Bring back capital punishment
I was sitting here yesterday, half dozing and the radio was on in the background.
Some biddy came on and started moaning about how Ireland still allows the smacking of children.
In the space of a couple of minutes the self righteous bitch managed to illustrate nearly all that’s wrong with Irish society. “We must stop promoting violence against children” she said. “We must bring ourselves in line with European legislation” she said. “We must stop teaching our children that violence is the answer” she said. “We must introduce legislation to protect our children” she said.
First of all, why should we bring ourselves in line with European legislation? As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing. There is English, French, Spanish and all the rest legislation, but there is no such thing as a democratically constructed European entity that can ram laws down our throats. If we like something that another country does, then we should be free to copy it, but the converse should be true too.
The bitch talked about violence a lot. She didn’t talk about smacking, she talked about violence. If you want to whip up a bit of public support, then do two things – use emotive terms and talk about protecting children. In my book, clattering a kid until a couple of bones are broken, or blood is drawn is violence. A smack on the back of the legs is not violence – it’s correction.
Up to a couple of decades ago, physical punishment was the norm. As a kid, I got clattered at home and I got belted around the place at school. It taught me that there are some things one should not do, as retribution could be swift. We respected adults as they were the arbiters of justice. I think I turned out reasonably well?
Then they banned corporal punishment.
What we have now is a couple of generations of kids who copped on pretty quickly that they could get away with just about anything. Respect for authority is dead as there is no fear of retribution.
As for the shite that smacking teaches that violence is the answer, I’m at a loss for words. If this were the case, my generation would be extremely violent, while the younger generations would be a placid lot. In fact, the reverse is true. In my day, we didn’t go around murdering and stabbing each other, and the rate of crime was one hell of a lot lower. Our K8 got a wallop or two as a kid, and I don’t think it did her much harm? I think she has grown into a reasonably well balanced sociopath?
And what is the alternative?
When I find a five year old about to drop an electric fire into the bath, am I supposed to sit him or her down and explain Ohm’s Law and the physics of electrical discharge? Bollox! If I find a kid playing Tic Tac Toe on my car with a bunch of keys, am I to sit him down and have a reasonably balanced discussion on the rights of property ownership? My arse! A good swift kick up the hole and they won’t do it again.
Our little Friend of the Nanny State wants to bring in yet more intrusive legislation to dictate how we bring up our children [and grandchildren]?
She can go fuck herself.
She should be shot.
I don’t know. Difficult one this. It seems you assume the “all gun owners are responsible people” argument. I remember a couple of real sadistic bastard teachers at school that took full advantage of their “right to cane.” No doubt that it did amount to violence.
Whatever about violence towards kids in Ireland at this stage I’d be very grateful if anybody could guarantee me that none will be raped.
That’ll do for starters. And I’d direct Madam On The Radio to Cardinal Daly if she wants to do something about that. Corporal punishment can be debated later.
By the way Groandad- what did K8 do to deserve the little reminder? This is your chance now for payback for all the late nights sitting up waiting … interminably waiting.
I couldn’t agree more Grandad — When I went to primary school in the late 70’s early 80’s we used to get a wallop or 2 from our teachers, mostly well deserved & rarely over the top, our Principal was a bit of a bollox though and seemed to enjoy it. When it was banned he resorted to lifting us off the ground by our ears, he also enjoyed inflicting a bit of the old mental torture & humiliation on 11 & 12 yr olds. Still it didn’t really do any of us any real harm, out of a class of 26 boys, all went on to gainful employment, none of us have ever been in trouble with the law, all are married with kids etc etc.
Now while some of the beatings and discipline may have been a little over the top, it taught us and those of the generations before us respect for our elders etc.
Since the early 80’s we have produced a generation or two who have no respect for anything or anybody, they expect everything handed to them on a plate & are in a lot of cases incapable of thinking for themselves. There has also been a huge increase in the levels of violence & anti social behavour in our towns & on our streets because these little bastards are afraid of & respect nothing or nobody.
