The other day I listed a number of areas where public money in Northern Ireland was wasted, contributing to the over taxation situation we find ourselves in at present. As if he knew exactly what I'd been thinking, Nigel Williams was kind enough to illustrate another area that I'd neglected to mention.

Calling for a total ban on smacking, Williams, Northern Ireland's "Children's Commissioner" has come out whinging about the fact that parents are allowed to carry out "reasonable chastisement" of their children by smacking them. He claimed that children were hurt physically and emotionally when they were hit by their parents.

Let me tell you Mr Williams, 230 volts from an electric socket will hurt "physically and emtionally" a lot more.

Pointless dogoodery funded by an already stretched state. When pensioners are getting beat up in their homes, schools are crumbling and hospitals failing, not to mention taxes rising steadily, can we really afford to be subsidising the fantasies of deranged people like this so they can tell parents how (not) to raise their children?