Calls for child beatings book ban

The author of a book that advocates beating children under a year old with paddles said he was "delighted" to discover a Tory MP was calling for it to be banned on Amazon's website.

Michael Pearl told BBC Radio 5 Live that if the book is removed from the retailer's website, he will "advertise it as 'the book banned in the UK'".

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries asked the Commons yesterday if Parliament could apply pressure on Amazon to remove To Train Up A Child.

Mr Pearl told the radio station: "I was delighted to hear that Parliament might ban my book, if they do, I will immediately advertise it as 'the book banned in the UK' and...we will end up selling another 100,000 books directly to the UK."

"The British defeated the Nazi's with planes and tanks and now they stoop to defeating ideas with censorship," he added.

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries asked House of Commons leader Andrew Lansley to bring the issue of a book that "advocates the beating of children" to Parliament in a bid to pressurise Amazon into removing it from their website.

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has urged Amazon to remove a book that advocates beating children under a year old with paddles, rulers and implements fashioned from trees.

The controversial book To Train Up A Child should be taken off the online retailer's website as it advocates child abuse, Ms Dorries said.

The book's authors, Debi and Michael Pearl, run their own No Greater Joy Christian ministry and Mr Pearl describes himself as a "pastor, missionary, and evangelist for over 40 years", according to his website.

Ms Dorries asked Commons leader Andrew Lansley to bring the issue to Parliament to apply pressure on Amazon to remove the book, first published in 1994, from sale.