Should parents in Britain be banned from smacking their children?

From this week, parents in France no longer have the right to smack their children after a new law banning corporal punishment came into force.

This leaves Britain as one of only four countries in Europe where smacking remains a legal way of disciplining children.

The French law now defines parental authority in the Civil Code as excluding ‘all cruel, degrading or humiliating treatment, including any recourse to corporal violence’.

Now the UK, Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic are all expected to receive mounting demands to pass a similar law against smacking.

What is your view?  Were you smacked by your parents if you misbehaved? Did smacking form part of how you disciplined your own children? What methods of discipline do you think work best? Does smacking have a negative effect on a child? Let us know your thoughts!