Its not just in banks, building societies and financial services that Light Regulation has failed, it is in society as a whole.
My father went further than correction.
It ended the day I was big enough and brave enough to hit him back. Then I got a right hiding.
My daughter doesn’t get hit, smacked in any way. I can keep her disciplined and well behaved without it. In fact I rarely raise my voice. I can get my message across without it. She’s one of the best behaved and well mannered kids I know. More importantly she knows not to hit others.
I don’t see any need to smack kids. It can be done without it. I fully advocate smacking for Bush supporters though.
One of the big problems with this country is that there seems to be an unwritten law that if something isn’t banned, that it somehow becomes compulsory. Witness the debates on abortion and divorce. I heard a number of people who were voting against the latter “because they didn’t want to get divorced”!
If there is no ban on smacking a child, then it becomes optional. If you don’t want to smack your kids, then don’t. I am not saying that kids should be clattered for every minor misdemeanor, but I am saying that there should be no hard and fast law.
Of course there are adults who will abuse their power, and will abuse the kids as a result. That is wrong, and legislation can easily be brought in to cover that [though I would imagine there are any number of existing laws that cover it]. I am not promoting the smacking of children. What I am promoting is the freedom, as responsible adults, to make that decision ourselves.
Its pretty bad here in England because the teenagers especially know damn well that nothing can be done about their behaviour if the parents don’t give a crap and there’s plenty of those here. People who have children as an investment because they can’t afford a pension. They know they’ll get child benefit and all sorts of opportunities to maximise income from it. Anyway, the telly is a relatively inexpensive babysitter when they are indoors and what you don’t see doesn’t hurt you when they are outside.
Happily though the occasional bit of sunlight breaks through the clouds. A mate of mine wo I certainly wouldn’t mess with (and no-one I know would either) was confronted by a yippy little 15 year old giving him arse.
When he quite reasonably told the little shit that he’d better back off or he’d get a slap the kid made abad mistake and got right into my mates face and sneered ‘But that’d be assault wouldn’t it?’
The next bit was pretty horrible but I distinctly recall my mate saying in mid-blur to the little tosser ‘No. THAT’s assault’. Stupid little muppet had forgotten to check whether there was CCTV around and in that area there wasn’t. Ouch.
Very funny seeing a little hard man picking himself up off the floor and running off up the road wailing. Probably would have got busted by a cop if seen but to be honest the kid was asking for a lesson- the one about not annoying people who are bigger than you and whom you don’t know.
Lesson well learned I’d say.
I left another comment but TalkTalk decided to switch server and drop my fucking connection and it was lost. I can remember some of it…
I thought getting a beating was normal. I thought everybody got one. Whatever the law was I wasn’t aware of it, kids aren’t. You think everybody lives like you do, gets what you do. I imagine it’s how my father was brought up, what was normal for him. That’s where a law would help some kids.
In practice the law would be impossible to police but the fact that it’s there would help some.
The feral kids that grow up without respect for anything because their parents have none won’t be affected either way. They’re still going to be feral. But some ordinary kids might benefit.
I’m 100% with not twitter on this one. Some kids today are a disrespectful bunch of little shaggers, agreed, but not all. And it’s not because they’re not clattered, but because most of them have been left by their parents to bring themselves up.
There’s a huge difference between discipline and smacking kids. Every kid needs discipline, else they’re like little trains without tracks – who knows where they’ll end up.
Greetings from Nairobi airport where there is free wifi!
When I was a kid at school, it was always the same kids who got caned. It never did much to change them. Eventually, six of them tried to burn down the place and got expelled (Take note a polythene bag filled with diesel is not a good incendiary)
There is that sad case in the UK about the teacher who attacked a boy in his class. Apparently the kids were interviewed after and they openly admitted that they had waged a campaign of abuse against that teacher with the express purpose of winding him up. Here is a classic example of kids hiding behind their ‘rights’, with tragic consequences.