Tim Atkinson's Blog, page 103
February 28, 2011
Be a story-maker for World Book Day!
Oh yes! Much as I love CBeebies (especially the repeats of Come Outside with Nurse Gladys Emanumabel) I do miss some of the old stuff I used to watch with Sally years ago, and none more than the excellent Story Makers. Ok, so Jelly and Jackson could be a bit annoying, but the library setting, the magical story maker him or herself (my own favourite used to be Milton Wordsworth) and the story machine - plus of course, story (Blue Cow if I was lucky) - was a potent combination. 'Imagine, imagine, imagine a story' went the chant. And if you imagined hard enough, one would appear.
And that's pretty much how it works when you think about it. If you imagine something hard enough, it will appear (on the page). Ok, the words, the idiom, the rising action, narrative progression and the stylistic conventions are all important. Of course they are. But if you can hold something in your imagination clearly enough, for long enough, you tend to find the right words - in the right order - suddenly appear.
It's probably not escaped your notice that it's World Book Day this week. Well, to mark the occasion we're (that's Dotterel Press) are organising a children's writing competition. There'll be more on the Dotterel Press blog on World Book Day itself (Thursday). But for now, get the grey matter working, kids. And imagine, imagine, imagine a story!
And that's pretty much how it works when you think about it. If you imagine something hard enough, it will appear (on the page). Ok, the words, the idiom, the rising action, narrative progression and the stylistic conventions are all important. Of course they are. But if you can hold something in your imagination clearly enough, for long enough, you tend to find the right words - in the right order - suddenly appear.
It's probably not escaped your notice that it's World Book Day this week. Well, to mark the occasion we're (that's Dotterel Press) are organising a children's writing competition. There'll be more on the Dotterel Press blog on World Book Day itself (Thursday). But for now, get the grey matter working, kids. And imagine, imagine, imagine a story!
February 26, 2011
Saturday Kitchen... with Marco Pierre White
If you're struggling for inspiration in the kitchen, if your recipes need revitalising and your meal-times need modifying, help is at hand. Because today, world famous and Michelin-starred chef Marco Pierre White is here to teach you how to make rich beef gravy, cottage pie, bolognese sauce, beef and Guinness stew plus bouef bourguignon and wild mushrooms. White left school at the age of 16 with next to no qualifications. By the age of 24 he was Head Chef and joint owner of Harvey's in London with Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsey working for him. Don't try that at home, kids; it doesn't always work out as successfully. But do try one of these delicious recipes.
My mouth's watering already...
My mouth's watering already...
February 24, 2011
A Disney Moment...
Ah, the magic, the pull, the allure! They're right about one thing, though: the Disney magic starts the moment you tell them they're going. And there's plenty of choice, of course, from Walt Disney World with its Magic Kingdom Park to Disneyland Paris and Disneyland California. There's even a Disney Cruise Line with a flagship called, you've guessed it, Disney Magic. Now that's my idea of travel.
Disney is so deeply entrenched in our culture, it seems to be everywhere and it's been part of childhoods for getting on for a hundred years. My own favourite has - and always will be - Dumbo... sentimental old fool that I am. And I'm sure everyone has one, from Winnie the Pooh to Bambi to the state-of-the-art Pixar animations, the magic just keeps rolling on.
So what's your little bit of Disney Magic?
This is a sponsored post.
Disney is so deeply entrenched in our culture, it seems to be everywhere and it's been part of childhoods for getting on for a hundred years. My own favourite has - and always will be - Dumbo... sentimental old fool that I am. And I'm sure everyone has one, from Winnie the Pooh to Bambi to the state-of-the-art Pixar animations, the magic just keeps rolling on.
So what's your little bit of Disney Magic?
This is a sponsored post.
February 22, 2011
It's a gas...
British Gas, to be precise. And Sainsbury's, who have teamed up to form Sainsbury's Energy, an initiative that means you can buy green energy with your groceries. Not quite this, maybe...
But certainly something like this...
And best of all, you can collect Nectar points on your purchases! No, actually that's not the best thing. The best thing is the commitment to sustainable energy. I don't know about you, but I've often thought about installing solar panels, maybe a wind-turbine and converting the earth's free resources to my own non-polluting and profit-making energy. But where do you start? And who can you trust? That's the inspiration behind this partnership, and - fittingly - the bloggers launch lunch last Thursday was held at the Walnut - London's leading sustainable restaurant. There - as well as lunch - was The One Show's Lucy Siegle to regale us with such facts as these:
The 9 tonnes of gas generated by average household each year is enough hot air to fill five hot air balloons
We waste enough paper every year to cover Wales in litter
15 million TV's are regularly left on standby, and
8% of our total energy costs could be saved by simply turning appliances off at the wall.
