Well, as I said when we debated this Bill in September, I'm the parent of six, all now responsible and caring adults, a godparent, grandparent, uncle and great-uncle. Three of my daughters are also currently pregnant. Two of these now live a few miles away in England. They told me they're grateful that this Bill will not apply to them. However, our other pregnant daughter, who still lives in Wales, is worried about the snoopers' charter this Bill threatens to introduce, so are her friends, colleagues and peer groups.

An independently conducted nationwide poll in New Zealand—independently conducted—where smacking is already criminalised found that 70 per cent said they would not report a parent they saw smacking their child, but 20 per cent would become snoopers.

The people behind this Bill appear to live in an unrepresentative Cardiff bay bubble where sitting in judgment on others and deciding what is good for them takes priority over listening to the people they're supposed to represent. They claim to be protecting children and state that those who disagree with them need positive parenting courses. However, the overwhelming majority of parents already know and apply the positive parenting interventions they advocate, whilst also retaining the option of light smacking in their positive parenting toolkit for rare use in times of danger or as a last resort.

As the crown prosecution states, the defence of reasonable chastisement cannot be used 

'for minor assaults committed by an adult upon a child that result in injuries such as grazes, scratches, abrasions, minor bruising, swelling, superficial cuts or a black eye, the appropriate charge will normally be ABH'.

The reasonable chastisement defence only remains available, they state, in cases where 

'the injury is transient and trifling'.

A recent survey of Welsh local councillors found that seven in 10 are opposed to a smacking ban, including a majority from each of the main parties, and that nine in 10 say that councils do not have the resources to cope with one, and concern has been raised that the Welsh Government has not given—