to learn another language. English people are notorious for being unable to speak anything but English, I like to think the Welsh have better developed language skills. On tax haven status I would like to see everyone paying less tax, not just the wealthy, most of whom use avoidance schemes anyway.
I am not a fan of pushing bilingualism if I am honest. English is the dominant language by a long way. If someone in China wants to do business with someone in Iceland they use English. If someone in Palau wants to do business with someone in Japan they use English. If someone in China wants to do business with someone in South Korea they use English. The status of English as a lingua franca means we should push it as much as possible.
Provided the tax rate in my tax haven Wales is less than the rate of tax after avoidance PLUS the cost of taking part in the tax avoidance scheme, businesses will not have an incentive to use tax avoidance schemes.
Look at this simplified example. Currently companies should pay £30m in tax but use a tax avoidance scheme costing £10m to pay £15m in tax, saving £5m. If Wales had lower tax rates where the company should pay £20m in tax they will happily choose to do so as it works out cheaper for them. The government is £5m better off, and the company is £5m better off. We all win with the only losers being accountants and offshore banks.
welsh speakers also run out of consonants quickly when playing scrabble
That’s true, no use for K or V we do have double consonants like “Dd” and “Ll” to play with though. We should have a scrabble set with tiles for these letters!