It is easy to sympathise with those people who believe that it is wrong to hit children, however badly they behave. There have been too many cases of savage assault disguised as chastisement. Nor is it a good idea to put it into the minds of children that the only way to settle something is by physical force.

That, in part, is the background to the proposals put forward in the new consultation paper from the Department of Health to tighten up the law relating to physical assault on children. The move is intended to modernise the present law, based on Victorian attitudes, and bring it more into line with modern European law.

The flipside, though, is that to outlaw all physical punishment would be perhaps to bow too readily to the influence of political correctness. A timely slap on the leg or bottom by a loving parent can bring results that no amount of reasoning can achieve. Used as an immediate response to bad behaviour, it demonstrates to a child that he or she has pushed things too far.

It is not something that should be done too often. Over-use can cause it to lose all effectiveness. But occasional, restrained smacking when a parent instinctively feels it to be the only way forward is a useful aid to child rearing.

Health Minister John Hutton apparently agrees, saying that while the Government wanted to line up with European law on this, it also believes in the right of parents to make decisions about how they bring up their children. The proposals seem to get the balance right.

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