My Birthday - there is some politics in there ...

The day started with a phone call - 3.40am - Andy the village idiot. He wanted to know how to get to Primrose Hill for the birthday picnic. Apparently he then managed to get himself connected to the Met Office and asked them if it was going to rain. So it is nice to know that the Met Office are there at that time in the morning, and happy to discuss the weather with drunken fools.
The pain and swelling in my mouth made me unable to get back to sleep. A quick look in the mirror confirmed the worst - what looked very like a dental abcess is swelling visibly.
My dentist doesn't do emergencies - so what to do? I was impressed to find my local hospital has an emergency walk-in centre for minor injuries - and another one for dental emergencies.
Fearing the worst sort of NHS refugee-camp service, I arrived at 9am to find the whole thing quick, clean and very easy to access. So the NHS is improving. An X-ray confirmed the abcess and the disappointing treatment - anti-biotics should bring the swelling down. Until then get used to looking like Quasimodo.
Finally arrive on Primrose Hill, realising I have not brought any picnic things such as cups or plates.
At about 4pm I go down to the toilets with Andy the village idiot. The toilets are being cleaned by a pretty fierce looking Cockney pensioner, who tells us to piss off and wait till she is finished. Nice to see clean toilets.
While loitering outside, we notice a shabbily-dressed man with a large 1990s-style video camera. It is obvious he is filming all the children as they walk past. Spotting some CPSO's, Andy does his civil duty and reports him.
This is where we learn why people are reluctant to get involved. We had to stand there for over an hour, giving statements to the CPSO's (twice) then going through the whole thing orally with five different officers. Then they wanted US to come down to the station to give a statement. We refused, so they took written statements in the park - that took over an hour.
By the time they finally left at 8.30pm, most of my friends had already gone home.
Worst of all was the atmosphere around the police activity. Gangs of chav parents were prowling around watching, demanding to know what was happening and muttering darkly about what they would like to do to paedophiles. Even worse were the hysterical middle-class parents, who NOW all rushed forward to claim they saw everything and he was sure they were filming their child - I mean he is so gifted.
It put all of the fuss about Sarah's list into context. The collected chavs would have happily beaten that man to death for what he had done. Now the government seems to agree with the News of the World that these same parents have a "right" to know the whereabouts of sex offenders.
It was deeply uncomfortable to be standing by a police car, feeling all those angry eyes on your back. The police took the man away eventually, but they handled the whole thing very badly. They seemed excited in an unseemly way to have "got one". One officer practically recited the Public Order legislation at us and demanded to know if we were "distressed" by the man's actions. When we affirmed we were he replied: "that's all I need to nick the bastard - thanks."
It seems that prejudice is alive and well in the police - and everyone else. We can always pick on paedophiles.
Perhaps next time the News of the World puts pressure on the Home Office about sex offenders, they should reply that the threat to children is not from marauding strangers.
Next time the chav hordes start screaming about protection of children, perhaps someone would point out to them that the danger to their kids is already known to them.
The vast majority of children are abused by family members and others known to the family. The man in the park may pose a danger - but the greater danger is your neighbour, or father, or friend. They are much more likely to be abusing your child.
It will be interesting to see the NotW carry that message to its outraged readers.