There you are, whiling away an afternoon in the park watching your children play. Then the youngest gets a bit antsy, and demands an ice cream. Nothing you say or do will distract them. The shop is just minutes away.
The other four are immersed in a game and you don't want to spoil their fun. They're sensible kids, well-schooled in "stranger danger", and the eldest, at nine, you know to be a responsible youngster who will watch out for the others. Besides, there are plenty of people about.
So you and the toddler make a dash for the shop. Ice cream purchased, child appeased, you hurry back to the others. But what are those police officers doing with your family? Has something happened? Has one of them been hurt? Fear chills you – and then comes blessed relief.
The children are fine and the police officers were just being vigilant. You chat for a minute or two. They'd spotted the unaccompanied children and wanted to make sure they were OK – just like old-style bobbies on the beat used to do.
And that is where bobbies on the beat would have left it – but not the men who police Big Brother Britain and who must observe the box-ticking demands of their job, rather than exercising common sense.
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