I suppose the moral of the story is that we could all do a bit more to save the planet. And that's very much the message of this partnership: common-sense sustainability!
Maybe we bloggers should install some solar-panels on our lap-tops? In the meantime, you can book your own home energy efficiency survey while you do your weekly shopping. It really couldn't be much easier.
But certainly something like this...
And best of all, you can collect Nectar points on your purchases! No, actually that's not the best thing. The best thing is the commitment to sustainable energy. I don't know about you, but I've often thought about installing solar panels, maybe a wind-turbine and converting the earth's free resources to my own non-polluting and profit-making energy. But where do you start? And who can you trust? That's the inspiration behind this partnership, and - fittingly - the bloggers launch lunch last Thursday was held at the Walnut - London's leading sustainable restaurant. There - as well as lunch - was The One Show's Lucy Siegle to regale us with such facts as these:
The 9 tonnes of gas generated by average household each year is enough hot air to fill five hot air balloons
We waste enough paper every year to cover Wales in litter
15 million TV's are regularly left on standby, and
8% of our total energy costs could be saved by simply turning appliances off at the wall.
I suppose the moral of the story is that we could all do a bit more to save the planet. And that's very much the message of this partnership: common-sense sustainability!
Maybe we bloggers should install some solar-panels on our lap-tops? In the meantime, you can book your own home energy efficiency survey while you do your weekly shopping. It really couldn't be much easier.
February 20, 2011
Roary Live!
Oh yes, the little racing car's on tour and we've just been to see him! By we I mean Charlie, Grandma and me and by tour, I mean a date at the Spa Theatre, Bridlington. As this isn't in any way a sponsored post I can tell you exactly what I thought about it. (Well, I do that anyway - sponsored or not!) And I must admit the concept of an animated racing car appearing at a theatre - even one as nice as the refurbished Spa - was a little puzzling. But...
Well, they certainly enjoyed it.
And, I must admit, so did I. What's not to like about the legendary Murray Walker's excitable commentary as Roary races away on Farmer Green's new bio-fuel in a duel to the finish-line with Maxi? And the winner? Well, you'll just have to see the show to find out. The tour began on February 12th and continues until October. You can find out more about it here.
Well, they certainly enjoyed it.
And, I must admit, so did I. What's not to like about the legendary Murray Walker's excitable commentary as Roary races away on Farmer Green's new bio-fuel in a duel to the finish-line with Maxi? And the winner? Well, you'll just have to see the show to find out. The tour began on February 12th and continues until October. You can find out more about it here.
February 17, 2011
Last Choir Standing
The carnival may be over, but the passion lives on. And I might just have passed mine for music to my daughter, judging by her performance last night at the workshop run by the Academy of Contemporary Music's Gospel Choir. (Yes, that ACM Gospel Choir - the one that should've won Last Choir Standing). I was going to round off this little sequence of passionate posts about music with a performance of my own - Dr Jazz (or so it's claimed) on the evening of our wedding. But this is far, far better...
February 15, 2011
Let's get passionate!
It's the BMB Carnival everybody, and the theme today is... passion. Not in the Romeo and Juliet sense, but the kind of thing that inspires you and gets you going. (Actually...)
But no. There have been some really wonderful entries this time, starting with this one from Carol 'New Mummy' Smith. She and I share a passion for music, and here's her post about what live gigs mean to her: My Passion.
Miss Lizzie's passion is woodland, the wild forests the government are at present planning to sell off. In fact, there's a link to the 'Save our Forests' petition on this post, but in the meantime, lets join Miss Lizzie and her family as they got searching for the Gruffalo in A walk on the wild side.
Purpletrumpet describes herself in her blogger profile as 'passionate' (amongst other things) which immediately qualifies for inclusion in the carnival. But in this post she describes a specific passion, for Words which surely most of us share.
Meanwhile Brink of Bedlam has A Passion to Make it Work which is also an entry for a blogging competition about, you've guessed it, passion. Seems it's catching! Incidentally, she is also committed to donating the £250 prize to the RNLI so when you've had a read, do give her vote.
