The Times, London, 14 December 2002
Well beaten Britain finally bends to the inevitable
By Ben Macintyre

The strange, ancient British practise of caning suffered a critical blow this week, when a group of 40 independent Christian schools in the UK lost a battle in the courts to have hitting a child with rod, birch or slipper upheld as a human right. These schools have been fighting a rearguard action, so to speak, ever since caning was outlawed in Britain three years ago, arguing that corporal punishment is part of Christian heritage.

With this court ruling, the school cane will finally join the cat o' nine tails as a museum piece, an archaic tool of ritual punishment, and not a moment too soon.

Christian schools in the UK lost a battle in the courts to have hitting a child with rod, birch or slipper upheld as a human right.

Question

If this is the case in the year 2002 do you not think that it is probable that Catholic Schools Run by sadistic brutal nuns who beat the crap out of children in the name of god used the birch in the early 70s.

Answer: No, I don't think it's probable at ALL.

Luckily, however, we're not talking about probability. Lady P has stated as a FACT that birching was common practice in southern Irish convent schools in the 1970's.

If it's true, why can't she name one single school at which it was common practice? And why is Freddie working so hard to help her evade that very simple question?

At which Irish schools WAS birching common practice in the 1970's!