Letter
from Margaret Buckby, Moulton, Northants - Daily Mail,
May 24, 2005
Regarding
the yob culture that seems to have taken over, is it any
wonder now that parents and schools are no longer able
to discipline their charges.
I
was left a widow with a wilful 13-year-old daughter and
on one occasion a well-timed slap was necessary to bring
her back into line. This has done her no damage at all.
We have a close relationship as mother and daughter but
without the discipline I shudder to think what might have
happened to her.
Give
back the discipline to schools and parents and let's see
what that would achieve. There is a lot of truth in the
old adage that if you spare the rod you spoil the child.
**********************
Letter
from Dr M. Boyask, Hove, E.Sussex - Daily Mail, May 24,
2005
My
wife and I have just returned from a holiday in the south-east
U.S., where we visited mostly small, ordinary towns rather
than big tourist attractions. On our return, we read yet
again about yob trouble in our towns here.
A
similar situation in a typical American town would last
about 30 seconds. Not only would the yobs get their immediate
comeuppance at the hands of large, tough well-armed police
- with whom you don't argue - but the local justice system
would immediately support whatever measures they took,
as would the townsfolk and, if necessary, the federal
system.
The
parents of the wrongdoers would usually be as outraged
at their children's actions as the other locals. In the
unlikely event that the parents tried instead to cause
trouble themselves, they would find themselves in it up
to their necks.
The
yobs would soon be seen outside in bright red and yellow
jackets, cleaning up litter and weeds on the highway,
covered by several shotguns. Too tough? I don't think
so. The answers to these problems aren't all that difficult.
If the public wants that kind of authority, it has to
vote for it. In America, sheriffs and police chiefs are
subject to election.
**********************
Letter
from Tim Cleal. Wormleighton, Warwickshire - Daily Mail,
May 24, 2005
On
a recent Five Live radio sow, a 13-year-old schoolgirl
was asked if she thought adults and teachers should be
given respect just because they were adults and teachers.
'Oh no,' she said. 'We'll respect them if they respect
us.'
What
was striking was not that she said it, but that both presenter
Simon Mayo and his guest Roger Graef did precious little
to correct her adolescent delusion.
Such
moral paralysis will prevail as long as society is forced
to accept the quasi-spiritual dictum that all living beings
- men, women, children and animals - are equal to one
another and deserving of equal respect.
**********************
WEBMASTER
COMMENT
My
late wife, Betty, told me of an incident in the late Thirties,
when she was 12 years old, that had been etched into her
memory. Her father, whom she idolised, had her bend over
her bed to receive six of the best on her bottom from
a leather belt. Her seven -year-old brother had received
the same punishment.
Their
crime: pouring a bucket of cold water from their bedroom
window into a pram below in which their two-month-old
baby sister was sleeping. Betty and her brother accepted
that their punishment fitted the crime and never stopped
loving and respecting the schoolmaster who was their father.
Discipline?
We can only learn it from our parents
I
was one of the original London Teddy Boys. When we first
appeared, the police and the media accused us of every
sort of mayhem and mischief, though the reality was very
different. We were, in fact, just a bunch of pasty-faced
youths who wore Edwardian-style fashions and hung about
on street corners trying to look harder than we were.
We lived in the shadow of fathers and uncles who had fought
a world war. Many of us, in turn, went on to do National
Service.
After
grammar school, I became a long-serving officer in the
London Fire Brigade, the father of three, stepfather of
four, and I have an exemplary record. My poor, but devoted,
parents made sure I had a first-class education and disciplined
lifestyle.
These
days, it's the turn of the 'feral' youths in 'hoodies'
and baseball caps to take the stick. But if they lack
the discipline, respect and values of my 'yob' generation,
it's because they are the products of substandard, anything
goes parenting. That, in turn, is the fault of lazy, self-serving
politicians and a society obsessed with materialism.
The
young, with their half-formed minds, have too much to
say and too great an influence.
Society
has become lazy and apathetic in its attitude towards
directing teenagers to civilised behaviour. We have betrayed
our greatest asset - our young - and we must live with
it.
Respect?
My generation had it in spades. Teddy Boys or not, we
knew our parents had earned it the hard way through war,
courage and sacrifice. We can't start another world war
to gain the respect of the young, but wee can fight a
system that's destroying the credibility of parenting,
marriage and the cornerstone of civilised society - discipline.
We
should stop whining about the old days and shying away
from harsh decisions. The young weren't around in the
old days - they know no different. But we were, and it's
time we knocked a few parental and political heads together
and stopped betraying all those magnificent people who
gave their todays for our tomorrows. John Barker, Angmering,
W. Sussex - Daily Mail, May 26, 2005.
Who's
keeping the peace?
What
has become of keeping the Queen's peace? Policemen once
swore to uphold and maintain that peace when they were
appointed constables. A breach of the Queen's peace was
- and, I believe, still is - a criminal offence. Why have
none of the louts and yobs who have made life hell for
so many of her people not been prosecuted for having,
at the very least, breached the Queen's peace.
Letter
from David Bourne, Winchelsea, E. Sussex, Daily Mail,
May 26, 2005.
Cowboy
Britain
Watching
a Western on TV, I realised nothing much has changed.
Half-a-dozen gun en wandered into town and caused mayhem
because the mild-mannered sheriff saw no need to get tough.
After a few killings, the sheriff, in despair, yelled:
"Why?". A gunman replied: "Because there's
no law here to stop me, so I can."
Doesn't
that just sum up our country today, Sheriff Blair?
Letter
from J. Davies, Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire - Daily Mail,
May 26, 2005
