Sorry kendall, I know where you're coming from and, in a perfect world, it might, just ever-so-slightly possibly, work. Unfortunately this world is far from perfect, and for every goody-two-shoes kid, there are dozens of little hooligans whose reaction to a pat on the head is to kick the patter in the balls.

When I was at school, we were caned if we misbehaved. We behaved.

When I was at school, teachers were in charge of the classroom. If you went home to your parents and told them you'd had a slap or the cane from the teaccher, you got another, very hard, clout from your dad. We behaved.

National Service taught young men to be clean, accept discipline, and have the work-ethic, self-discipline and self-respect.

The level of crime, hooliganism and vandalism amongst teenagers then was a tiny fraction of that today.

QED for me, and no-one will persuade me otherwise.