John Rentoul: George appalled it's like turning grave Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four all over again

Eagle Eye

John Rentoul: George appalled it's like turning grave Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four all over again

Posted by Eagle Eye

Sunday, 1 November 2009 at 12:42 pm

I have not been following the Watford playground story closely, partly because I picked up from blogs that it was untrue. So it with joy that I discover that someone who knows even less about it than me, namely Henry Porter of The Observer, has opined (along the lines of the infinitely rearrangable expression of liberal outrage above) in print about it. And made a proper charlie of himself.

Sadie Smith takes him to pieces, and has far too much fun doing it.

This week, the scourge of the Police State (est 1997, proprietor: Anthony Charles Lynton Blair) turns his forensic eye on the goings on at a Watford playgroup. At this facility, parents have been banned from watching their kids play by a Stalinist group of - and you can hear Henry's jowls quivering with rage as he types this phrase - "play rangers". This Gestapo of vetted council staff has cattle-prodded these concerned parents out of eyeshot of their kids on the spurious grounds that they might be paedophiles. It's PEECEE GAWN MAAAAAAD! I ask you: did the Magna Carta die in vain? What about the Human Rights Act? George appalled it's like turning grave Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four all over again (re-arrange to assemble cliche of choice)?

"If parents want to watch their children they should damned well be allowed to do so. No officially sanctioned "play ranger" should have supervisory rights over a child in a public "open access" playground that in any way tops the child's parents' rights," trumpets Henry, indignantly.

There's just one problem with this story. It's bollocks.

The Liberal Democrat Voice and the Liberal Conspiracy have comprehensively debunked the original Metro article that gave rise to Henry's latest bout of apoplexy over ainshunt libertees which you should read in full. In summary: they are not "open access" playgrounds, they are supervised facilities in which the children undertake activities that could be dangerous if they are concentrating on making sure that their parents are watching them rather than watching what they are doing. And, in spite of the fevered imaginings of both Porter and the Daily Mail, there's not a mention of a paedophile in sight.

The response of the Mayor, "evidently a simple minded woman" according to Henry Porter, in response to the allegations is robust:

"What has happened is that at Harwoods a handful of parents have been staying on, not just dropping their kids off. After a number of incidents, staff that run the facility felt that the presence of these parents was hampering their ability to supervise the kids properly - who remember are engaging in risky play and do need to be given full attention. They've now brought the site in line with Harebreaks, where parents don't stay on and they have no problems.

"Quotes attributed to me have been taken out of context - I'm not saying adults shouldn't be allowed on playgrounds - I'd go and shoot myself if this was the case - only on these specialised play facilities! We have 40 other playgrounds elsewhere in the Borough where parents are welcome to stay."

The Metro made it up, then? Who'd a thunk it?

So, some might read St Henry of Magna Carta's reference to Mayor Dorothy Thornhill and think that he owes her an apology for smearing her as an "evidently ... simple minded woman". The more unkind of us might also think that "people in glasshouses shouldn't..." And some might also contend that those who pass judgement on a case without giving it a fair trial might be happier in a police state than a democracy. Personally, I think the latter is a somewhat fatuous response to the complexities of modern life, often deployed by those who respond to any subtlety by howling "police state" like a banshee until the Comment is Free lynch mob arrives to save them from their intellectual inadequacy.

But I'm not Henry Porter.