Law Society has it right

The Law Society has called for Section 59 to be amended, not repealed. A good common sense position.

They made the very useful point that:

… simply repealing the section without any kind of replacement would create a legal vacuum.

and also that

Failing to replace the section also gave parents little guidance on what was acceptable.

The Law Society has proposed a definition of reasonable force that specifically banned any discipline that caused “bodily harm” and striking of any kind above the shoulder, and that crrective action would also have to be the “sole” cause for the discipline with any other factors found to be involved negating the defence.

I hope their submission forms the basis fo a compromise that the sensible MPs can agree on. I am sure there are at least a dozen Labour MPs who don’t want to criminalise parental smacking.