Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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Six Years On... Let's Work Together May 2003 Writing this column over the past six years I have often felt that I was casting my words to the wind. Feedback is usually in short supply and whilst I can well understand why few people would wish to read my words I do appreciate any comments – even those of a less than complimentary nature! However, my recent piece on the epidemic of the most repulsive and barbaric anti-social behaviour that is currently scarring our Borough seems to have struck a chord. Two people well known to me, Leslie Porter, JP and Graham Preedy, have even had letters published in the Ealing “Gazette” on the subject. Both see the solution to our ills as a return to physical correction or Christian values. I am afraid that wimpish muesli eating liberals like me will have no truck with corporal punishment. I just can’t believe that offering violence to a child will do anything other than encourage that child to see violence as normal. I was caned on an almost daily basis at school and – on a fair few occasions – by my parents. The experience gave me an utter hatred of school, which led me to leave as soon as I was fifteen, and considerable unhappiness at home which I assuaged by leaving in the same year as I escaped from school. Everyday I see casual violence meted out on recalcitrant toddlers. Seeing a young child slapped or cuffed in the supermarket fills me with dread. Hitting a child seems to me to be utterly abhorrent in a society that tries to see itself as civilised and I really doubt that it prevents future hooliganism. Without revealing too many secrets to my political enemies I can certainly say that it didn’t work in my case! I would also find it difficult to propose an adherence to Christian values as a solution to society’s ills. What I would suggest is that homes in which there is recognition of the spiritual dimension to life and in which the family is a strong unit do tend to encourage stability in the young. I would part with my correspondents in saying that I do not define the family exclusively in terms of two married parents. I know some truly excellent single parent headed households and some pretty awful families in which the conventional norm applies. I would hope that we could all accept that prevention is a key part of the resolution to our problem. As a society we do seem to load ever more burdens on teachers, social workers and the police. They can only do their job if we, the public, help them. That was the thrust of my argument. Mind you, having had my car broken into twice and the wheels stolen once I am currently in an unforgiving mood. What really depressed me about the most recent theft was that the little so-and-sos rifled through my CD collection and rejected virtually all as being unworthy of theft! How they could have resisted all my Dubliners and Wolfe Tones CDs is beyond me, but they also left the White Stripes so what does that say about their taste! We all agree that there is something terrible going on out there on the streets. Lets work together to sort it out. |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