I suppose one passion many of us have in common is blogging. But do 'mummy bloggers' share any other similarities? Becky Goddard-Hill investigates in her post, What do mummy bloggers have in common? while Hayley is creating her own Blogger Map of the World. Meanwhile Ella hits the passion theme firmly on the head when she declares that she was Born to Make a Difference. Which, of course, we all are; all of us that are parents, certainly. For what greater source of passionate commitment can there be than to bring up our children healthy, happy and wise? But it ain't easy, of course, as Her Melness tells us. Mind you, neither is blogging - especially if you've Lost Your Mojo as Jax admits she has just recently.
Cheese is a word seldom used in the same sentence as 'passion', at least as far as I'm concerned. But then, I have instant access to the wonderful range of British cheeses so hard to find in the domicile of Very Bored in Catalunya. That's something I ought to be grateful for, and there's a whole lot more reasons to be cheerful in Mummy From the Heart's post, which is part of a series every Friday. And there are more blessings being counted (as well as passions enumerated) in Pippa's Passionate Post.
Finally, a late entrant thanks (I'm told) to a mistyped email address on the BMB page: no-one could fail to know of Maggie Woodley's crafty passion, and this Red Ted Art guest-post deals with the things you might create out of what's lurking at the back of that old desk drawer. And if you've got a passionate post I haven't received yet (for similar reasons) never fear: you can join in the fun by leaving your link in the comments box below. And thanks to everyone for such splendid contributions.
But no. There have been some really wonderful entries this time, starting with this one from Carol 'New Mummy' Smith. She and I share a passion for music, and here's her post about what live gigs mean to her: My Passion.
Miss Lizzie's passion is woodland, the wild forests the government are at present planning to sell off. In fact, there's a link to the 'Save our Forests' petition on this post, but in the meantime, lets join Miss Lizzie and her family as they got searching for the Gruffalo in A walk on the wild side.
Purpletrumpet describes herself in her blogger profile as 'passionate' (amongst other things) which immediately qualifies for inclusion in the carnival. But in this post she describes a specific passion, for Words which surely most of us share.
Meanwhile Brink of Bedlam has A Passion to Make it Work which is also an entry for a blogging competition about, you've guessed it, passion. Seems it's catching! Incidentally, she is also committed to donating the £250 prize to the RNLI so when you've had a read, do give her vote.
I suppose one passion many of us have in common is blogging. But do 'mummy bloggers' share any other similarities? Becky Goddard-Hill investigates in her post, What do mummy bloggers have in common? while Hayley is creating her own Blogger Map of the World. Meanwhile Ella hits the passion theme firmly on the head when she declares that she was Born to Make a Difference. Which, of course, we all are; all of us that are parents, certainly. For what greater source of passionate commitment can there be than to bring up our children healthy, happy and wise? But it ain't easy, of course, as Her Melness tells us. Mind you, neither is blogging - especially if you've Lost Your Mojo as Jax admits she has just recently.
Cheese is a word seldom used in the same sentence as 'passion', at least as far as I'm concerned. But then, I have instant access to the wonderful range of British cheeses so hard to find in the domicile of Very Bored in Catalunya. That's something I ought to be grateful for, and there's a whole lot more reasons to be cheerful in Mummy From the Heart's post, which is part of a series every Friday. And there are more blessings being counted (as well as passions enumerated) in Pippa's Passionate Post.
Finally, a late entrant thanks (I'm told) to a mistyped email address on the BMB page: no-one could fail to know of Maggie Woodley's crafty passion, and this Red Ted Art guest-post deals with the things you might create out of what's lurking at the back of that old desk drawer. And if you've got a passionate post I haven't received yet (for similar reasons) never fear: you can join in the fun by leaving your link in the comments box below. And thanks to everyone for such splendid contributions.
February 12, 2011
Saturday review: and the winner is...
I seem to have been lucky enough to host a fair few competitions and giveaways recently. And there's another one today. But first, we'd better sort out who's won what from the last couple of competitions. The five winners of a pair of tickets each to the Baby Show this Friday are:
Kanga Rue
Emma Button (Jumblymummy)
Sian C
Helen S-J (Welshy in Lincoln)
and a fellow stay-at-home dad who goes by the name of PeeKay!
STOP PRESS! Since making the draw and notifying the winners two of them have had to drop out, which means Leo Hayden and Marina C - you shall go to the Ball. Well, the Baby Show next Friday. Email me your details (thedotterel@gmail.com) and I'll get things sorted.
