asked the Prime Minister whether the statement, spare the rod and spoil the child, by the Secretary of State for the Home Department at a recent meeting in Chelsea, represents the policy of Her Majesty's Government.

My right hon. Friend was referring to the use of corporal punishment by parents or teachers, as enjoined by the Book of Proverbs.

If that is so, and, of course, I accept the Prime Minister's statement, will he please say why the Government persist in preventing that same rod being used by the law in appropriate circumstances and at appropriate times?

I said that my right hon. Friend was referring to parents and teachers. He might, of course, have harked back to an earlier Butler, who wrote: Love is a boy, by poets styled;Then spare the rod, and spoil the child.

Since the Prime Minister referred to the advice given in the Book of Proverbs by King Solomon, could he tell us why, if King Solomon knew so much about how to bring up children, his own son was such a thoroughly bad character?

I think the hon. Gentleman has taken a rather narrow view. He has selected one child from what, I understand, was a much wider company.