I can’t remember where, but I once read a quote along the lines of

If you must suffer under tyranny, pray to suffer under the tyranny of an evil man, for they will sleep at some time. If you are under the tyranny of someone who thinks they are doing what’s best, then they will be tireless and relentless.

And this is one of the reasons why I don’t like the NSPCC much.

I realise that this isn’t going to be a commonly held view, but I have my reasons for it.

One reason is that it is a charity which has absorbed some of the powers of the state, but with none of the recourse against it. There is no government oversight, and there is no chance of turfing out those at the top in the next election. But they can convene case conferences that have the power to children away from their families. An NSPCC rep at such conferences has as much say, and probably more procedural nous, as that child’s health visitor.

Another reason is that, out of all of nanny’s favoured charities, the NSPCC is the one that has bought most completely into the government’s patented “scare the shit out of them and guilt them into complying” advertising policy.

Thirdly, the way that the NSPCC has claimed ownership of the Baby P case is pretty sickening. I had a training session from them t’other day in child protection, and I swear to God, if they’d mentioned that poor child once more I was going to weep. Especially as they were urging more of the same things that didn’t work for the child.

In face, the things that they push are pretty silly and, in the long run, very scary. Yes, as a society and as individual human beings, we should and do put children right up at the top of our list of priorities. But in the name of protecting them, apparently we should treat everyone as a suspect. Every action by everyone should be cause for suspicion. Personally, I don’t think that society could survive such distrust for very long.

Finally, having gone through a training session, I think that they’re very much in danger of drowning everyone in wankery. What with all the buzzwords, and the carefully scripted policies, and the self referencing to their own policies in other policies, it’s just a massive circle jerk.

In short: I think that everyone in it has gone into it with exactly the right ideas. But because they’re all reinforcing each other, they’re going way too far and demanding that everyone come along with them. And, I think, that’s a very worrying trend.