The long-threatened national database of adults who come into contact with children has been halted today. The nine million people who would have had to jump through various hoops get a badge declaring that they're not known perverts can breathe a collective sigh of relief.
It was a typical late-New Labour policy - unbelievably heavy-handed, colossally bureaucratic, hugely expensive, came with real harms, carried no real guarantee that it would achieve the stated aims and there was no real demand for it. If fuelled by anything, it was down to our national obsession with paedophilia.
For some time now both volunteerism and childhood itself have been slowly strangled in this country by unnecessary statist bureaucracy and absurd nannyism. That doesn't get undone in one go - but this decision is to be welcomed.
Two important caveats though:
1) The Independent Safeguarding Authority remains and will swiftly find a new job for itself if the Government allows it to - such is the behaviour of bureaucratic bodies. Better to kill it off now, as we called for in our manifesto.
2) This is only a halt. And another review. Just kill the scheme completely.
