WELL, the police have really got their work cut out now.

Never mind burglars, armed robbers and drug dealers, the Johnsons from Coniston Drive are planning to take little Sally and Jake off to Disneyland.

New laws penalising parents for taking children on holiday in term-time do seem heavy-handed. In the North-East alone, thousands of us are guilty of taking our children on the odd long weekend break or of heading off a few days early or arriving back a few days late because travelling is so much easier then.

And we can all understand those parents who book a two-week break during term-time because, thanks to exorbitant prices during the holidays, it is the only way they can afford to take their children abroad.

But I do wonder if private schools, where parents are paying several hundred pounds a week towards their child's education, have the same problem. Saving a few hundred pounds off a family holiday doesn't seem quite so attractive when you are letting two weeks' education that has cost you much, much more go to waste.

Of course for the rest of us, although we are not as directly aware of it, our children's education is also costly. And it is every bit as valuable.

Perhaps, instead of bashing the parents, the Government should go to work on those travel companies who ruthlessly exploit families with schoolchildren. And why not give individual schools the flexibility to restructure their academic year so they don't all have to shut down at the same time?

ANYONE who watched The Conman, His Lover and the Prime Minister's Wife last Thursday will have been left wondering why such a clever, hardworking, principled woman like Cherie Blair is friends with an empty-headed flake like Carole Caplin. I suspect it's because for most of her life, the studious Cherie, a model pupil and devout Catholic, kept her head down and did what everyone expected of her.

After a poverty-stricken childhood, she passed all her exams and followed a fairly rigid, structured career path. She didn't have time for frivolous things like fashion and hairstyles. Carole Caplin introduced her to another world, where a girl can spend hundreds of pounds on a pair of totally impractical pointy-toed high-heeled boots just for the thrill of it. Carole is a bit like the naughty but beguiling girl in class, egging on the school goody-goody. As a teenager, Cherie had her nose stuck in her books. I suspect she is now enjoying exploring the frivolous side she neglected then.

NEVER mind the Baftas and the Grammys, we now have an estimated 29,000 awards presented in Britain and America every year, for everything from top teacher to best photocopier salesman. There is even going to be an awards ceremony for the best awards ceremony. My favourite has to be the British Parking Association awards which saw Harrogate's new 450-space Jubilee multi-storey win the New Car Park of the Year at a glittering ceremony in a top London hotel. Winners were selected from 65 entries in eight categories including employee of the year - "I've grown as an individual," said the winner. "These people are at the sharp end of parking," added a BPA spokesman. Nicole Kidman wouldn't stand a chance.