So, a nice chap has got the big job, which is, in fact, only a little job.
Al Aynsley-Green is to be England's Children's Commissioner at 100,000 a year. He is a child health specialist who has long been among the great and the good. Not well known among children's campaigners, but a good friend of the bureaucracy.
There is a certain shame attached to the position: it is cheap and disempowered. The English commissioner has more children under his wing and yet fewer resources and fewer powers than the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Commissioners. That in itself is a scandal. But the campaigners who wrought commitment to this job from the Government have also cautioned that not only is this post the weakest of the European Commissioners - the job spec doesn't actually meet European standards set out for commissioners, which specify autonomy from government as a bottom line.
This commissioner will be the prisoner of his patron, the government. That is precisely what commissioners should not be.
There are difficulties and power differentials embedded in his role that indicate either carelessness, disrespect, or cowardice among the drafters.
The English commissioner's resources are small and his constituency - 13 million children - is large. His powers are weak, his jurisdiction is wide.
How this will be resolved will test the respect for the devolved administrations beyond London. We will see whether Whitehall will let them power-up or require them to be dumbed-down by their weaker-wider partner.
Al Aynsley-Green has a reputation for being close to government. Did anyone not close to government expect to get this job? Did anyone with a reputation as an advocate for children in adversity bother to apply?
The job emphasises direct work listening to children. But a lot of people have already done a lot of listening. Child health and welfare professionals have been scalded, wracked and pilloried for taking the side of children. These professions are littered with casualties, and they won't expect this commissioner to take the side of the people who take the side of children. So, we can expect a comfortable alliance between him and the Government, with some soppy photo-opportunities for the nice chap to be seen chatting with nice kiddywinks. And that will make us all feel nice.
But it won't make a difference to children - because we're going to get an ear when what we need is a mouth, a loud mouth.
