Opinion: Child cruelty figures are abhorrent, while news one in five men change their underwear just once a week is shocking

Shocking figures out this week from the children’s charity NSPCC showed a horrifying increase in the number of child cruelty offences in our county.

The number of offences of cruelty against children has risen a whopping 61 percent in the past five years in Cambridgeshire – that is quite frankly obscene.

The salient word here is offences – that is those who have found themselves facing the law, which means the actual figure for child cruelty could be much higher because the perpetrators have not been caught.

Nationally the number of reports of cruelty or neglect has doubled in the last five years.

The question is why should that be the case?

Is it because children who are being subjected to mistreatment, neglect or assault, now have better access to help through charities like the NSPCC or Childline thanks to mobile phones and social media and therefore more cases are being reported?

Or is it because we as a nation have become more brutal when it comes to our children and are more capable of cruelty towards them?

I hope it is the former and not the latter, because that doesn’t bear thinking about.

As a parent and a grandparent, I understand how frustrating it can sometimes be when your child is acting up and how bad behaviour, arguing back etc can make you lose your temper.

But even then there is no excuse for cruelty.

Cruelty is calculated, cruelty is an ongoing behaviour towards a child, it is not a moment of being short-tempered which is quickly forgotten.

Parents have one job when they choose to bring a child into the world and that is to love, nurture and protect.

Quite frankly if you are incapable of those basics then don’t have a child in the first place – there is no excuse whatsoever to mistreat a child of any age and in my opinion, there are few crimes that are more heinous than child cruelty, neglect or physical abuse…

On a much lighter note, if potentially a bit of a smelly one.

A new study has found that one in five men – that’s a fifth of the male population – change their underwear just once a week, and more revolting still some men have confessed to stretching the wear to two or even three weeks.

What on earth are they thinking?

Why are men so lax about their hygiene? Is it because it is easier to pick the pair they wore the day before up off the floor and put them back on than it is to put them in the wash and open a drawer to retrieve a clean pair?

Is it as has been suggested men are concerned about the cost of doing their laundry because of the rising cost of living and therefore try to cut down on using a washing machine?

Or is it perhaps concern for the planet and knowledge that doing the washing can have an impact on global warming?

Or is it, as I suspect, they are simply lazy, and can’t be bothered?

Whatever the reason, all I can say is come on chaps sort yourselves out it takes moments to drop your pants in the wash and pick out a clean pair, do you really want to be walking around in underwear with week-old skid marks in them?…

The thorny topic of the BBC television licence has been in the headlines this week with the announcement the fee is to rise by £10.50 to £169.50 a year.

With the rise the old debate of whether it is time to scrap the fee altogether and find an alternative way to fund the Beeb has once again been opened.

Without a TV licence, it is illegal to watch or record live television on any channel.

That translates in many people’s minds to the BBC licence being more for having a television in the first place than what is watched on it.

The fee is not particularly extortionate when you consider what the BBC offers in terms of content on both its radio and television channels.

Absurdly if you are caught watching live tele without a licence you face court and even the possibility of prison if you fail to pay any fine imposed.

That to my mind is extreme.

Maybe it is time to make the BBC like other streaming services and give people the option to subscribe or not.

I suspect the Beeb might lose some money as a result, but there are other ways they can recoup those losses including, dare I say it, introducing advertising.

People fear advertising could cost the BBC its independence, but frankly, ITV and other channels manage to keep their news coverage unbiased so is that a credible argument?

I’m not sure it is, so maybe it is time for a change and time to give people the choice to pay or not to pay...