Dutch children might have a bit of a reputation for being self-centred but not everyone is quite so doting as their parents, according to a story in several papers this weekend.

There are, apparently, eight places in the country where kids from primary schools and creches are not allowed to play outside because the noise they make running around the playground annoys the neighbours. So much so, it seems, that their childish shouts are classed as an official noise nuisance.
There are, for example, two schools in the smart Haarlem suburb of Heemstede which the Parool says have spent hundreds of thousands of euros on lawyers over the past three years because a neighbour objects to the high-pitched squeals of small children.
That case is, the papers say, now being heard by the country’s highest appeal court, the Council of State. What a great use of time, resources and some of the country’s finest legal brains.
But never fear. Environment minister Jacqueline Kramer has been spurred into action by the ridiculousness of it all and has promised to amend the law on noise nuisance to make sure that the little darlings can scream and shout to their hearts content.
Nice to see a minister pledging to take action quite so quickly. You do have to ask, however, quite how loud the kids screamed to break the law in the first place.