No photos of sports day

sportsday A Manifesto Club member took this photo of his child’s sportsday at a Derby school, in what he described as ‘an obvious act of defiance’.

What is interesting is the idea that parents putting themselves under suspicion – and holding back from taking photos – is a sign of their ‘support for our school’. Indeed, checking and monitoring oneself has come to be seen as the prime civic act, the way one shows oneself to be a responsible person.

And yet, behind the sign are the characteristically cute and disorderly signs of a children’s sports day – children who, more than anyone, would have wanted images of the day’s activities.