To the naughty stair!
When Observer Towers are not reverberating with the sound of heated political debate, they hum with the sound of a thousand ultra-sensitive Zeitgeist-reading instruments working overtime. Or televisions, as they are sometimes known.
An occasional theme has been speculation about the next national wrong ripe for the righting by a reality programme. Jamie's School Dinners demonstrated the power of TV, when mobilised in the right way, to intervene with startling effectiveness in the policy debate. We imagined feverish calculations in the minds of commissioning editors, agents, minor celebrities and politicians over what might be next. Music? Drugs? Sport? (The Observer's preferred candidate.)
Or, perhaps, discipline? We had Brat camp, now we are on the second series of Supernanny - both ratings bonanzas for Channel 4, netting 3-4 million viewers.
Out-of-control kids strike a nerve with audiences and, according to the Guardian, (expensive private) parent-coaching is all the rage. Is that because we are saddled with an army of crazed Twizzler-munching horrors? Is there a new generation of parents that is somehow more bewildered by the challenge of bringing up children than their predecessors? Or is it all just TV-confected storm in a rather telegenic tea-cup?
The blog feels underqualified to judge. The only tantrums witnessed in the Observer are the ones thrown by full-grown adults, and we haven't yet tried cutting fizzy drinks and sweets out of their diet.
