Another first for Scotland as the devolved legislature becomes the first part of the UK to ban smacking
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54825151
Scotland also led the UK with a public smoking ban, and England quickly followed. So far there are no legislative moves in Parliament in this direction - it's all about COVID19 and Brexit - but change is bound to come and requires renewed efforts by paediatricians and other health professionals to push the need to end violence against children.
The case in favour of a legal ban against smacking in the home was covered in a paper in BMJ Paediatrics Open earlier this year
https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000675
Tony Waterston
CHIFA profile: Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA www.chifa.org He is also a member of the HIFA Steering Group.
www.hifa.org/people/steering-group www.hifa.org/support/members/tony
Tony.Waterston AT newcastle.ac.uk
