Unworkable

So it's April Fool's Day and, it sounds harsh, but I thought yesterday's report on outlawing emotional cruelty was an April Fool's Joke accidentally released one day early. It even uses some of the same language such as "the wicked stepmother would have got away scot-free." I half-expected a reference to Harry Potter as a real-life entity. How on earth can it be policed, let alone gauged, not just in the homes already on the social services list but in the well-to-do middle-class homes that never have their collective collars felt? I know people in the latter group whose lives were made a misery by their parents and with perspective they have come to hate their parents but unlike physical abuse, it is a fluid concept and parents may feel this is the right way to raise children. Philip Larkin has the measure in 'This Be The Verse'

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

I omit the last verse as he becomes too misanthropic and I obviously disagree about not having children, but emotional cruelty will never be eradicated unless we eradicate emotion and judgement.