Is there a person in the country who thinks that dressing little girls up in Playboy T-shirts is a good idea, or who looks approvingly at photographs of Katie Price’s daughter, aged two, with make-up and straightened hair? There must be a tiny minority, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to buy padded bras for nine-year-olds. But the outcry that inevitably ensues when a supermarket starts selling “Lolita” beds or a shoe company starts making heels for toddlers tells you all you need to know about the discomfort and revulsion (and occasionally misplaced hysteria) with which such products are viewed.

So while it’s nice of David Cameron to express outrage at the sexualisation of children, as he did last week — the Tories were announcing plans...