Beating Domestic Violence

Domestic violence has been the cause of some renewed concern this week.

Paul Robins reported on the case of a husband who has been jailed to 5-weeks imprisonment.

Southcote's James Hendry beat his charity worker wife of 21 years for regularly providing shelter to the homeless. Apparently she provided ad-hoc accomodation to 'an assortment of waifs and strays' to whom no temporary provision could be found at the Churches In Reading Drop-In Centre (CIRDIC) on Berkeley Avenue.

Meanwhile Labour's Women's Officer Rachel Eden attended a candellight vigil and quiz night as part of efforts to highlight the continuing problem.

She also advertises weblinks to Berkshire Women's Aid which provides services for those in need and the White Ribbon Campaign designed to raise awareness about taking responsibility for ones own behaviour.

This coincided with the government's announcement of a new strategy to introduce compulsory lessons into the primary school curriculum to ensure all pupils are made aware of the unacceptability of violence against women.

Maidenhead Conservative Alistair McRonald comments that this is a step too far by the nanny state. He says that when set against this week's  release of a woman after serving 8 years in prison for the murder of her husband it shows how Labour is biased against men.

Elsewhere Newsarse parodies the strategy, claiming it will be an education in the bleeding obvious.


Oranjepan says:
Apparently lessons in geography can be 'bumped' because they are only needed for pub quizzes - which may  explain why Rachel Eden came 5th in hers!

Both state compulsion and physical violence by individuals are examples of the attempt to resolve disputes through force - they are the absolute last resort and we should be wary that using one to defeat the other will prove counter-productive.