Well, this will probably be a controversial one as the issue over whether parents should have the right to hit their children for some peculiar reason always causes a big argument in liberal circles. My own view has always been that there are no circumstances in which it is justifiable to hit a child and that there is always a better way. Having children grow up thinking that it’s fine to hit someone smaller and defenceless to get your own way really isn’t a good look. Some children will grow up emotionally scarred from the experience of what some people might think was moderate smacking. It does not make for an anxiety free life if you are constantly worried about stepping out of line in case you get another belting, especially if the goalposts keep moving. Every child deserves to feel safe in their own home and the fear of being hit isn’t a healthy one. It can destroy the trust between child and parent and lay the foundations for mental ill health. There are so many non violent ways of instilling discipline and consideration into children. Assault should have no place in that process.

Anyway, Scotland’s SNP government has announced that it will back legislation to ban such assaults on children. Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, who used to work for a children’s charity and who persuaded Scottish Conference to back a ban on smacking, welcomed the move:

Scottish Liberal Democrats have regularly demanded the so-called “justifiable assault” of children be brought to an end. It is a source of national shame that this defence still exists and it is welcome that SNP ministers will now get with the times and abolish it.

Scotland is one of only a handful of European countries that have yet to move to abolish this archaic defence in its entirety.

Children should not have less right to protection from violence than adults living in the same household. The evidence from dozens of studies is irrefutable – it damages children’s wellbeing, risks turning into physical violence and increases problems such as aggression and anxiety which can continue into adulthood. That’s why experts from the UN to the Children’s Commissioner, police officers, social workers, nurses, children’s and parenting charities have called for children to be given equal protection under the law.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social