I agree with C-flat and Gurney - when I was a kid we were in fear of the local bobby and even of the park-keeper. and yes, if anything got home to the parents!! My family life wasn't much because my parents really didn't show any interest and I was left, with my brother, to roam the streets from about the age of nine, but the authority figures were there and you didn't argue with them. The problem now seems to be that there is no authority worth the name - teachers have no real way of disciplining kids when the kids and their parents all 'know their rights'. I have a theory that the more 'rights' that are given to the general population the less right we have to a peaceful, non violent way of life because the natural troublemakers, and I do believe that they exist, take full advantage of what they see as the weakness of society in general to satisfy themselves. i would like to see the return of some sort of corporal punishment but can imagine the screams that will go up from that statement! but why should the selfish acts of out of control idiots seem always to go unpunished. It is the rest of us who are being punished as a result.

On the question of paedophiles I'm to the right of Attilla the Hun - at the FIRST offence, lock'em away for good. I'm sure that I'll get the same approbation as Gurney but anyone who harms a child shouldn't be allowed in a civilised society.