Congratulations, and I hope you all have a splendid time. Tell me all about it!
Next, the lucky winner of £60-worth of Boden's voucher...
And the winner is...
Jenny, or @gingerbread_mum. Well done Jenny!
If you didn't win, well - commiserations. Neither did I, if it's any consolation. Not that I'd enter my own competition, just that - well - I get neither of these goodies myself, not that I'm complaining. Oh, and I didn't do the picking, either. This little Random Number Generator did the job. So blame him!
And don't be downhearted. Because you could just be in line to win not one, but 8 boxes of cereal consisting of one box each of:
Cheerios
Honey Shredded Wheat
Shreddies
Fruitful Shredded Wheat
Honey Oats and More
Golden Nuggets
Superfruity Strawberry
Superfruity Blackberry
Oh yes. That's about £25 worth of cereal, thanks to the people at Team Whole Grain. What they want you to do is make this:
Only joking! (Well, you can if you want to. In fact, you can make any one of a number of great cereal spectaculars if you have a look here.) From Cheerios Valentine heart-shaped lollipops to Welsh Sheep to scale models of London landmarks, you can do much more with breakfast cereal than merely eating it. Although you can do that as well, of course. And - if it's whole-grain - you'll know that it's a whole lot healthier. (Hey, I should be in advertising or PR! Anyone out there need someone new on their team?) If you want to enter, leave a comment below or tweet this post. The closing date is Wednesday 16th February.
Finally, a review. And a rather special one. The anthology, Figures of Speech has been created by patients at the Snowsfield Adolescent Unit, part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It's a remarkable collection of poetry, images and sounds made by teenage patients during their admission. As Dr Richard Corrigall (Consultant Psychiatrist) says, "At Snowsfield, we try to tailor treatments to fit the individual needs of young people. We use creative therapies including art, drama and music to compliment more formal approaches like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and medication.'
And Clive Niall, the teacher who initiated and co-ordinated to project says:
"Everyone involved in the project took creative risks. The young people working on this project are in hospital and very vulnerable, so the project was only made possible by establishing trust between everyone involved. We saw how young peoples' self-esteem blossomed. They shared the work in two memorable performances across the hospital. The international visual artist, Anish Kapoor agreed to have some of his work used on the cover."
There are a limted number of copies of the anthology still available. Contact clive.niall@slam.nhs.uk for more information. And to find out more about the work of Snowsfield Adolescent Unit, visit: www.national.slam.nhs.uk/camhs-snowsfields.
Kanga Rue
Emma Button (Jumblymummy)
Sian C
Helen S-J (Welshy in Lincoln)
and a fellow stay-at-home dad who goes by the name of PeeKay!
STOP PRESS! Since making the draw and notifying the winners two of them have had to drop out, which means Leo Hayden and Marina C - you shall go to the Ball. Well, the Baby Show next Friday. Email me your details (thedotterel@gmail.com) and I'll get things sorted.
Congratulations, and I hope you all have a splendid time. Tell me all about it!
Next, the lucky winner of £60-worth of Boden's voucher...
And the winner is...
Jenny, or @gingerbread_mum. Well done Jenny!
If you didn't win, well - commiserations. Neither did I, if it's any consolation. Not that I'd enter my own competition, just that - well - I get neither of these goodies myself, not that I'm complaining. Oh, and I didn't do the picking, either. This little Random Number Generator did the job. So blame him!
And don't be downhearted. Because you could just be in line to win not one, but 8 boxes of cereal consisting of one box each of:
Cheerios
Honey Shredded Wheat
Shreddies
Fruitful Shredded Wheat
Honey Oats and More
Golden Nuggets
Superfruity Strawberry
Superfruity Blackberry
Oh yes. That's about £25 worth of cereal, thanks to the people at Team Whole Grain. What they want you to do is make this:
Only joking! (Well, you can if you want to. In fact, you can make any one of a number of great cereal spectaculars if you have a look here.) From Cheerios Valentine heart-shaped lollipops to Welsh Sheep to scale models of London landmarks, you can do much more with breakfast cereal than merely eating it. Although you can do that as well, of course. And - if it's whole-grain - you'll know that it's a whole lot healthier. (Hey, I should be in advertising or PR! Anyone out there need someone new on their team?) If you want to enter, leave a comment below or tweet this post. The closing date is Wednesday 16th February.
