respect works both ways

Oh, it turns out that Tony Blair occasionally smacks his children. I didn't know that. That guy just keeps on giving us reasons to love him, doesn't he?

As the Guardian newsblog says,

"Frankly, he just wasn’t prepared to condemn most of the parenting population, since parents who have fully abstained from slapping their little people appear to be few and far between. Unlike violence, respect is not a continuum. Mr Blair would have been better off using yesterday’s airtime to make the point that his respect agenda should apply to everyone of us, not just the “really really difficult” individuals within society. It was a missed opportunity for self-reflection."