Parents will be shocked by yet another gang attack on a child filmed and posted on social media. We reported last month on concerns over the trend of this particularly nasty form of bullying by other youths.
The latest victim had been picked on at school, verbally abused and had food thrown at him for months. And now he has suffered a vicious attack at the hands of fellow pupils.
What he has gone through is deplorable and those responsible should be ashamed of themselves. The impact on the boy will be far greater than bruises and scrapes which will fortunately heal in time.
His uncle told of his fears for his nephew’s mental health following his awful treatment which would take its toll on anyone. Hopefully, the boy knows how much he is loved by his family who spoke from the heart to the Record about his plight.
But he and others like him need more than the support of loved ones. Schools and local authorities must do more to clamp down on bullying.
It is unacceptable that a child can go through his school days being constantly abused by other pupils. Give head teachers the power to robustly tackle those who make life a misery for other children.
All parents should be aware of a worrying trend and take steps to stop before we have a tragedy on our hands. If they find their child involved in violence or filming it for social media likes, make it clear to them their behaviour is unacceptable.
No one deserves a childhood blighted by bullies.
Same old stories
Rishi Sunak was meant to be the new broom that swept the Conservative party clean after the chaotic administrations of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.
But instead the Tory PM is facing yet another set of sleaze allegations.
Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chairman, faces calls to resign following a dispute over his own tax affairs. He reportedly paid a penalty to HMRC over unpaid tax of about £5million.
That’s an extraordinary amount of money to owe the taxman in any circumstances. But what makes it especially galling is Zahawi settled the bill when he was serving as chancellor of the exchequer.
The man in charge of the UK Treasury was being pursued by the taxman. Zahawi insists he’d done nothing wrong.
But the affair is just the latest episode in a long-running series of scandals that have plagued this government. The UK needs a general election and a fresh start.
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