Finally, a review. And a rather special one. The anthology, Figures of Speech has been created by patients at the Snowsfield Adolescent Unit, part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It's a remarkable collection of poetry, images and sounds made by teenage patients during their admission. As Dr Richard Corrigall (Consultant Psychiatrist) says, "At Snowsfield, we try to tailor treatments to fit the individual needs of young people. We use creative therapies including art, drama and music to compliment more formal approaches like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and medication.'
And Clive Niall, the teacher who initiated and co-ordinated to project says:
"Everyone involved in the project took creative risks. The young people working on this project are in hospital and very vulnerable, so the project was only made possible by establishing trust between everyone involved. We saw how young peoples' self-esteem blossomed. They shared the work in two memorable performances across the hospital. The international visual artist, Anish Kapoor agreed to have some of his work used on the cover."
There are a limted number of copies of the anthology still available. Contact clive.niall@slam.nhs.uk for more information. And to find out more about the work of Snowsfield Adolescent Unit, visit: www.national.slam.nhs.uk/camhs-snowsfields.
February 10, 2011
The carnival is coming!
Oh yes! I refer, of course, to the BMB carnival, that round up of best blogging, that celebration of the most entertaining on-line writing, the weave of the webs most wonderful words as written by British Mummy Bloggers.
No jokes, please. Daddys can be mummys too. And in keeping with our (reputed) forgetfulness, I'd forgotten that I'd volunteered to host one of these bi-monthly celebrations. To be fair, it was over a year ago. So it's thanks to Becky Goddard-Hill and to JaxB for reminding me. And for asking me whether there was a theme this time. Initially, I thought not. But then I had another idea. Yesterday was National Sing Up Day - that annual celebration of everything to do with singing, especially in schools.
When I were a lad, we did it every day in assembly. And we practised doing it once a week as well. Ah, Hymns A&M... There was also plenty of other free music on offer: I learnt to play the double-bass and - thanks to 'bass players being scarce and my father having a big enough car - played in both the school and district orchestras. But school music is one of the first and easiest things to cut; the days of universal free tuition are long gone and now - with current budget restraints - what's left of the schools music service is suffering.
But singing is free: everyone's got a voice and - contrary to what many people are told - everyone can sing. It also has a wide range of acknowledged health benefits, exercising the lungs and alleviating the symptoms of a range of ailments including depression. As William Byrd wrote in the preface to his Psalmes, Sonnets & Songs, published in 1588, Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men would learne to sing. (He also set out eight reasons "to perswade every one to learne to sing"... It's just a shame about his spelling.)
Singing is my passion: it's given me so many truly wonderful opportunities - from performing at the BBC Proms to singing High Mass at Notre Dame in Paris - and music is such an integral part of life I couldn't be without it. And so that's the carnival theme: not music, not specifically (though please be my guest if you would like to submit a musical post) - but passion.
The carnival - which will go live next Tuesday, 15th February, will be about your passions - what you couldn't live without be it food, friends, family or fried bread. Pick a post that tells us all about it, and submit it to me by next Sunday (February 13th) and I'll do the rest.
And if you need some inspiration...
[image error]
No jokes, please. Daddys can be mummys too. And in keeping with our (reputed) forgetfulness, I'd forgotten that I'd volunteered to host one of these bi-monthly celebrations. To be fair, it was over a year ago. So it's thanks to Becky Goddard-Hill and to JaxB for reminding me. And for asking me whether there was a theme this time. Initially, I thought not. But then I had another idea. Yesterday was National Sing Up Day - that annual celebration of everything to do with singing, especially in schools.
When I were a lad, we did it every day in assembly. And we practised doing it once a week as well. Ah, Hymns A&M... There was also plenty of other free music on offer: I learnt to play the double-bass and - thanks to 'bass players being scarce and my father having a big enough car - played in both the school and district orchestras. But school music is one of the first and easiest things to cut; the days of universal free tuition are long gone and now - with current budget restraints - what's left of the schools music service is suffering.
But singing is free: everyone's got a voice and - contrary to what many people are told - everyone can sing. It also has a wide range of acknowledged health benefits, exercising the lungs and alleviating the symptoms of a range of ailments including depression. As William Byrd wrote in the preface to his Psalmes, Sonnets & Songs, published in 1588, Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men would learne to sing. (He also set out eight reasons "to perswade every one to learne to sing"... It's just a shame about his spelling.)
