Jim Stewart
Freedom of speech and the Welsh Assembly
15 February 2018Freedom of speech is not an issue that crops up on a regular basis in the National Assembly for Wales but, when it does, it tends to make the headlines. It was almost 10 years ago, for example, that then-Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black co-sponsored an event in the Assembly in which author Patrick Jones read from a collection of his poems. Many Christians deemed some of the poems to be blasphemous and this led to a peaceful demonstration involving 250 Christians outside the Senedd, held at the…
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The Welsh Government unveils plans to ban smacking
18 January 2018The Welsh government unveiled its plans on Tuesday, 9 January 2018 to introduce a 'smacking ban' by developing legislation to remove the existing defence of reasonable chastisement, making smacking a prosecutable offense in Wales. The consultation, which closes on Monday, 2 April 2018, proposes criminalising smacking as "assault and battery" (Consultation, p.9), giving the government greater power to intervene in the life of any and every family in Wales. This seems to stand in contrast to a…
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