What sort of world do we live in where a diligent mother is investigated by social services because her 15-year-old son went on a European rail journey? Kirstie Allsopp, the TV presenter, was questioned by a social worker in London demanding to know what “safeguards” had been put in place.
Who are these appalling busybodies to dictate how Ms Allsopp should bring up her children? A caring parent is perfectly able to judge whether a 15-year-old accompanied by an older friend is able to travel around European cities in an era of mobile phones to keep in touch. They were hardly going to a war zone. Would there have been an inquiry had they been travelling on a train around Britain? Labour has even been talking about reducing the voting age to 16 so there is official recognition that children of this age have a certain maturity.
It could be argued that Ms Allsopp brought this partly on herself by talking openly about her son’s trip rather than just treating it as a family matter. But as she is someone in the public eye, viewers may be interested in her personal life.
Inevitably, however, when stories such as this are told there will always be someone ready to complain and interfere in something that is not their concern. The social services department in the London borough where she lives initiated an inquiry and told Ms Allsopp that the file would remain open “in case there was another referral and we need to come to your house and look into this further.”
We can only be grateful that such nanny statism was not on show in our history. Horatio Nelson first went to sea aged just 12.