I got smacked as a child, and I respected my parents for it, we live in a nanny state these days, and if I had children, against the law or not, I would smack my child if it deserved it.
There is a huge difference between a good hard smack and physical abuse and lets face it, looking around these days, most of the kids I see desprately need a smack, there parents let them get away with treating them like dirt!

I think there is a world of diffrence between a smack and "Abuse". And I think it's no coincidence that things have become worse since the belt etc was banned in schools. Provided the kids are being spoken to as well, and made to understand why they have been smacked and why what they have done is wrong then I have no problem with it. And I know it's a well worn argument but I'm gonna use it anyway... It never done me any harm

I remember the "thwack" of the cane across my hands only too well (I'd just thrown a fellow pupil out of a window) and had, or have, no problem associating the cause and effect of the two.

Somehow, I can't see that a respectful "Now that was very naughty" type statement would have had anywhere near the same effect as the cane had on me!

If you did something wrong in work, would you expect your boss to give you a good hard smack? I think not. So why is it okay to do it to a child?

That's a completely flawed analogy. For starters, as an adult, I have full reasoning powers, a developed intelligence, and have, presumably, already learned the difference between right and wrong.

This, I must presume, is reflected by the fact that I can't recall ever hearing about people being smacked by their employer, because they did something wrong, with any degree of regularity.

Or is it because people would smack their employer right back or sue them as their employer would be protected under the law?

I think it has a lot more to do with old fashioned family values than whether a child is smacked or not.