Singing is my passion: it's given me so many truly wonderful opportunities - from performing at the BBC Proms to singing High Mass at Notre Dame in Paris - and music is such an integral part of life I couldn't be without it. And so that's the carnival theme: not music, not specifically (though please be my guest if you would like to submit a musical post) - but passion.
The carnival - which will go live next Tuesday, 15th February, will be about your passions - what you couldn't live without be it food, friends, family or fried bread. Pick a post that tells us all about it, and submit it to me by next Sunday (February 13th) and I'll do the rest.
And if you need some inspiration...
[image error]
February 8, 2011
Home Alone?
I was invited onto the BBC5Live breakfast show yesterday morning to discuss a disturbing report in the Sunday Times about a woman who'd left her fourteen-year-old daughter babysitting. Details were scarce, but the unnamed woman had received a police caution for her actions, which subsequently led to her being suspended from her job.
In the event, the radio item didn't happen. There was some 'news' apparently, which - as far as I could make out - involved talking at length about Fernando Torres. But no matter. What 5Live leave, I'll gladly take up. So here's the gist of what I'd have said.
First is the fact that we never seem to get this right in the UK. The 'authorities' seem at times to indulge abusive parents to the point of serious injury and death - as in the case of Baby Peter and many more - while appearing to take a sledgehammer to the easy, middle-class nut. The woman in the article had left her children alone for just thirty minutes. Sources 'close to the family' reported there'd been no incident and that the children hadn't been in any kind of danger. You'd think, perhaps, that the Police might have better things to do. And therein, as Shakespeare said, lies the rub. Because it's fairly obvious that complicated, multi-agency cases like the headline childcare tragedies are hard work, untidy, difficult to close. How much easier, then, instead of catching proper criminals to make your own by having a go at a hard-working mum. It's an open-and-shut case. And it must make the targets easier to meet.
Before going any further, I should point out that I'm emphatically not advocating the wanton abandonment of the nation's children to a host of under-age babysitters. There are guidelines, apparently, but the law is by no means clear. The police acted in this case because they assumed neglect; without the facts who are we to say otherwise? But - to put my cards on the table - I'm happy to leave my own daughter looking after Charlie on occasion, happier in fact that I'd be leaving him with some so-called adults. It's a balanced judgement, and - as parents - it's our duty to make that judgement call responsibly. Our duty, not that of the nanny state.
But what do you think? Is there an 'age' below which no child should be left alone? Or does it depend on the child? And the parents? Were the Police right to intervene in this case? And why does it always seem to be the case that 'innocent' hard-working people so frequently fall foul of the law while the professional criminal classes seem to get away with it?
Evenin' all!
In the event, the radio item didn't happen. There was some 'news' apparently, which - as far as I could make out - involved talking at length about Fernando Torres. But no matter. What 5Live leave, I'll gladly take up. So here's the gist of what I'd have said.
First is the fact that we never seem to get this right in the UK. The 'authorities' seem at times to indulge abusive parents to the point of serious injury and death - as in the case of Baby Peter and many more - while appearing to take a sledgehammer to the easy, middle-class nut. The woman in the article had left her children alone for just thirty minutes. Sources 'close to the family' reported there'd been no incident and that the children hadn't been in any kind of danger. You'd think, perhaps, that the Police might have better things to do. And therein, as Shakespeare said, lies the rub. Because it's fairly obvious that complicated, multi-agency cases like the headline childcare tragedies are hard work, untidy, difficult to close. How much easier, then, instead of catching proper criminals to make your own by having a go at a hard-working mum. It's an open-and-shut case. And it must make the targets easier to meet.
Before going any further, I should point out that I'm emphatically not advocating the wanton abandonment of the nation's children to a host of under-age babysitters. There are guidelines, apparently, but the law is by no means clear. The police acted in this case because they assumed neglect; without the facts who are we to say otherwise? But - to put my cards on the table - I'm happy to leave my own daughter looking after Charlie on occasion, happier in fact that I'd be leaving him with some so-called adults. It's a balanced judgement, and - as parents - it's our duty to make that judgement call responsibly. Our duty, not that of the nanny state.
But what do you think? Is there an 'age' below which no child should be left alone? Or does it depend on the child? And the parents? Were the Police right to intervene in this case? And why does it always seem to be the case that 'innocent' hard-working people so frequently fall foul of the law while the professional criminal classes seem to get away with it?
Evenin' all!
