Now take racism. Most people would agree that racism is a bad thing. Fine so far. But now comes a British government body issuing the the 366-page guide for staff in charge of pre-school children, called Young Children and Racial Justice, which among other things says:

The National Children’s Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

This could include a child of as young as three who says “yuk” in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food. The guidance by the NCB is designed to draw attention to potentially-racist attitudes in youngsters from a young age.

It alerts playgroup leaders that even babies can not be ignored in the drive to root out prejudice as they can “recognise different people in their lives”.

This is a perfect example of how a decent impulse — to avoid racism — can mutate to become a mania in its own right. The idea that we ought to be on the lookout for the babies saying “yuk” because it is the first sign of racism — presumably in whites only, for I can’t imagine it applying to anyone else — is itself an indication that whoever authored this report should retire under Section 8. It absolutely boggles the mind to think that a report like this can actually be written.

However that may be, it’s virtually certain that the bureaucracy, in its Frankenstein-like way is going to hire people to manage compliance; even contract software developers to make sure that all their processes are compliant with it. “Whoever the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”